The EU could “undermine” democracy in Italy after the right-wing coalition's victory, a German MEP has said. He thinks the EU will put pressure on the south European country by threatening to withhold EU funds.”

Italy has earned the ire of many bigwigs within the EU after Italians had elected a coalition of right-wing parties into power, headed up by the country’s soon-to-be first female Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Breitbart writes.

Dr Gunnar Beck, an elected representative within the European Parliament for the right-populist German Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party, has told Breitbart Europe that it was now clear that the EU is ”ready and willing to undermine the democratic choice of the Italian people”, something he described as exposing the “anti-democratic nature” of the bloc. “Commission President von der Leyen committed a major political faux pas when she threatened Italy with legal proceedings and the withholding of EU funds in the name of democracy and the rule of law,” the politician told Breitbart Europe.

The Identity and Democracy Group member went on to say that the EU’s tactic of attacking elected European governments for perceived anti-democratic activity was ultimately hypocritical. „The fundamentally anti-democratic EU threatening its democratically elected governments for allegedly anti-democratic practices suspiciously resembles a well-seasoned courtesan chastising another woman of far less debatable virtue for being the worst slapper about town,” the politician remarked.

As it now looks certain that Italy’s incoming prime minister will be a conservative, Catholic woman who supports pro-life and pro-family policies, many have been keen to paint her as a “neo-fascist“, as well as some sort of spiritual successor to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Such accusations, however, have been openly ridiculed by many in Italy, with one senior left-wing politician branding the attempt to link Ms Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party with fascism as simply being „fake news”.

„Personally, I was against Giorgia Meloni. I’m not her best friend. At the same time, I think [Ms Meloni] is not a danger [to] Italian democracy. She is my rival, and we will continue to fight each other, but the idea that now there is a risk of fascism in Italy is absolutely fake news,” former liberal Prime Minister Matteo Renzi remarked.