(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 25 - Conservative leader Giorgia Meloni, on track to become Italy's first woman premier after the September 25 general election, on Thursday vowed that the centre-right coalition would defend national interests without destroying the European Union if it wins power next month.
    "We want a different Italian stance on the international scene, for example towards the European Commission," the post-Fascist Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader told Reuters.
    "That does not mean that we want to destroy Europe, that we want to leave Europe, that we want to do crazy things," said the 45-year-old from a working class Roman neighborhood, whose national-conservative European friends and allies include France's Marine Le Pen, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Spain's Vox and Poland's Law and Justice party.
    "It simply means explaining that the defence of national interests is as important for us as it is for the French and the Germans".
    Meloni also told Reuters that the centre right would not jeopardise national finances with its tax and spending plans that include a flat tax and incentives to raise more children.
    "I'm very cautious...no responsible person, before getting a complete picture of the resources that can be invested, can imagine ruining the country's finances," she told the British press agency.
    "The first thing we must do is the budget and we clearly intend to do it within the requested parameters".
    By law the budget must be passe by year's end so it is a priority for the next government, as is a continuation of reforms to keep qualifying for 200 billion euros in EU post-Covid recovery funds.
    FdI has voted against that National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) on several occasions but Meloni says it will remain top of the government agenda, although she wants to renegotiate it to reflect spiralling energy costs.
    The centre right bloc is at 47% in a new opinion poll for the September 25 genera election spelling a clear majority in both house of parliament and the advent of Meloni as premier, the Demopolis research institute said Wednesday.
    FdI is top party on 24%, followed by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) of former premier Enrico Letta on 22.6%, Demopolis said in its latest survey.
    FdI's main ally the nationalist League party of former anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini is third on 14.5%, according to the poll.
    Ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's populist and left-leaning 5-Star Movement (M5S), which recently split from an alliance with the PD and is standing alone, is fourth on 11%.
    The third cog in the centre right machine, three-time ex-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party, is fifth on 7% and the so-called 'third pole' of Azione-Italia Viva (IV), whose leader and former industry minister Carlo Calenda also recently split with the PD over its alliance with smaller more leftist parties, is sixth on 5.8%.
    The PD's allies, Italian Left-Greens, is polling at 3.7%, and the independent Italexit party is on 3.1%.
    Asked about the possibility of mending fences after the election and forging a post-election alliance the Conte's M5S and/or the 'third pole' of Calenda and former PD leader and IV chief Matteo Renzi, Letta on Thursday said it was a distant but actual "possibility." He told RaiNews that it was much more likely than teaming up with Meloni and Salvini.
    Conte said Thursday leftwing voter must vote for the M5S because it is "the most progressive force" in Italian politics now.
    Salvini said that on family policy and boosting the birth rate "the model is Hungary" of his and Meloni's friend Orban.
    Italian voters must choose between the centre-right and the centre-left blocs in the September 25 general election, Letta said.
    "The vote is either here or there, either you vote for a right with Meloni and Salvini or the only alternative that can compete is us," he told Radio Capital.
    Letta went on to say that the election will be a "watershed on rights, work and taxes".
    Asked if he might resign if the centre left loses, he replied "we'll talk abut that later". (ANSA).