'Italy's far-right Woodstock'

Meloni's elves help to project power with tinsel and tents

- Angela Giuffrida

When, out of curiosity, Leila Cader and her friends entered the gardens surrounding Castel Sant’Angelo, a prominent Rome monument that once served as a refuge for popes during times of war, they thought they’d chanced upon an enchanting winter wonderland.

With the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, Santa’s elves wandering around, stalls selling nativity-scene figurines and skaters merrily gliding on an ice-rink, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

That was until they got to the “bullometro”, or “bullyometer”, a long blue billboard featuring face cutouts of various people, and twigged that something was amiss.

Cader, an American on an internship in Rome, and her friends had found themselves at Atreju, an annual week-long festival organised by Brothers of Italy, the far-right party of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

The billboard says the bullometro rates “the hateful comments” leftwing opponents have directed at Meloni’s government, with the contenders receiving one for “originality” and 10 for “spite”.

Critics include Maurizio Landini, a trade union boss and thorn in the government's side who recently caused controversy after referring to Meloni as “Trump’s courtesan”, and the Placebo frontman Brian Molko, who was charged with defaming the prime minister after appearing to call her a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing in Turin in 2023.