The leader of the Fratelli d’Italia party, Giorgia Meloni, votes for the election of the new president of the Italian Parliament, on October 13, 2022 in Rome ( AFP / Alberto PIZZOLI )
The far-right coalition of Giorgia Meloni, victorious in the legislative elections of September 25, faced a stormy start Thursday during the first session of parliament, marked by tensions between allies called to govern together.
The post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, led by Ms Meloni, won 26% of the vote, but needs its two coalition partners, Matteo Salvini’s Antimigrant League and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia, to have an absolute majority in Parliament.
The three parties have been engaged in tense behind-the-scenes negotiations for days to share the ministerial portfolios of the future government which will have to face many challenges, in particular the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and inflation.
Sign of these tensions, Ignazio La Russa, former Minister of Defense and co-founder of Fratelli d’Italia with Giorgia Meloni, elected Thursday to the presidency of the Senate, did not fill up the votes within the right-wing coalition /extreme right, due to the defection of many Forza Italia senators. It was opposition politicians who gave him the missing votes.
Before the vote, Silvio Berlusconi, who was making a comeback to the Senate from which he had been expelled in 2013 after his sentence of ineligibility, sported an angry face and banged his fist on his desk during a heated discussion. aside with Mr. La Russa.
Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre presides over the first session of the Senate on October 13, 2022 in Rome (AFP / Andreas SOLARO)
In a statement released after the vote, the 86-year-old billionaire, whose party won 8% of the vote, suggested that the coalition was still arguing over the allocation of ministries.
He expressed “great discomfort with the vetoes set in recent days on the formation of the government”, calling for “loyal and effective collaboration with the other forces of the majority to quickly give a government to the country”. .
It is a Holocaust survivor, Liliana Segre, 92, who as dean chaired the first session in the Senate, emphasizing “the symbolic value” of her presence, “in this month of October marking the centenary of the March on Rome which was the beginning of the fascist dictatorship”.
– Recession in 2023 –
Another symbolic event on this day of parliamentary return, the investiture of a deputy of Ivorian origin, Aboubakar Soumahoro, who arrived in a suit and wearing rubber boots full of dirt in tribute to foreign agricultural workers exploited in Italy, some of whom are dead in the grain fields, overwhelmed by the heat and fatigue.
The leader of “Forza Italia” Silvio Berlusconi at the Italian Parliament, on October 13, 2022 in Rome ( AFP / Andreas SOLARO )
The Chamber of Deputies must elect its president no later than Friday, three ballots having failed to produce a result on Thursday.
Matteo Salvini, whose party won 9% of the vote, presented the candidacy of one of his own, Lorenzo Fontana, a traditionalist Catholic, former minister for European affairs.
Once elected, the presidents of the chambers will meet the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, within the framework of the institutional consultations that the latter must carry out before appointing a new head of government.
At the end of his consultations, Mr Mattarella should entrust the task of forming a government to Giorgia Meloni, who would thus become the first woman to accede to the post of President of the Council in Italy.
I (AFP / Alberto PIZZOLI)
“We are ready, don’t worry!” Giorgia Meloni told reporters on Thursday, who has kept a low profile since her election victory, communicating mainly through social networks.
If she was Minister of Youth in the executive led by Silvio Berlusconi between 2008 and 2011, her Fratelli d’Italia party, which only obtained 4% of the votes in the 2018 legislative elections, has no government experience, but has sought to reassure the markets about its management capabilities.
The name of the future Minister of the Economy is particularly awaited, while the third economy of the euro zone is crumbling under a debt reaching 150% of GDP and should enter into recession in 2023 according to the IMF.
In the evening, Ms Meloni said that Giancarlo Giorgetti, a League official and currently economic development minister, “would be an excellent economy minister”.