The question everyone was waiting for doesn't arrive immediately, but after a good hour of press conference. It's the 15th, more than one reporter sneers in the Montecitorio group room to stigmatize the wait, Giorgia Meloni calls to order because for her there is nothing to laugh about in the Pozzolo case. It's a story he's been chewing bitterly about for days – the New Year's Eve dinner in Rosazza ended with a gunshot fired from the gun of Emanuele Pozzolo, deputy of Fratelli d'Italia, at the party in the municipality of just 99 souls where he was Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro was also present – so much so that he was unable to hide his annoyance at an episode that even attracted the attention of the international press.
Pozzolo suspended by Fratelli d'Italia, the call for responsibility
The dem secretary Elly Schlein is stinging, asking via agencies that the prime minister apologize and demand the parliamentarian's resignation while the traditional end-of-year conference – converted to the beginning of the year conference after two postponements – is about to get underway. Meloni is not caught unprepared, she waits for one of the thorniest questions to arise and makes it clear: “The issue is that anyone who holds a weapon has the legal and moral duty to look after it with seriousness and responsibility, and for this there is a problem with what happened.” For her “someone was not responsible, and this is whoever holds the weapon: for me this is not good for any Italian, for a deputy and let alone for a deputy of the Brothers of Italy”. For this reason, “I asked that Pozzolo be referred to the guarantee commission of Fdi arbitrators and that pending the judgment he be suspended by Fdi. This is what I can do on a statutory level”.
The prime minister defends the structure of her party, but is not willing to pay for other people's blunders. “There is always someone who can make mistakes and do wrong things but – she makes it clear – I am not willing to live this life, with the responsibility that I have on my shoulders if the people who are next to me do not understand this responsibility. It doesn't happen often but for how I and the people close to me deal with it, it is worth remembering that this responsibility applies to everyone. And I intend to be strict about this.”
The Verdini case
Just after a thorny question comes another, this time it concerns the Anas investigation which led to Tommaso Verdini, Denis' son and brother of Francesca, life partner of the deputy prime minister and minister Matteo Salvini, under house arrest.
Meloni invites us to wait for the developments of the investigation and “not to comment on theorems”, he points out that the wiretaps at the center of the investigations concern the “previous government: Salvini is not called into question and therefore I believe he should not report to the Chamber”, he says, thus liquidating the case.
The TV comparison with Elly Schlein, the European elections and the alliances in Brussels
She answers questions firmly, with the attitude of government but also of struggle, especially since the European elections are now upon us and she seems to have already entered the game.
Precisely on this, he opens glimmers of his possible candidacy, and takes up the challenge for a TV confrontation with the dem secretary Elly Schlein. She does not lift her reservations about her involvement in Brussels, but suggests that she is ready to get involved: “Nothing matters more to me than knowing that I have the consent of the citizens”, but the decision must be made and shared with others allies: “It's a choice that is right to make together”, she says with conviction. Because the opponent to beat is in the other half of the field, she suggests, chasing away ghosts of an electoral campaign that could undermine the balance of her government.
“I believe that those differences are an added value and that we can all grow. I don't think there is any desire on the part of anyone to submit the governance of the government to party interests.” Cautious about future post-vote arrangements, Meloni leaves in any case understand what she has in mind. Work towards “an alternative majority” to the current one, made up of the EPP, PSE and Liberals. But if instead, as emerges from the polls, an 'Ursula majority' were to emerge again, the course for the prime minister focuses on to separate support for the Commission from support for the Strasbourg Parliament, thus confirming the line of not making deals and agreements with the left for a “stable majority in Parliament”.
Meloni marks his distance from parties like Afd, Salvini's ally, while opening up opportunities for Marine Le Pen who, he acknowledges, “is making an interesting argument” about Russia.
The Prime Minister rejects the accusations about the ESM
He therefore strongly rejects the accusations of the risks of Italy's isolation in Europe, made after the failure to ratify the ESM reform. An instrument that for her remains “obsolete”, and whose rejection is linked to the fact that “there has never been a majority in Parliament”, not now but always, therefore the “mistake” was made in the past , signing the restyling of the 'Save States' despite “knowing that there was no majority” and thus putting Italy in a “difficult situation”.
Parliament's no, he then assures, was in no way a 'failure to react' to the new Stability and Growth Pact, which “is not the Pact I would have wanted” but is a “synthesis” with which “I am satisfied, at the given conditions”.
“I have to go to the bathroom”, Meloni and the conference break – Video
Ferragni case, Meloni: “Imagine better rules on charity transparency”
The challenges of 2024, the toughest moment of 2023 with Cutro
As for the challenges of 2024, the Prime Minister indicates the justice reform, the fight against bureaucracy, the decisive game of the Pnrr to continue to pursue but also a project that finances the most deserving students with scholarships, to be put on the ground in the next months. Instead, looking back to the past, Meloni shows little doubt about the hardest moment of his 2023: the Cutro tragedy last February. “Ninety-four people dying, the accusation that it's your fault, is something that weighs…”.
#Pozzolo #Verdini #European #elections #case #Giorgia #Meloni #press
