Does the EU respect the Italian people?

I know we’re all meant to be quaking over the election result in Italy. That we’re all supposed to be gnashing our teeth over the ‘first far-right politician since Mussolini’ to lead the Italian people. That is how much of the media is referring to Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party and now on course to become Italy’s first female Prime Minister following the victory of the right-wing bloc in Sunday’s elections.

And yet I find myself far more concerned – troubled, in fact – by the behaviour of Brussels than by anything that has happened in Italy. Consider the comments made by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. On Thursday, three days before Italy’s elections, she was asked what she thought of the prospect of a right-wing victory in that member state. Chillingly, she replied that the EU has certain ‘tools’ that it can use against Italy if it chooses to go ‘in a difficult direction’.