“They sympathize with the violent” –

The regional elections in Basilicata as a test for the government before the European elections. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the two deputy prime ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani return together on stage with Maurizio Lupi, Lorenzo Cesa and Gianfranco Rotondi for the closing of the electoral campaign of the outgoing Vito Bardi, exponent of Forza Italia. The Prime Minister does not send them to say: «I’m not saying that everything is fine, I’m saying that we are trying our hardest» and «we are ready to continue doing so. We don’t do it because the party asks us to, we do it if you ask us to. Democracy is beautiful for this. In a year and a half, this government has produced more than the governments put together with the scotch of the left.” You then speak of the Potenza square as a “breath of oxygen” for the possibility of taking the pulse of the citizens.

Furthermore, the tenant of Palazzo Chigi snubs the criticism and assures: «For 30 years now we have not been together out of interest», but «by choice. Don’t believe the fake news that only serves to try to create discord, but we laugh at the reconstructions that are made.” She is echoed by Salvini who, shortly before on stage, clarifies: «The center-right is united and compact in Basilicata and at a national level. Conte, Schlein and their supporters rest their souls, this government will continue for five years. Then you will tell us if we did well.” And then Tajani, ready to run in the European elections as the leader in four constituencies, lends support to the allies and says: «The boundaries of the centre-right are widening, the real wide field is the centre-right, because more and more forces are approaching us. We have an alternative vision to the left, except that we need to understand what vision they have seen that they always argue.”

The Prime Minister spares no criticism of the leader of the Nazarene and beyond. «Don’t lecture me regarding money for healthcare. The secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, said that taxes are nice, because you pay for healthcare. We are the government that has put the most money into healthcare in the history of Italy”, she claims. And you, following having expressed closeness to the police following the clashes at ‘La Sapienza’ in Rome, you sentence: «No exponent of the left had the courage to express solidarity, probably because they sympathize more with those who attacked them». Therefore, Meloni speaks of a “friendly tax” and of a “State that must not bother, but must be alongside businesses and workers”. Then, he lashes out once morest the “fake news” of which “we have become the world capital”, from the controversy over prison for journalists to the thorny issue of abortion, passing through autonomy. On this latest reform, the flagship of the League, which will arrive in the Chamber on 29 April, he observes: «You want to say the government abandons the South. Imagine if I, who believe in Italy more than anything, might leave half of this nation back. They had the wrong interlocutor. It doesn’t surprise me that those who rail once morest differentiated autonomy more than others are those who have the worst parameters in Italy.” Meloni puts it succinctly: «The banana republic where prevaricators and criminals always get away with crime is over. The left can tear its clothes as much as it likes, I don’t care, as long as it does it means that they are on the right side of history.”