Brothers of Italy leader on Puigdemont's arrest

Italian politician Giorgia Meloni, apologized Sunday for what she called the "painful behavior of Italy" in the detention of ex-Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont was detained in Sardinia in September after fleeing Spain following a failed secession bid for the northeastern region in 2017.

He has since been fighting extradition to Spain.

Meloni, who is the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy Party and President of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), also apologized for the way her country was dealing with the extradition order.

During her speech at an event the far-right Spanish Vox party held in Madrid under the slogan "The Standing Spain", Meloni said that "if Spain requests to try a defendant according to its penal code, no one has the right to prevent it".

In her speech, Meloni also touched on a number of controversial subjects, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBT education, and what she called "state laicism".

She said state laicism had been used "as a stick against the symbols of Christianity" and claimed that in Europe there were "entire neighborhoods in the hands of Islamic law".

She also claimed that LGBT groups were attacking sexual identity "with gender propaganda in schools, the media and institutions", and called Black Lives Matter supporters "barbarians" for wanting to tear down statues of Christopher Columbus.

Meloni was accompanied by Vox party president, Santiago Abascal, at the event.

IMAGE: AP