During a fundraiser for the Democratic Governors Association in Washington, D.C., President Biden warns the public about what could happen to the United States if the country continued its trajectory toward authoritarianism. He based his statements on the recent election for the prime minister of Italy last week, where Giorgia Meloni, a far-right candidate, won the vote.
“You just saw what’s happened in Italy in that election,” said Biden that Wednesday evening. “You’re seeing what’s happening around the world. The reason I bother to say that is you can’t be sanguine about what’s happening here, either.”
Joe Biden spoke at a Democrat Governor's Association event last night and seemed to imply that the Italian people electing Giorgia Meloni as their next prime minister is the end of democracy in Italy. pic.twitter.com/2jW7lQMIAB
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 29, 2022
Giorgia Meloni will be the first woman to be Prime Minister of Italy. Her party, called Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, garnered around 26% of the votes, and their coalition will be tasked with forming a coalition government next month where they have received around 44% of the share.
In a Twitter message, Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark. wrote, “America is stronger when Italy is strong, sovereign, prosperous, and free.” Many American conservatives see Meloni as a political ally thanks to her support of the Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of European revanchism, Viktor Orbán. His political views are widely accepted by many hard-right Americans.
Marine Le Pen, another far-right politician in Europe who made it to the presidential runoff last April in France, celebrates Meloni’s victory. She commends the new Prime Minster for opposing “the threats of an antidemocratic and arrogant European Union.” On Twitter, the conservative leader of the Vox opposition party in Spain, Santiago Abascal, wrote that Meloni “has shown the way for a proud and free Europe of sovereign nations that can cooperate on behalf of everybody’s security and prosperity.”
“It’s awful hard to reach a consensus in [a] short amount of time,” President Biden continued during the fundraiser. Due to the support Meloni receives from different nations, The arguments presented by Biden about how authoritarianism is becoming more prevalent as many democratic nations embrace notions of rancor and nationalism.
The President made similar remarks in other venues earlier that day. He also mentioned the loss of two notable Republicans—Bob Dole and John McCain—who he said could uphold the values of right-leaning Americans without destroying the democratic institutions of the country.
Biden has warned that today’s Republicans could destroy the integrity of the upcoming elections if they gain more power due to their adherence to former President Donald Trump’s ideology. He has stated that the movement is similar to “semi-fascism,” especially with their refusal to accept the results of the last presidential election.
