"I've always considered myself a soldier and soldiers don't hesitate to put themselves on the front line when necessary," said the Prime Minister during her speech at the conference of the Brothers of Italy, the far-right party she leads, in Pescara, Italy.
"We want Italy to be central to changing what doesn't work in Europe. Because yes, Italy is changing today, even though many said it wasn't possible," added Giorgia Meloni, who promises to take her conservative discourse to Brussels.
The Italian Prime Minister, now a candidate in the European elections, also refused to "give in to the delusions of political correctness so much in vogue in some chic salons", and also rejected "tolerating the assault on squares and monuments in the name of a canceled culture that wanted it that way".
"We cannot remain silent in the face of those who, in our schools and universities, teach hatred of our history and our civilization. We cannot accept lessons from those who want a secular Europe, but want schools to close during Ramadan and, at the same time, demand with the same consistency that the crucifix be removed from classrooms," he added.
In the last European elections, the Brothers of Italy won six seats in the European Parliament, but a recent poll by Ipsos for Euronews shows that the party could win up to 24 seats in the next elections in June, with 27% of the vote.
The poll was referred to by Meloni in his speech, in which he said that the growth in voting intentions is not seen as "a rhetorical exercise in self-satisfaction and self-celebration", but rather as a reminder that "what we have won is not something we acquire forever, we must continue to earn it".
