The European credentials that Giorgia Meloni, head of the centre-right coalition, has been trying to put forward just days before she formally took the mandate to form a government, were dealt a serious blow when Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister and president of the junior majority partner Forza Italia, confirmed that on his birthday, on September 29, four days after the elections in which he was also elected senator, he received from the Russian president, as a gift, twenty bottles of vodka and reciprocated with 20 bottles of a top Italian sparkling wine, while they also exchanged friendly letters from which confirms the deep friendship that connects them.
As soon as the Berlusconi-Putin gift exchange became known, the majority leader warned him that Italy would remain firmly in the EU. and NATO, but he risks losing all influence in the new government.
“Italy, with its head held high, is part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance,” said Meloni, who added that “whoever does not agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, even if the cost is to don’t have a government”.
The warning had multiple recipients:
Abroad, she responded to the concerns that the E.U. had expressed about her election to the prime ministership.
At home, on the one hand, she gave assurances to politicians who refuse to respond to her proposal to take over the finance ministry, because they do not trust her commitment to the European orientation of the country, and on the other hand, she reminded Berlusconi of a skeleton he has in his closet. This is the latest pending court case against the former prime minister over the 2010 Arcore parties.
Berlusconi sought to get the position of Minister of Justice for his party, but Meloni had chosen as a candidate the judge she proposed some time ago for the position of President of the Republic.
The former prime minister, who attributes his persecutions to the fact that the majority of judges are communists, did not vote for the candidate for the president of the Senate proposed by Meloni, who was nevertheless elected comfortably, it is not yet clear whether the votes he did not cast “Forza Italia” was covered by its own dissidents or by the third pole, the center-left party of former Prime Minister Renzi, which however denied voting for Meloni’s candidate.
Suspicions of Berlusconi’s intra-party infighting were fueled by the fact that his admissions about Putin were made in a speech to his party’s newly elected MPs, one of whom leaked an audio clip to an online news agency.
Soon after, the three coalition parties reaffirmed their commitment to forming a government, as agreed before the election between their leaders, Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi, but concern about a gap remains.
However, Meloni not only needs the agreement of her other two partners but also the approval of President Mattarella for the formation of the government.
The IMF predicts that Italy in 2023 will have a recession of 0.2% in the economy, although according to the Bank of Italy it will have a growth of 0.3% with inflation of 6%, but it does not rule out a recession of 1.5% and inflation of 9% , if Russia cuts off all energy supplies to Europe.
Meloni’s first choice for the finance ministry was outside her own party but also outside the coalition, as she turned to the director of the European Central Bank, Fabio Panetta, but he appeared reluctant.
The Minister of Finance in the Draghi government, Daniele Franco, who still manages public affairs as an official, was also negative.
Her third choice remained outside the party but entered the coalition and concerns the Minister of Economic Development of the Draghi government, Giancarlo Giorgetti, who comes from Matteo Salvini’s League and is seen as one of the party’s most moderate and pro-European figures.
But consultations on forming a government have only just begun.
