Italy's far-right Meloni on the vote: I'm not a danger to democracy

Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who leader in opinion polls ahead of the September 25 general election, insists she will not be a danger to democracy if she becomes prime minister, saying Italy's political right has 'unambiguously' condemned the legacy of fascism.

She also dismissed as “absurd” concerns that if her Brothers of Italy party came to power, making her Italy’s first far-right prime minister, there would be a risk of an "undemocratic drift" or an "authoritarian turn", or that the country could leave the group of European nations using the euro.

M eloni made the comments in a message recorded in English, French and Spanish, and distributed by his campaign on Wednesday.

Meloni has for years denounced European Union bureaucracy as an attack on national sovereignty. But she on Wednesday lambasted an "absurd narrative" that a centre-right government - along with its campaign allies, League leader Matteo Salvini and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - would jeopardize the implementation of reforms needed to receive the full 200 billion euros (dollars) earmarked for Italy in EU pandemic recovery funds.

"For days I have been reading articles in the international press on 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," Meloni said, sitting at a desk and reading the message with a stern, no-frills tone.

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She also referenced accounts media describing t any victory of the Brothers of Italy as "a disaster, leading to an authoritarian turn, Italy's exit from the euro and other such nonsense. increasingly popular, his party uses a symbol of a tricolor flame that had been the icon of an Italian neo-fascist party whose members included open admirers of the reign of Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of previous decades. until the Second World War and during the conflict. Mussolini's regime pushed through a 1938 law targeting Italy's small Jewish population, excluding them from public life, including education and business.

Meloni was harassed by criticism that she had been ambiguous about her denunciation of Italy's fascist past.< /p>