The Italian national public broadcasting company Rai (Radiotelevisione Italiana) has undergone a profound crisis since the beginning of Meloni’s tenure in power. In October 2023, La Stampa reports that Rai lost around 250,000 viewers. The Scurati-Rai scandal will only worsen this situation, to the detriment of Meloni’s domestic and international reputation. Journalists from all over Europe have voiced their concerns about what happened in Italy. For Eric Jozsef, Libération’s correspondent in Rome, the Scurati-Rai case is “just another alarming signal of an illiberal drift going on”. Moreover, Andrea Dernbach, German journalist for the Tagesspiegel, underlined how “anyone who remembers what historical tradition this government has, is silenced”. Similarly, former director of The Economist Bill Emmott stated: “Rai has lost its independence, it is a public broadcaster increasingly controlled by the government. And Giorgia Meloni will have to make her own anti-fascist identity if she wants her party to fully acquire the identity of a European democratic right-wing government”.

Before delving into the scandal itself, it is necessary to explain the inner-workings of Rai. The 2015 reform of state television granted the government and the Ministry of Economy in particular a decisive influence on state television. The latter directly chooses the head of the company, who will have carte blanche to fire and hire whoever they want. The only limit to his or her action is the power of the Governing Council to fire him – which is unlikely, since the Council is already aligned ideologically with the parliamentary majority that supports the government. In the new CDA (Council of Administration), two counsellors will be elected directly by the House of Representatives (Camera dei Deputati),  two by the Senate, two more counsellors from the government, and the last two from the assembly of Rai employees (who will be selected among colleagues employed for at least 3 years). Every six months, and before the approval of the budget, the CDA reports on its activities to the Rai Surveillance Committee, which retains “functions of general direction”.

Five days before the anniversary of Italy’s liberation from fascism on the 25^th April by anti-fascist groups and Anglo-American troops, an editorial scandal has shaken the foundations of Italian television. Serena Bortone, Rai presenter, read a monologue written by Antonio Scurati, an internationally renowned Italian author. He had written this piece upon request from Rai to commemorate Liberation Day. The monologue was censored for alleged ‘economic reasons’. However, official Rai documents show that the decision to censor the monologue was taken for editorial reasons, not ‘economic reasons’. This is what prompted Bortone, on her own initiative, to read Scurati’s monologue, a move that could easily get her fired. In his monologue, Scurati recalled the horrors and repressions perpetrated by the Fascist regime in Italy, yet he went further than that. He claimed that the right-wing party currently governing Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni, never came to terms with the fact that it was born from post-World War II fascist movements, specifically the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI).

Moreover, Scurati stressed how Meloni and her collaborators never condemned Italy’s fascist past, not even its most atrocious and indefensible crimes, such as antisemitic laws. This refusal to confront the past was most apparent during Liberation Day commemorations last year. No one representing the government uttered the words “anti-fascist” or “anti-fascism” in their official speeches. No wonder people like Scurati are beginning to think that Meloni and her party intend to revise, if not erase the past.

Furthermore, the Scurati scandal occurred only ten days after another event rattled the Italian broadcaster. On the 10th April, the Usigrai, the journalist trade union in Rai, leaked a communiqué in which it harshly criticised the so-called par condicio: the set of rules that guarantees equal access to certain spaces in the media to various political parties. The communiqué argued that the new rules are a violation of freedom of the press and accuses the government of wanting to transform the public service into its “mouthpiece”.  In fact, the new text was approved by Rai’s bicameral commission of supervision, a group in parliament that monitors the activity of public television. The new rules cover the campaign period before the June European elections and are contained in an amendment concerning a decision made by the Communications Guarantee Authority (AGCOM). These rules intend to assess the presence of politicians in television programs not only from a “quantitative” but also “qualitative” point of view.

The text of the AGCOM deliberation was rewritten thanks to an amendment proposed by Fratelli d’Italia, which states that in the run up to the European elections, information programs will impose no time constraints on politicians running for office, provided that they talk about their institutional activity in their speeches. This favours politicians who already belong to governing parties. Even before the Usigrai communiqué, opposition parties heavily criticised the amendment, because they believed it would grant an unfair advantage to government officials.

Furthermore, tensions have been mounting in response to Rai’s decision to hire journalist Bruno Vespa as a host in a debate concerning abortion. Only men have been invited to take part in the debate. Meanwhile, the new vice-president of TG1, Rai’s most important news program, stated that when talking about abortion people “consider it as a right, while in fact it is a homicide”. On 21^st April, following the Scurati case, a new Usigrai communiqué – read aloud by journalists while they presented three of Rai’s news programs – emphasised how governmental control over Rai is becoming increasingly stifling.

In conclusion, these alarming events are raising questions about the Italian government’s ideological positions. In theory, Italy’s Constitution and EU membership prevents it from embracing dictatorial tendencies. In reality, Meloni is adopting Viktor Orban’s illiberal and authoritarian style of government. Meloni’s reluctance to condemn fascism has also emboldened the Fratelli d’Italia, among others, to propagate revisionist propaganda about “the good things done by fascism” or the “superfluous anachronistic” necessity to identify as an anti-fascist citizen. These very disturbing developments should be greeted with great concern by Brussels. Nevertheless, upcoming elections in the European parliament will give Italians an opportunity to mobilise and reject any further attacks on freedom of speech and abortion.