Meloni takes swipe at 'disrespectful' France for vowing to keep 'vigilant' eye on her

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new prime minister, took a thinly-veiled swipe at Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday as she hit back at France saying it would keep a "vigilant" eye on her policies.

Since Ms Meloni’s hard-Right Brothers of Italy party triumphed in last month’s general election, French officials have on several occasions said they will watch for any attempts to undermine the rule of law or civil rights, including women’s access to abortion.

Mr Macron met Ms Meloni during a visit to Rome at the weekend, with a member of his entourage saying France would judge the new Italian government on its actions and was maintaining "vigilance".

In a keynote speech to parliament setting out her priorities for the next five years, Ms Meloni, 45, bristled at the prospect of interference by the French or anyone else.

"Those from abroad who say they want to watch over Italy are not being disrespectful of me or this government, but are being disrespectful of the Italian people who, I want to say it clearly, do not have any lessons to learn from anyone," she said

Ms Meloni insisted her government had no plans to roll back Italy's abortion rights, saying her administration "will never limit citizens’ freedom".

The prime minister also sought to distance herself from her party’s fascist origins, responding to criticism that she has failed to explicitly condemn Mussolini's regime.

"I have never felt sympathy or closeness for any anti-democratic regime, including fascism," she told MPs.

She condemned Mussolini-era laws that persecuted Italy's Jewish community as "the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will taint our people forever".

"We will fight against any form of racism, anti-Semitism, political violence, discrimination," she added.

Ms Meloni grew up in a working class part of Rome and her father abandoned the family when she was a toddler.

She said she had reached the pinnacle of political power without the help of allies from Italy’s establishment.

"I am the first woman to have been appointed prime minister in the history of Italy," she said. "I represent what English people call an underdog."

After Silvio Berlusconi, her coalition partner, caused outrage by accusing Ukraine of starting the war and boasted of receiving bottles of vodka from Vladimir Putin, Ms Meloni repeated her commitment to support Nato and back Kyiv.

"Those who believe it is possible to trade Ukraine's freedom for our peace of mind are wrong. Giving in to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's blackmail on energy would not solve the problem, it would exacerbate it by opening the way to further demands and blackmail," she said.

She repeated campaign promises to increase Italy's birth rate in order to confront the country's "demographic glaciation", calling for free childcare centres and nursery schools for working parents.

"We need a massive plan, economic but also cultural, to rediscover the beauty of parenthood and put the family back at the center of society," said Ms Meloni, who has criticised what she calls "LGBT ideology".

Ms Meloni’s admiration for Hungary’s Viktor Orban, France's Marine Le Pen and the hard-Right Vox party in Spain has spooked policymakers in Brussels.

The Italian leader criticised the EU for being slow to respond to challenges such as the energy crisis. But she said Italy would work with the 27-member bloc and respect its rules.

"We don’t want to sabotage the EU but to make it more effective," she said.

Italy stands to receive around 200 billion euros in grants and low-interest loans from Brussels to help it recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.