While Meloni lives in her own fantasy world… Italy is experiencing the largest mass exodus in a quarter of a century

Amid glittering decorations and the celebration of Rome’s right-wing Atreju festival, Italy is revealing a bitter reality for millions of its citizens.

Behind the Christmas statues and murals that combine the fascist poet Gabriel D’Annunzio and the American figure Charlie Kirk, shocking figures emerge of growing poverty and unprecedented mass migration.

Atreju Festival: Between Fantasy Nostalgia and Political Reality; The festival’s organizers took its name from the protagonist of The Never-Ending Story, a work embraced by Giorgia Meloni and her group during their participation in the neo-fascist camps in the 1990s.

In her autobiography, Meloni writes nostalgically about the fantasy world where “idealistic heroes embark on a journey against evil”.

Today, this vision has become a mainstream political mainstream, as from a small party that won 2% of the vote 13 years ago, the Brothers of Italy has become the largest party in the ruling coalition, while Meloni tops the list of Italy’s longest-serving prime ministers since World War II.

Despite international celebration and honorable media images, Meloni’s associates are living in growing anxiety.

The reasons are clear, with poor international performance, as Brussels institutions mock their policies.

Contradictory foreign policy between support for Ukraine and its vice president Matteo Salvini’s sympathy for Putin, Ideological affinity with the American “MAGA” movement doesn’t protect Italian interests on the ground.

The other aspect is the direct economic threats, as the fear of tariffs that could eliminate the “Made in Italy” label, with industries such as, food and fashion sectors worry about trade policies.

On reality, numbers don’t lie, as in December 12, at the height of Atreju fesitval celebrations, thousands of Italians went on a general strike to protest the budget law.

Behind this protest are shocking figures: 5.7 million citizens live in extreme poverty, with a sharp decline in employment and wages.

Inflation soars as citizens’ purchasing power keeps in declining, and above all, the real catastrophe with a mass migration from the country, as it reached the largest figures in a quarter of a century.

Immigration and emigration levels are high, between 2023–2024 period both immigration of foreign nationals and emigration of Italians reached their highest levels in at least the last decade.

The number of foreign nationals moving to Italy and Italians moving abroad were significantly high, with roughly 760 000 foreign arrivals and 270 000 Italian departures in that two-year span, marking strong increases compared with the previous period.

In calendar year 2024, around 382 071 foreigners moved to Italy — the most since 2014 — and 155 732 Italians emigrated, also a high level over the past decade.

Italy is currently experiencing an unprecedented wave of internal and external displacement.

Successive economic crises and deteriorating living standards are pushing thousands to seek opportunities abroad, in a scene reminiscent of last century’s migrations but at a faster and more painful pace.

The stark irony is that Italy, under the leadership of a party called the Brothers of Italy, is witnessing the disintegration of the social and economic bonds that hold the fabric of society.

While patriotic and nationalist slogans are raised, Italians are emigrating in record numbers, millions are living in poverty, and basic services are declining.

An uncertain future comes with Italy stands at a crucial crossroads, between glittering national rhetoric and bitter economic realities, between boastful international relations and escalating domestic suffering.

The country is looking for a new identity in a changing world, however, the bigger question remains: How long can political discourse hide a fractured social and economic reality?

Italy, beautiful Rome and its rich history, remains confronted with the challenge of surviving as a cohesive society in an era of radical transformation, where mass migration and rising poverty threaten its centuries-old social fabric.