EU risks ‘looking like a monster’ with Italy threats

Threatening Italy’s new nationalist and populist government will make the European Union appear as a “monster” and push voters to Eurosceptic extremes, a senior Brussels figure has warned after Giorgia Meloni’s victory in Italy.

There are growing concerns that the European Commission helped to fuel an “anti-EU” wave by announcing promising to bring the new Italian government back into line if it were unhappy with the direction of populist right-wing coalition.

“The last thing we want to do is to pit Brussels against voters,” a senior figure who wanted to remain anonymous said, adding: “[The claim] we are at fault . . . a threat — veiled or not — can be used to show voters that the EU is a monster.”

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