Far-right contender for Italian PM softens on EU as election looms

Giorgia Meloni once railed against Brussels, but experts suggest favourite to replace Draghi has no interest in rocking boat

At a gathering of Europe's far right in February 2020, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, railed against the Brussels techno bureaucrats" who she said wanted to impose the Soviet plan to destroy national and religious identities" - a typically bombastic claim of Eurosceptic nationalists. Now on the brink of becoming Italy's first far-right prime minister, Meloni is sounding a rather different tune.

In an opinion article for Il Messaggero newspaper last month, Meloni said she wanted to work in compliance with European regulations and in agreement with the [European] Commission" to use EU resources to promote Italy's growth and innovation - a line so conventional it could drop into the speech of any aspiring pro-EU technocrat. Speaking in a video message broadcast in English, French and Spanish, she hit back at the absurd narrative" her party would jeopardise Italy's access to 191.5bn (166.26bn) in EU Covid recovery funds. Meloni, who has sought to distance the Brothers of Italy from its fascist origins, said her party shared values and experiences" with British Conservatives, US Republicans and Israel's Likud party.