Italy's Meloni slams energy policy as campaign heats up

ANCONA, Italy (AP) — Leading her first election campaign rally, Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday slammed the European Union energy’s strategy, saying families and businesses are being “brought to their knees” by soaring prices.

Meloni, who has been buoyed for weeks by opinion polls showing her leading in her quest to become Italy's first female premier and its first far-right government leader, used the evening pep rally in Ancona, an Adriatic port city, to hammer away at long-running themes for her Brothers of Italy party, whose symbol borrows an icon from a neo-fascist party.

She told the crowd of about 1,000 people in a town square there was a reason why she chose Ancona in Italy's east-central Marche region for her inaugural rally for Sept. 25 balloting for Parliament.

“I'm starting in Ancona not by chance,'' Meloni said, saying she did it so she can remind voters that “we have a class of leaders ready to govern the country.”

Introducing Meloni was Marche's governor, Francesco Acquaroli, elected in 2020 on the Brothers of Italy ticket, one of several local or regional elections where her party has gained popularity in the last years, sometimes at the expense of her right-wing ally, anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini.

Meloni's main rival in opinion polls in the last several weeks is Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta, a former center-left premier. But while Meloni has center-right campaign alliances with both Salvini and with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Letta and his party have failed to forge similarly solid and broad alliances for the center-left.

Salvini, Berlusconi and another populist leader, Giuseppe Conte, the former premier who leads the 5-Star Movement, sunk the national unity government of Premier Mario Draghi last month...