US President Joe Biden has condemned Italy’s first female Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, suggesting her historic election win threatens democracy.
On Sunday, Italy voted in Meloni’s right-of-centre coalition government that ran on “God, country, and family.”
Biden said the victory shows that “democracy is at stake.”
“You just saw what’s happened in Italy in that election,” he said.
“You’re seeing what’s happening around the world. The reason I bother to say that is you can’t be sanguine about what’s happening here either.”
Biden’s comments come amid his increasingly inflammatory tone on right-wing politicians and voters.
Earlier this month, the aging president said former Republican President Donald Trump and the “MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Giorgia Meloni of the “Brothers of Italy” party became the country’s first female Prime Minister, capturing about 26% of the votes.
In her victory speech, Meloni said “Italy chose us.”
“We will not betray [the country] as we never have,” she said. “This is a night of pride for Brothers of Italy, but it is a starting point, not a finish line.”
Since Meloni’s victory, mainstream media are calling her new government “far-right” and drawing comparisons to Mussolini, founded and led the National Fascist Party. Like Biden, media figures have gone curiously silent on her historic win as the country’s first female prime minister.
As for self-proclaimed feminist Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister has yet to congratulate Meloni on her historic win. Canada’s foreign affairs Minister, Melanie Joly, likewise hasn’t acknowledged it.
Meloni’s win marks a right-wing shift happening in Europe. Earlier this month, Sweden voted in a right-wing coalition following amid a crime wave linked to immigration. The Populist Sweden Democrats, one group in the coalition, gained popularity with a tough-on-crime and anti-immigration stance.
