Since the victory of Giorgia Meloni during the legislative elections in Italy, Sunday September 25, many remarks by the leader of the ultra-conservative formation Fratelli d’Italia have been exhumed. In particular those through which she praised Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Almost four years ago, recalls the Syrian opposition site Enab Baladi, Meloni explained that “Christians in Syria were still present thanks to the Syrian regime” and his supporters on the ground.
“In Syria, if it is still possible to make nativity scenes, if it is still possible to defend the Christian community, it is thanks” to the regime of Bashar El-Assad and its allies, namely Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, who fought the jihadist group Islamic State, she explained on December 12, 2018 in front of journalists.
Since the start of the war in Syria, which since 2011 has caused at least half a million deaths and millions of displaced persons and refugees inside and outside the country, the Syrian President has set himself up as protector of the country’s minorities, especially Christians, against the predominantly Sunni Muslim insurgents. This earned him the sympathy of certain European political figures belonging to the conservative camp.
Assad responsible for 61% of attacks on Christian places of worship
But remember Enab Baladi, the number of Christians in Syria has fallen from 2.2 million before the conflict began to 677,000 in 2021, according to the Global Christian Persecution Index published by the non-governmental organization Open Doors.
And then, the site notes, a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights dated 2019 indicates that Syrian regime forces are responsible for 61% of attacks targeting Christian places of worship.
Moreover, in 2018, Giorgia Meloni had swept in a publication posted on Facebook (see below) the charges, according to her “without concrete proof”, against the Syrian regime after a chemical attack in the region of Douma, near Damascus. She then mentioned “a pretext to start a new war”, while the United States threatened at the time to attack the regime in Damascus.