Italy’s Meloni meets Jewish groups, decries antisemitism

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has stressed the “essential importance” of Italy’s Jewish community for the nation and Europe. She spoke during a meeting Wednesday with the head of the World Jewish Congress and Italian Jewish groups. Meloni’s office issued a readout of the meeting as the premier seeks to distance her far-right Brothers of Italy party from Italy’s anti-Jewish racial laws and the suppression of democracy under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The statement said during the meeting “there emerged full agreement in the need for a strong and more incisive common commitment to combat every form of antisemitism, a phenomenon in worrisome growth including on the web and social media.”