Elon Musk and VOX executive Santiago Abascal will be among the guests at Giorgia Meloni’s bizarre four-day fantasy-themed Christmas party “Atreju,” which celebrates Italy’s conservative youth.
This year, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Christmas party for young conservatives, called “Atreju,” will have a little more flare than in the past 26 years.
In 1998, Giorgia Meloni was not a well-known figure in Italian politics. But as head of the Roman section of Azione Giovani (the youth section of the now-defunct “Alleanza Nazionale” party), she created a national event to celebrate the country’s conservative youth.
The event was named “Atreju” in honor of Atreyu, the hero of the fantasy film “The Neverending Story”.
For those already familiar with Giorgia Meloni’s obsession with the fantasy genre, which she consistently interprets through her right-wing prism, this name comes as no surprise.
No more than the fact that she had the idea to create Atreju after participating in Hobbit Camp in the 1990s, a Woodstock-style retreat organized by the post-fascist party “Movimento Sociale Italiano” for young people to celebrate the books of JRR Tolkien.
But this edition of the right-wing imagination festival, which will take place from Thursday December 14 to Sunday December 17 and which is now supported by Giorgia Meloni’s party, Fratelli d’Italia, will be different from those that preceded it.
First of all, Giorgia Meloni is no longer on the fringes of Italian politics, but at its summit. Second, Giorgia Meloni’s new role allowed her to attract high-profile guests, including tech billionaire Elon Musk and the leader of Spain’s populist “Vox” party Santiago Abascal.
What is the purpose of the festival?
According to Piero Garofalo, professor of Italian studies at the University of New Hampshire in the United States, Atreju is “less a political convention than a partisan political event”. The festival, which this year will include a Christmas village and an ice rink, offers concerts, exhibitions, debates and humor aimed at young people and emphasizes socialization rather than politics.
The theme of this year’s edition is “Bentornato orgoglio italiano” (“Welcome to Italian pride”), a title that fits perfectly with Giorgia Meloni’s electoral manifesto and constant mantra. If the event has retained its traditional social and jovial character, its political importance is undeniable this year.
“Today, with the political rise of Giorgia Meloni and “Fratelli d’Italia” in recent electoral successes, the Atreju has gained importance by attracting (previously) high-profile guests – such as the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Donald Trump’s advisor, Steve Bannon – and media attention »explains Piero Garofalo to Euronews.
“The festival now serves as a platform to highlight the international stature of Giorgia Meloni and the integration of the Italian right into the international community”he adds.
Who will be present?
The evening’s guest list is a veritable “who’s who” of the European and international right.
Among the most prominent guests, we find Elon Musk, but also the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and the Spanish leader of the far-right party “Vox” Santiago Abascal.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “who shares with Giorgia Meloni unorthodox approaches to dealing with the influx of migrants, will apparently meet Giorgia Meloni on Saturday morning during the festival, but not necessarily at the festival”indicates Piero Garofalo.
According to Piero Garofalo, participation in Atreju does not automatically mean solidarity or support for Giorgia Meloni.
“For example, several opposition party leaders, including Matteo Renzi, Carlo Calenda, Angelo Bonelli and Michele Emiliano, will also attend the festival in the hope of attracting votes and making themselves useful”he explains.
“Indeed, the participation is a sign of the growing importance and visibility that the “Atreju” platform offers to speakers. That said, beyond the participants, which will probably be more than 100,000, and the important media coverage (largely due to distinguished guests) over the next four days, Atreju is not an event followed with particular interest by the general public, although it will certainly take center stage this week”he adds.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, notably declined Giorgia Meloni’s invitation to the festival.
What is the never ending story?
“The Italian interpretation of the name Atreju is a tribute to the dragon warrior protagonist of the 1979 German fantasy novel, The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende”explains Piero Garofalo.
This novel became a Hollywood hit in 1984 and grossed over $100 million at the worldwide box office. The success was particularly great in Germany, where five million people went to the cinema to see this epic fantasy film, whose special effects were revolutionary at the time.
“This name was chosen because, for the organizers of the event, the fantastic character represents committed youth who, in the eternal battle between good and evil, resist nihilism to preserve ideals”he explains.
Giorgia Meloni highlighted the importance of the novel in a 2019 Facebook post commemorating the 40th anniversary of the novel’s publication, writing: “a very important novel which marked my childhood. The fight and victory of Atreju against Nothing, an enemy who tries to wear out the imagination of youth by stripping it of its values, still represents today a symbol inspiring. It is with this model in mind that I have always carried my political passion”.
“The Neverending Story” and Atreyu are far from the first fantasy novels and heroes that Giorgia Meloni used for political purposes. During her long career, she often mentioned JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, which was the subject of a major exhibition in Rome this year.
Among Giorgia Meloni’s fantasy idols we also find “Game of Thrones” by George RR Martin and the manga character and space pirate Albator (Captain Harlock in the original version).
Playing on an old tradition
“The fascination and appropriation of the fantasy genre by the post-fascist far right predates Giorgia Meloni and appears as a recognizable phenomenon in 1970s Italy”explains Piero Garofalo. “Italian nationalists have positioned themselves as a small community of truth-holders who oppose an overwhelming force of obfuscation that envelops society“.
According to Piero Garofalo, fantasy stories strongly oppose and reject the modern world, depicting “as noble are the struggles of traditional societies to preserve an idealized past against the threats of change embodied by external forces.”
In this context, Giorgia Meloni’s appropriation of fantastic symbolism in political discourse is part of this tradition “precisely because it provides a teleological justification for political actions whose immediate effects are not recognizable in relation to long-term goals”explains Piero Garofalo.
“When the symbol is real, the end result is real”. As Giorgia Meloni said: “I don’t consider Lord of the Rings to be fantasy”.