Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up BRUSSELS, Sept 23 (Reuters) – European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned Italy of consequences if it strays from democratic authorities, issuing a thinly veiled threat ahead of Sunday’s election expected to win a right-wing bloc led by Georgia Meloni. The comments underscored anxiety in some European capitals about the upcoming election and suggested relations between Brussels and Rome could become tumultuous if Meloni and her allies secure victory. “My approach is that any democratic government that is willing to work with us, we work together,” von der Leyen said at Princeton University in the United States on Thursday, in response to a question about whether there were concerns about Italy’s upcoming election. . Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up “If things go in a difficult direction, I have spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools,” he added. Matteo Salvini, head of the League and a member of Meloni’s conservative alliance, denounced her comments as “shameful arrogance”. “What is this, a threat?” he wrote on Twitter. “Respect the free, democratic and sovereign vote of the Italian people!” Von der Leyen was apparently referring to the European Commission’s recommendation last Sunday to suspend some 7.5 billion euros in funding for Hungary over corruption, the first such case in the 27-nation bloc under a new sanction aimed at better protecting the state of law The EU introduced the economic sanction two years ago in response to what it says amounts to undermining democracy in Poland and Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has subjugated courts, media, NGOs and academia, as well as curtailing migrant rights , gay people and women during more than a decade in power. Von der Leyen has also come under fire from the Polish government, with the deputy justice minister accusing Germany of running the EU. “The President of the European Commission suggests that if Italians elect a government that Brussels doesn’t like, their funds may be blocked,” Polish Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta tweeted. “Further proof that the ‘rule of law’ is pure blackmail to impose EU, or rather German, dictates. Such is ‘democracy,’” he added. Kaleta belongs to the conservative United Poland party, a junior member of the government led by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the architect of judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine the independence of the courts. Eric Mummer, a spokesman for the European Commission, told reporters in Brussels that von der Leyen did not want to interfere in Italian politics. “It emphasized the role of the Commission as the guardian of the (European) treaties in terms of the rule of law,” he said on Friday. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Marine Strauss and Sabine Siebold in Brussels, Crispian Balmer in Rome and Alan Charlish in Warsaw Editing by Jason Neely and Frances Kerry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
