First cracks in Meloni’s coalition in Italian parliament – 2022-10-13 at 23:35

Giorgia Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia party, votes to elect the new president of the Italian parliament in Rome on October 13, 2022 (AFP / Alberto PIZZOLI).

Giorgia Meloni’s far-right coalition, which won the September 25 legislative elections, faced a stormy start to the first session of parliament on Thursday, with tensions between allies calling for a coalition government.

Ms Meloni’s post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party won 26% of the vote, but its two coalition partners, Matteo Salvini’s Antimigrant League and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia, need an absolute majority in parliament.

The three sides have been engaged in tense behind-the-scenes talks for days to share ministerial portfolios in a future government that will face several challenges, notably the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and inflation.

In a sign of these tensions, Ignacio La Russa, who was elected to the presidency of the Senate on Thursday along with former defense minister and Fratelli d’Italia co-founder Giorgia Meloni, did not fill the vote within the right-wing coalition/far-right. , due to the defection of several Forza Italia senators. It was the opposition politicians who gave him the missing votes.

Before the vote, Silvio Berlusconi, returned to the Senate after being expelled in 2013 after a disqualifying conviction, pounded his fist on his desk with an angry face during a heated debate. Russa.

Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre presides over the first session of the Senate in Rome on October 13, 2022 (AFP / Andreas SOLARO).

In a statement released after the vote, the 86-year-old billionaire, whose party won 8% of the vote, suggested the coalition was still arguing over the allocation of ministries.

Expressing “great dissatisfaction with the vetoes set up in recent days in the formation of the government”, he called for “faithful and effective cooperation with the other forces of the majority to provide the country with a government as soon as possible”.

It was a Holocaust survivor, Liliana Segre, 92, who chaired the first session in the Senate, who stressed the “symbolic value” of her presence, “this October March in Rome marking the beginning of a century. of Fascist dictatorship”.

– Recession in 2023 –

Another symbolic event on the day parliament returned was when a deputy of Ivorian descent, Aboubakar Soumahoro, dressed in a suit and wearing dirt-caked rubber boots, brought a tribute to the exploited foreign farm workers in Italy, some of whom died. In the grain fields, the heat and exhaustion are overwhelming.

Silvio Berlusconi, head of “Forza Italia” at the Italian Parliament in Rome on October 13, 2022 (AFP / Andreas SOLARO)

The House of Representatives is due to elect its speaker later Friday after three ballots failed to produce results Thursday.

Matteo Salvini, whose party won 9% of the vote, nominated one of them, Lorenzo Fontana, a traditional Catholic and former minister for European affairs.

Once elected, the heads of chambers will meet with President Sergio Mattarella, within the framework of the institutional consultations he must carry out before appointing a new head of government.

At the end of his deliberations, Mr Mattarella will entrust the task of forming a government to Giorgia Meloni, making her the first woman in Italy to hold the presidency of the Council.

I (AFP/Alberto PIZZOLI)

“We’re ready, don’t worry!” Georgia Meloni told reporters Thursday that she has kept a low profile since her election victory, communicating mainly through social media.

If he was youth minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s administration between 2008 and 2011, his Fratelli d’Italia party, which won only 4% of the vote in the 2018 legislative elections, lacks government experience, but sought to consolidate it. markets about its management capabilities.

The name of the future minister of the economy is especially expected, while the third economy of the euro zone is crumbling under a debt that reaches 150% of GDP and according to the IMF should enter recession in 2023.

Later in the evening, League official and current economic development minister Giancarlo Giorgetti “would be a great economic minister”, Ms Meloni said.