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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 at a festival in Turin in 2023.
But the one catching Cader’s eye was an upside-down image of Charlie Kirk, the US far-right activist and ally of Donald Trump who was assassinated in September, which drew Meloni’s wrath when it was posted online by an Italian student movement in the wake of his killing. The image, captioned “one less, today is less dark”, echoes the death of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was killed by partisans before being hung by his feet from scaffolding at a Milan gas station.
By contrast, Kirk was celebrated by Brothers of Italy on “the pantheon”, a billboard on the opposite side of the gardens representing figures over history whom the party considers strong and powerful.
“What is going on here?” asked Cader. “We had no idea it was political. We were planning to do some ice-skating but don’t want to give our money to this event.”
Atreju, named after the heroic character in the fantasy novel The NeverEnding Story, began in 1998 as a platform for debate among the youth wing of the National Alliance, the neo-fascist party which later morphed into Brothers of Italy. The festival has since evolved, especially in the three years since Meloni came to power, to embrace an unusual mix of politicians of all stripes, Catholic priests, nuns, magistrates and celebrities.
In the past it has hosted Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak, while this year’s line-up includes European far-right politicians such as France’s Marion Maréchal and Romania’s George Simion.
At the opposite end of the political spectrum are the former Italian prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Giuseppe Conte, and Roberto Fico, the recently elected president of the Campania region. “Even if we have political differences, it’s important to debate,” Fico told the Guardian while perusing the Christmas stalls.
But more than a talking shop, Atreju – which this year goes by the slogan “you became strong … Italy with its head held high” – is an opportunity for Meloni to flaunt her power.
A video reel close to the entrance aimed at boasting her credentials on the international stage shows her shaking hands with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, and meeting Trump at the White House.
“Meloni is strong, determined and elegant,” said Pina, who was at the festival with her husband, Pino, who in turn chipped in: “She’s out of this league.” The couple, who did not want to give their surname, are from Rome and said they voted for the left “many years ago”. But, they said, it was something they now regretted. They credited Meloni for boosting their pensions and generally “getting things done”, citing a scheme to repatriate migrants via centres in Albania, even though it has so far failed.
Getting tough on crime was also a key Meloni pledge. Enrica Ciardo, a chef, was invited to the event and was managing a stall selling traditional Italian produce. She said she was apolitical, but appreciated the support Italy’s leadership showed when her restaurant in Puglia was the target of bomb threats by the mafia, adding that Meloni’s sister Arianna – a central figure within the management of Brothers of Italy – had visited her. “We’re here to represent legality and make people realise that you need to report criminal incidents and be on the side of the state and not the mafia,” said Ciardo.
Atreju, which ends with a speech by Meloni on Sunday, is taking place during the same week Italy’s civic health rating was downgraded to “obstructed” by Civicus, a non-profit that monitors civic freedoms in 198 countries. The downgrade was provoked by factors including the government’s security bill, which ramped up penalties for non-violent protest and expanded police powers, and the alleged state-sanctioned spying of critics. France and Germany were also downgraded amid a global trend in the erosion of civil rights.
With the Christmas hit It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year playing on the Brothers of Italy radio, a discussion about education in a small marquee tent became heated when Anna Maria Bernini, the minister for university and research, was heckled by a group of students protesting against a reform. She invited them to debate “for a few minutes” before berating them as “poor communists”. Security then removed the students and called the police.
Staff from the Brothers of Italy press office have also kept a close watch over journalists visiting Atreju.
Sofia Ventura, a politics professor at the University of Bologna, said the festival was “there to remind us that Meloni always returns to her roots”, while Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a political consultancy in Rome, described it as “Meloni’s own Woodstock”, adding that it provided a useful platform to show herself as “the great convener”.
“Her party has long been accused of being into faction wars, and that’s still the case, of course,” Galietti added. “But she wants to show that despite all differences, some sort of dialogue can take place, at least once a year.”
Close to a huge Christmas tree decorated in the colours of the Italian flag was a cut-out of Meloni mocking her “communist” opponents.
