(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 18 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended her friendship with Elon Musk after ex-premier and Life Senator Mario Monti asked about her relations with the billionaire and member of US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration.
    "I have good relations with a lot of people and I don't take orders from anyone, you should be happy about that," Meloni told the Upper House as she reported to parliament ahead of this week's EU summit.
    "I am a free person who talks to everyone but I don't take orders from anyone.
    "I don't know what film you have seen, but I think we have to understand each other on a fundamental difference between us and what we have seen (in government) over the years.
    "In the past we saw leaders who thought that a good relationship meant slavishly executing others commands".
    Meloni, the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, and the world's richest man have repeatedly expressed their admiration for each other.
    In November Musk spurred opposition claims of meddling in Italy's affairs by saying "these judges must go" after courts' nixed of the detention of the first small batches of migrants sent to processing centres in Albania under the government's innovative but controversial new deterrence policy. (ANSA).