Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort and vigilance after one of the bloc’s founding members swung far to the political right 

FILE - Brothers of Italy's Giorgia Meloni attends the center-right coalition closing rally in Rome, Sept. 22, 2022. Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort and vigilance after one of the bloc’s founding members swung far to the political right, raising troubling questions about whether Rome will maintain its commitments to EU principles, laws and ambitions. The French prime minister on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022 said that France, along with EU officials, would be watching closely to ensure that basic human rights rights along with access to abortion, are guaranteed in Italy after Giorgia Meloni’s neo-fascist Brother’s of Italy Party topped the vote count in Sunday’s parliamentary election. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file )

BRUSSELS -- Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort, even vigilance, after Italy, one of the bloc’s founding members, swung far to the political right. The result of Italy's latest election raises troubling questions about whether Rome will maintain its commitments to EU principles, laws and ambitions.

The French prime minister on Monday said her government, along with EU officials, would be watching to ensure that basic human rights are guaranteed in Italy after Giorgia Meloni’s neo-fascist far-right Brothers of Italy Party topped the vote count in Sunday’s parliamentary election.

“In Europe, we uphold some values and obviously we will ensure, and the president of the commission will ensure, that these values — on human rights, the respect of other people, especially the respect of the right to abortion — will be respected by all (member states),” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told French broadcaster BFM TV.

Such statements among the longtime EU partners are highly unusual and follow European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s pre-election warning that Europe “has the tools” to deal with any country — and that means Italy too — if things go “in a difficult direction.”

The 27-nation European Union is already beset by challenges, including rising inflation and energy costs, and it does not need the threat that a far-right Italian leader might joint a strident nationalist bloc, including Hungary and Poland, that has repeatedly assailed EU democratic standards.