Joe Biden Warns that Democracy Is Threatened by Italy’s Election of Giorgia Meloni

President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the election of Italy’s first woman Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni represented a threat to democracy.

The president spoke during a Democrat Governors Association reception at a private residence in Washington, D.C., returning to one of his favorite talking points about the future of democracy threatened by populist-nationalist political figures.

“You just saw what’s happened in Italy in that election,” he said, referring to Meloni’s election. “You’re seeing what’s happening around the world.”

Biden officials are privately concerned that Meloni represents a shift in power away from the leftist global elites to a more populist conservative political future in Europe such as the movements currently in power in Poland and Hungary.

“You’re going to think this is a little out of whack what I’m going to talk about — but, you know, democracy is at stake,” he continued, speaking to governors and Democrat supporters.

Biden spoke about the importance of electing Democrat governors because they would control the future of state elections.

“Literally, the outcome of an election is going to be determined by how well the governors run their states, who’s in charge at the time, whether or not things are going to be — how we count the votes, whether or not it’s transparent, and a whole range of things,” he said.

The president also revisited the discussion of his conversation with the leader of the Communist party in China Xi Jinping about the virtues of democracy versus autocracy.

“Literally, there’s a — there’s a case being made around the world, not just here, because democracy and autocracy,” he said. “And there’s an awful lot of folks who believe that democracies can’t be sustained in the 21st century.”