Patrizia Scurti. Her name will probably mean nothing to the general public, but in Palazzo Chigi, when she speaks, everyone stays silent and listens. Everyone, absolutely everyone. Even the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who in fact jokingly renamed her “my mistress”. Others call her «Wolf», like the cult character of pulp Fiction who introduced himself by saying «I solve problems».
They describe it as a machine. Infallible, implacable, unfailing. «There is nothing in my life that doesn’t pass through her», wrote the leader of the Brothers of Italy in her best-selling autobiography “Io sono Giorgia” (Rizzoli, 2021).
Patrizia Scurti, professional head of the Private Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office, has supported Meloni for seventeen years now. She is his shadow assistant. It was Gianfranco Fini who brought them together: it was 2006 and since then they have never been separated.
Very little is known about her: her curriculum vitae has not been published on the Government website, nor does she have any social profiles to look at. She is certainly a few years older than the prime minister, but we do not know her date and place of birth. We only know that in the past you were part of Fini’s staff, who today earns almost 180 thousand euros a year and that your husband is Meloni’s head escort (because everyone they have a familyespecially in the “big family” of patriots).
Scurti keeps the president’s agenda, whispers in her ears if there is a problem, attends bilateral meetings with the heads of state and government. At Palazzo Chigi he shares the role of right-hand man of the prime minister with Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the presidency of the Council, known as “Spugna”, from the name of Captain Hook’s faithful boatswain. It is from the two of them that the network of Melonian power begins.
Sponge & Co.
If Scurti is the factotum, Fazzolari is considered Meloni’s ideologue: the president even defined him as “the most intelligent person I have ever met”.
Born 51 years ago in Messina, raised between France, Argentina and Turkey following his diplomat father, «Spugna» began doing politics at the end of the 1980s, playing in the Roman teams of the Youth Front. Graduated in Economics, he met the future prime minister in the nineties, at the time of Youth Action. The two bond right away.
When she becomes vice-president of the Chamber (first) and youth minister (then), she always takes it with her among her staff. In 2012 Fazzolari participated in the split of the former MSI members from the PDL and in the foundation of Fratelli d’Italia. Six years later he was elected with the “patriots” to the Senate, a seat which he confirmed at the last political elections. In both cases he is a candidate in a multi-member constituency.
He’s not used to being on the front lines. He prefers to advise, argue and maneuver behind the scenes, so much so that some have nicknamed him “the Gianni Letta of Fdi”. In the last year, most state appointments have passed through his office and his phone. The recent proposal of one of his distant cousins, Rocco Bellantone, at the helm of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, has caused controversy, just as his proposal – which however he denies ever having made – to teach shooting in schools had made waves in recent months. . Media fuss which, however, did not affect Meloni’s esteem for him in the slightest.
Last month the prime minister further strengthened the power of her trusted man by adding that of government communications coordinator to the position of undersecretary.
Among the undersecretaries of the Prime Minister’s Office, however, the most delicate delegation – that of the Secret Services – is not in the hands of Fazzolari, but in those of Alfredo Mantovano, another key figure of power in Giorgia’s time. It is to him that Meloni has entrusted the intelligence reform which will perhaps lead to the merging of the internal and external services under a single structure.
A long-serving magistrate, fluent in language, with important positions both at the Quirinale and in the Vatican, Mantovano – 65 years old, from Lecce – was in the past a parliamentarian for the National Alliance and the People of Freedom, also holding the position of undersecretary of the Interior twice, while he never registered with Fdi.
The prime minister deeply respects him: when it comes to legal issues, it is he who dictates the line of Palazzo Chigi. Even at the cost of entering a collision course with other ministers. For information, ask Nordio or Piantedosi.
Appointments
At the table of the Council of Ministers, the closest to the president, for obvious reasons, is Francesco Lollobrigida, husband of Arianna Meloni, Giorgia’s powerful sister, recently appointed to lead the political secretariat of Fdi.
Despite some sporadic friction, the axis between the prime minister and Guido Crosetto, the head of the Defense Department who in 2012 participated in the birth of Fratelli d’Italia, also remains solid. In recent months, tension has arisen between the two over the appointment of the new commander of the Guardia di Finanza, with the minister who – playing with the Mef of the Northern League member Giorgetti – had tried (in vain) to hinder the investiture of Andrea De Gennaro , sponsored by Meloni himself.
Speaking of appointments, in the coming months it will be interesting to see if anything will change at the Bank of Italy with the new governor, Fabio Panetta, also chosen by the Prime Minister, who already wanted to make him Minister of the Economy. Panetta, coming from the ECB board, will be called upon in particular to mediate with the Eurotower on the restrictive monetary policy carried out in the last fifteen months.
2023 was the year of governance renewal for many large state-owned companies. On this front, however, Meloni – assisted as mentioned by the brave Fazzolari – in many cases (see Enel and Leonardo) had to give way to the allies, contenting herself with locking down the confirmation of Claudio Descalzi at the helm of Eni and placing the new entry Pasqualina Di Foggia (formerly Vodafone) at the top of Terna.
Furthermore, the INPS commissionership should not be underestimated, taken away from Pasquale Tridico and entrusted to the technician Micaela Gelera: at the Social Security Institute the changing of the guard – which took place just four months ago – has already caused upheavals in the methodology with which they are conducted the findings. All obviously in favor of the right-wing narrative on poverty and work.
Meanwhile, the “melonization” of Rai is now an established fact, from Pino Insegno (next host of The legacy) to Gian Marco Chiocci (new director of Tg1), from Paolo Petrecca (RaiNews24) to the intellectual Marcello Veneziani, up to the evergreen Bruno Vespa, passing through the farewells – more or less induced – of the various Fabio Fazio, Lucia Annunziata, Bianca Berlinguer, Roberto Saviano.
The CEO Carlo Fuortes, appointed by Draghi, was forced to resign and replaced with the Christian Democrat Roberto Sergio, but next year, when the board of directors expires, Giampaolo Rossi, newly appointed general manager, should sit in that chair.
Roman, 55 years old, an archaeologist by training, a “Marinettian” by self-definition, Rossi is an ultra-conservative who in the past has also made harsh accusations against the President of the Republic Mattarella.
When asked if he intends to complete the famous “cultural hegemony of the right”, he replies no: “I just want to let the culture of this nation breathe”, he assures. But then he admits that he dreams of a fiction that glorifies D’Annunzio’s Fiume Enterprise. Other than Inspector Montalbano: tele-Meloni is stuff for true patriots.
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