She makes it clear that she does not want to be intimidated by the opposition’s protests. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is clear on the constitutional reforms that will be voted on on 18 June in the Senate chamber for the first passage: “It’s either make or break. ask to save the chair or stay here to survive.”
The arguments that the Prime Minister relaunches at the Festival of Economy in Trento to promote the Casellati bill are the same as always: “It is a necessary reform. In addition to being a democratic measure, it is an economic measure, because the stability of a government strengthens the opportunity to grow the economy”.
The reference is to the past, “we have had governments that on average lasted a year and a half. When I have such a short horizon I cannot make investments. However, if a government has five years to work it can implement a strategy”. And therefore with the premiership “stable politics resumes its role: it is less subjected to pressure from lobbies. All those in this nation who have given the cards without having to account to the citizens today oppose the reform” but “in the end they will be citizens to choose”.
The challenge remains the referendum: “Let’s put the snitch of decisions back into the hands of the Italians. Because a government chosen by the people is a government that responds to the people.” There are two competing models at play: that of the government and that of the Democratic Party which “obstructions against the election of the head of government and the doubling of senators for life”.
But there is no personal interest in this match, the head of the executive is keen to point out. Is it worth it? “In my opinion, yes. I’m not the type of person who can repay with vanity the sacrifices he has to make to take on this position. Currently my life goes more or less like this: I get up in the morning, I try to solve the problems and when I can I go to sleep. There is nothing other than the little time I can spend with my daughter, on average an hour a day between morning and evening. Some people think that I could really do this with my sole objective to stay and do this? Many would do it but I honestly don’t understand them. For me, it’s worth living this life if when you’re done you can look behind you, you can look at Italy”, says Meloni, Elly Schlein, who he will be a guest at the Economics Festival, “he will be able to answer me and he will answer me”.
In his speech, the Prime Minister addresses the left on several occasions, to point out “the disasters of the past” on the issue of wages, to say that “Tele Meloni is fake news. On Tg1 I am last in the rankings compared to my predecessors in starting from Renzi. The problem is not that there is Telemeloni, but that there is no longer Tele Pd”. And to underline that “the problem is that the left thinks it has more rights than others. That world is over”.
Meloni talks about the economy (“The government has arrived with a story of the plagues of Egypt, it is clear that if you are presented as Attila the Hun and instead you are Giorgia Meloni it is possible that you will be reassured by the very fact of being Meloni…” ), returns to the superbonus (“I don’t need to raise cash”, a squeeze “you have to put it otherwise you risk going out of control”), announces that he does not rule out the sale of shares in the Italian Post Office (“But there is no possibility in the world can be privatised”), explains “the confusion” that there has been on the income meter (“I have not changed my mind, I am always against it” but “we need a law to guarantee taxpayers, which does not give unlimited powers to the authorities”) , confirms that he wants a tax system that “gives a hand to citizens in difficulty”, rejects the accusations of “being a friend of tax evaders” (“The numbers don’t say this. 2023 was the record year in the recovery of tax evasion in Italy “).
And finally he focuses on the relationship with Marine Le Pen: “There are points in common, it is clear, on the fight against illegal immigration, on the approach to the green transition, on the defense of the European identity”. This does not mean that there is a single right-wing group in Europe in sight but, after the break with the Germans of AfD, the opening of credit to the leader of Rassemblement National is there: “There is no form in sight of unification between the conservative party and the ID. This does not mean that we cannot collaborate on some issues, as already happens. In the EU, it happens that parties from different political families find themselves voting together on the same dossiers”.
What’s happening in Brussels? “I think there is a margin for change, that change is given by the possibility of building majorities different from those that have existed so far”. So “no more rainbow majority”.