The far-right leader is sworn in as Italy’s prime minister and says she will serve her country “with pride and responsibility”
Italy already has a new government. Giorgia Meloni, winner of the elections held a little less than a month ago at the head of the conservative bloc, was sworn in this Saturday as Prime Minister of Italy, the first woman to hold office in the country, in a solemn ceremony held at the Quirinal Palace in Rome in which she was accompanied by her partner, Andrea Giambruno, and Ginevra, their 6-year-old daughter. After the swearing-in of the leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (FdI, Brothers of Italy) party, it was the turn of the rest of the members of her cabinet, made up of 24 ministers, including the two deputy prime ministers: Antonio Tajani, former president of the European Parliament and who is in charge of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, and Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, at the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure. In a sign of his eagerness to grab headlines, which can cause Meloni more than one headache, Salvini hastened to announce that he intends to dust off the pharaonic project of uniting the island of Sicily with the rest of Italy through a bridge.
Family photo of the new Italian Executive /
Less ambitious than her partner was the new head of the Italian Executive: she commented after the oath that she was going to work “immediately” to serve Italy “with pride and responsibility.” In addition to facing the skyrocketing inflation and the energy crisis, the first big ‘hot potato’ for Meloni will be the preparation of next year’s Budgets. She will have a few weeks to do so, since she must present them before the end of the year before the authorities of the European Union. It will benefit, yes, from a comfortable transition with the previous Executive, led by Mario Draghi, whose team has shown full availability to collaborate with the new Government.
delivery of the bell
Meloni and Draghi will coincide this Sunday at the Chigi Palace, seat of the head of government, in the traditional ceremony in which the outgoing ‘premier’ hands over to his successor the bell that is used to start the Council of Ministers. The first formal meeting of Meloni’s cabinet will then begin, while it will be next week when the necessary investiture vote is submitted in Parliament. There he will set out the political priorities of his agenda to be developed during the five years of the legislature, as long as he manages to hurry it up.
The first gesture made by Tajani after his oath as head of Italian diplomacy is significant: he announced that he was calling his Ukrainian counterpart to guarantee that Rome will maintain its support for kyiv in the face of the military aggression ordered by Moscow. It was quite a declaration of intent from the ‘number two’ of Forza Italia after the leader of his party, Silvio Berlusconi, was involved in a bitter controversy throughout the week for blaming Ukraine for the war and defending his friend, Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president, Volódimir Zelenski, who had already invited Meloni to visit Ukraine a few days after the elections, hastened to congratulate the new government, showing his desire to maintain “a fruitful cooperation to guarantee peace and prosperity”.
US President Joe Biden also made reference to the war in this Eastern European country in his message to Meloni. “I am impatient to continue working to advance our support for Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its responsibilities, ensure respect for human rights and democratic values, and build sustainable economic growth,” Biden said in a note published by the White House.
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