EU Questions the State of Democracy in Italy Under Right-Wing Government

European Union officials questioned the Italian interior and justice ministers Wednesday in hearings focusing on whether democracy has deteriorated in the country under Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Politico reported. 

“Some of us are aware that the rule of law in Italy has deteriorated under the current government,” German Greens MEP Daniel Freund told Politico. He pointed out that there is a difference between how Meloni is perceived in Brussels and Germany and the actual political agenda carried out by her government in Italy. 

For example, EU officials are concerned over reforms proposed by the Italian government to the legal system that critics say would give the executive excessive power and would pose threats to judicial independence, an initiative that prompted judges and prosecutors to protest earlier this year. 

Allegations of media interference and censorship have added to concerns about democratic backsliding in Italy, Politico added. 

This hearing was organized by the European Parliament’s working group on democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights, made up of 15 lawmakers from across the political spectrum.  

The group played a key role in the EU’s criticism of Malta’s golden passport scheme, a program that allowed wealthy people to buy citizenship if they invested in the country. 

According to an internal email, Nicola Procaccini, one of Meloni’s closest allies in the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists’ grouping in the European Parliament, opposed the hearing, saying that the interviewers exhibited a left-wing bias and had been openly critical of Meloni’s government in the past.