Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, has likened the Continent’s leaders to oligarchs after they shut her out of the selection of candidates for top jobs in the European Union.
In the run-up to what promises to be a tense two-day conference in Brussels, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party accused centrist and left-wing leaders of striking a back-room deal on key appointments in defiance of a surge in votes for her political allies at the European elections this month.
Meloni told the Italian parliament: “It doesn’t seem to me that a readiness to accept what citizens said at the ballot box has emerged yet. Some claim that citizens are not mature enough to take certain decisions and that oligarchy is