“Arianna? No political problem” –

Thomas Manni

August 26, 2024

“There is no political problem with Giorgia or Arianna and those who hope for this will not have great satisfaction. If anything, they will have to realize that family relations were not the reason for my role.” So said Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, who uses Facebook to have his say against those who, for days, have been talking about a rift within Fratelli d’Italia and for years have accused him of being in Palazzo Chigi only because he is the husband of the prime minister’s sister. An outburst, among other things, that comes after Arianna, the firstborn of the Meloni family, announced in the columns of Il Foglio the end of the relationship with Lollobrigida, for which in any case she would still throw herself into the Tiber. “We love each other – she said. I know how much he is worth, I know what political stuff he is made of.” The same organizational manager of the party, in fact, explained how the personal relationship has nothing to do with the political project of Fratelli d’Italia. Confirmation that comes from the minister himself, who takes a few stones out of his shoe towards those journalists, who had spoken of possible rifts due to the crisis in the Meloni household: «I will not give satisfaction – he underlines in the post – to the voyeurism of these hours in which even the most illustrious newspapers are dedicated to soliciting the last scraps of beach umbrella chatter».

More than a simple dart is also thrown at those who, according to the minister, would have jumped for joy, for what happened within his family: “I have never happened in my life to rejoice for a problem that happened to another person. Even my worst enemy. It is not my goodness. The priest is my brother Maurizio, but the simple consideration of how ridiculous I would feel to do so. Feeling joy for the pain of others or ridiculing it seems to me like a frustrating weakness. Not finding a way to be happy and celebrate when others may find themselves in the same condition… pathetic. A reflection would be enough, removing for a moment the mask of hatred and self-pity that conditions this attitude and asking yourself a few questions: why? What is the point? Does it get better? If then one had the strength, not feeling ashamed for the answers or managing to obscure their content from oneself with a veil of hypocritical cynicism, one could add one: how many innocent people do I hurt without a purpose?”