Italy's political frontrunner caused a stir when she posted a video of an asylum seeker raping a Ukrainian woman on Twitter.
Giorgia Meloni took to her official Twitter page to post the shocking clip as part of her campaign promise to "secure the cities" of Italy before it was removed yesterday morning (Tuesday, August 23).
She also claimed she had posted the clip to "express solidarity with the victim, to condemn what happened and obviously to demand justice".
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The horror video was blurred out, so neither the victim nor the perpetrator could be identified from the clip.
However, it kept its audio in full - including the woman’s blood-curdling cries for help.
The video was filmed by someone in an apartment above the pavement where the horrifying incident took place and was first shown on the website of a newspaper before the populist politician re-posted it.
Before being removed the clip attracted widespread criticism from Meloni's opponents, but some praised the wannabe future prime minister - Meloni's coalition partners Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini, known for equally extreme anti-immigration policies, both expressed admiration for the politician after she posted the now-deleted clip.
Salvini's views on immigration are so harsh that he is facing a kidnapping trial after he blocked a boat carrying asylum-seekers, leaving them in the scorching hot sun in the middle of the sea, while he was Italy's interior minister from 2018 until 2019.
Meloni heads up the Brothers of Italy party, known for its right-wing views and logo featuring brazen fascist symbols, which is currently in the lead to win Italy's upcoming snap election according to recent polling.
The far-right politicians are set to scoop up an easy win when the nation heads to the polls on September 25.
The Brothers of Italy have been compared with Trump's government, and Meloni is known to be pally with Steve Bannon, who in addition to having been aligned with the BNP and English Defence League (EDL) in the past, headlined one of Meloni's conferences in Italy prior to the pandemic.
Meloni would be Italy's first female prime minister if elected.
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