Die return from silvio berlusconi Was only partially victorious in the Senate. The 86-year-old founder and party leader of the Christian Democratic Forza Italia is no longer good on his feet, needs help getting out of the car and walking. It was, of course, a great satisfaction for the entrepreneur and prime minister, the longest-reigning prime minister in the history of the Italian Republic, that, in the elections of 25 September, he was able to win a seat in the parliamentary chamber in his constituency at Monza. Were. Which he was removed in 2013, following his final sentence for a tax offense.
But what happened in the constitutional session of the small parliamentary chamber on Thursday could not please “Cavalierre”. Ignazio La Russa, a 75-year veteran of the right-wing conservative Italian Brothers Party, was elected the new president of the Senate. Georgia Meloni, the newly named Prime Minister. Berlusconi gave La Russa the key post of defense minister in his fourth and last cabinet between 2008 and 2011, and he made Meloni minister of youth and sports.
But on Thursday and Friday, Berlusconi was not in charge of bargaining over presidential positions in the two houses of parliament, but just a spectator. In Italy in a tripartite alliance with the Melonis brothers – winners of the election with 26 percent of the vote – and mateo salvinis The right-wing national Lega with around nine percent, Berlusconi with his Forza Italia and a good eight percent of the vote is just third force and can’t make any big demands.
Berlusconi vented his anger on a note
In the election of Ignazio La Russa as Senate President and thus the second person in the state – after the President sergio matarella – Berlusconi wanted to teach Giorgia Meloni, whom he saw as a rebel, a lesson: Forza Italia senators should abstain, at least in the first ballot. Despite Forza Italia’s “opposition vote”, La Russa received substantial votes on the first attempt, namely 116 out of a total of 206, including 19 votes from the ranks of the opposition. It was an embarrassment for Berlusconi, the former master of deals and collusion.
He vented his anger at La Russa in a brief exchange of swear words while writing a note of his disdain for Meloni. Berlusconi wrote that Meloni was “arrogant, arrogant, arrogant and disrespectful”. He handed the note to a neighbor his seat in the Senate, but its contents were long captured by cameras and made known to the nation. When asked about the note being distributed by all media on Friday evening, Meloni responded, clearly annoyed, that one important feature was missing: “not blackmailable”.
Above all, Mellon does not want to be blackmailed into handing over an important ministerial post to Berlusconi’s confidant Licia Ronjuli. She reserves the last word on filling important positions in parliament and especially the cabinet, taking into account the party’s representation among the three coalition partners.
Melonis’s power argument was in line with the election of 42-year-old Lega politician Lorenzo Fontana as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Eventually, the Liga was the second force in the coalition and had its turn in the larger parliamentary chamber, after the Italian brothers in the Senate. Fontana is also a representative of Lega’s arch-Catholic wing, which is ideologically at least as close to the Italian brethren as he is to the liberal economic flow in his party.
Lega boss Matteo Salvini, who has resigned himself to his role as one of Meloni’s two junior partners, tried to smooth things out over the weekend. He was confident that soon “harmony between Georgia and Silvio would return”, paving the way for the formation of a government for a full five-year legislative term.
According to the constitution, President Mattarella will first consult with the presidents of the two chambers of parliament and at the beginning of the week with factions and party leaders of all parties. He then gives the mandate of the government to the candidate who can count on a majority in both houses for his cabinet list. It should be clear by the end of this week whether the dispute between Berlusconi and Meloni was the beginning of the end of a right-wing government before it even started. Or even if there was just a storm in the cup of tea, which from Berlusconi’s point of view is half full to half empty.
