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ROME , Aug 10 (AP) \u2014 Italy\u2019s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of Sept. 25 parliamentary elections, insists she won\u2019t be a danger to democracy if she becomes premier, contending that the Italian political right has \u201cunambiguously\u201d condemned the legacy of fascism.<\/p>\n
She also dismissed as \u201cnonsense\u201d concerns that if her Brothers of Italy party comes to power, making her Italy\u2019s first far-right premier, there would be a risk of an \u201canti-democratic drift\u201d or \u201cauthoritarian turn,\u201d or that the country might exit the group of European nations using the euro currency.<\/p>\n
Meloni made the comments in a message recorded in English, French and Spanish, and distributed Wednesday by her campaign.<\/p>\n
Meloni has railed against European Union bureaucracy for years as infringing on national sovereignty. But she blasted Wednesday as an \u201cabsurd narrative\u201d that a center-right government \u2014 with her campaign allies League leader Matteo Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi \u2014 would jeopardize implementation of reforms needed to receive all of the 200 billion euros (dollars) earmarked for Italy in EU pandemic recovery funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor days, I have been reading articles in the international press about the upcoming elections that will give Italy a new government, in which I am described as a danger to democracy, to Italian, European and international stability,\u2033 Meloni said, sitting at a desk and reading the message with a stern, no-nonsense tone.<\/p>\n
She also referred to media accounts depicting any victory by Brothers of Italy as \u201ca disaster, leading to an authoritarian turn, Italy\u2019s departure from the euro and other nonsense of this sort.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this is true,\u2033 she declared.<\/p>\n
Fast-growing in popularity, her party uses a symbol featuring a tri-colored flame that had been an icon of an Italian neo-fascist party whose members included some open admirers of the rule of Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator in the decades leading up to World War II and during the conflict. Mussolini\u2019s regime brought about a 1938 law targeting Italy\u2019s small Jewish population, excluding them from public life, including in education and business.<\/p>\n
Meloni has been dogged by criticism that she has been ambiguous about denouncing Italy\u2019s fascist past.<\/p>\n
In Wednesday\u2019s message, she summarily dismissed such contentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Italian right has handed fascism over to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the ignominious anti-Jewish laws,\u2033 Meloni said.<\/p>\n
Her contention ignored attempts, including by her allies, to minimize some of Mussolini\u2019s legacy. For example, Berlusconi, referring to internal exile for Italian opponents of fascism, once said that the dictator sent them on \u201cvacation\u201d to Italian islands.<\/p>\n
Recent opinion polls have indicated Meloni\u2019s support among eligible voters slightly ahead of her main rival in the election, Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta, a former premier.<\/p>\n
Under Italy\u2019s complex electoral rules, victors need extensive campaign alliances with other parties to control Parliament. But the Democrats have struggled to match the reach of the center-right\u2019s campaign alliance, especially when they refused to ally with the populist 5-Stars, who triggered a crisis that eventually collapsed Premier Mario Draghi\u2019s broad pandemic unity coalition last month.<\/p>\n
Still, the dynamics between the center-right and center-left bloc could shift. Letta announced on Wednesday that coming on board as a Democratic Party candidate for a Parliamentary seat will be Carlo Cottarelli, a widely-respected economist who held positions in Italy\u2019s central bank and with the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next election is probably the most important we have had and likely to be in the years to come,\u2033 Cottarelli said. The vote essentially comes down to \u201dprogressives vs. conservatives. Italy has to decide\u201d its future, he said.<\/p>\n
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ROME , Aug 10 (AP) \u2014 Italy\u2019s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of Sept. 25 parliamentary elections, insists she won\u2019t be a danger to democracy if she becomes premier, contending that the Italian political right has \u201cunambiguously\u201d condemned the legacy of fascism. She also dismissed as \u201cnonsense\u201d concerns that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-197701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}