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The leader of the Brothers of Italy (FDL), Giorgia Meloni, conquered the Government today and quickly announced her Council of Ministers.
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, entrusted her with the formation of the Government as the clear winner of the elections of September 25, leading a coalition in which are also the League of Mateo Salvini and Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi.
Roman politics immediately accepted the appointment, without any reservation, and, since she believes there is no time to lose, she went before the head of state with her list of ministers under her arm.
The cabinet, which will be sworn in on Saturday morning, at 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT), is divided into 24 ministries – 9 without portfolio and 15 with portfolio – as well as two vice-presidencies, in the hands of the two parties that supports her coalition.
Meloni’s vice-presidents will be the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, also Minister of Infrastructures and Sustainable Mobility; and Antonio Tajani, Berlusconi’s right-hand man, former president of the European Parliament and new head of Foreign Affairs.
In the distribution of power within the new Executive, the FDL party will dominate eight ministries, some of them key, such as Justice, in the hands of former prosecutor Carlo Nordio, persecutor of the Red Brigades; or Defense, Guido Crosetto, in the midst of a crisis due to the war in Ukraine.
It should be noted the change of nomenclature of some ministries, which attest to the nationalist character of the Executive: Economic Development will be renamed Enterprises and “Made in Italy,” managed by Adolfo Urso, and Food Sovereignty will be added to Agriculture.
FDL will also have the Ministries of Tourism, Relations with the Parliament, Policies for the Sea and the South and another key one: European Affairs, Cohesion Policies and PNRR (the millionaire pandemic Recovery Plan), in the hands of Raffaele Fitto.
The “Berlusconian” FI will control, in addition to Foreign Affairs, the Environment and Energy Security, led by Paolo Zangrillo, in full strategy of independence from Russian gas; as well as University and Research, Public Administration, Family, Birth and Equal Opportunities and Institutional Reforms.
Salvini, the leader of The League, has not been able to repeat in Interior because of his trials for his former anti-immigration policy, but he will keep a vice-presidency and the portfolio of Infrastructures, which also has competences in port policies.
His colleague, Giancarlo Giorgett, will be Minister of Economy and Finance, representing the more moderate and pro-European side of the party, in a clear message to the outside world. The other ministries of the League are Regional Affairs and Autonomy and Disability.
Meloni, a 45-year-old roman woman, conquered the government after a year and a half as the only opposition to the outgoing Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, since February 2021 at the head of a coalition of national unity formed to face emergencies such as the pandemic.
Likewise, the Meloni government will also have an important technical variant and six portfolios will be in the hands of experts in different fields, although very close to the different coalition parties.
For example, the new Minister of the Interior will be Matteo Piantedosi, former Chief of Staff of Salvini in his time in Interior (2018-2019) and then Government delegate in Rome.
The Minister of Labor and Social Policies will be the economist Marina Elvira Calderone, current president of the National Council of Labor Advisors and very close to Meloni.
In Culture will be Gennaro Sangiuliano, journalist and intellectual of the right wing, who throughout his life was a member of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement and then became a member of the party of Berlusconi.
The physician and principal of the University of Tor Vergata in Rome will be the new Minister of Health; while in Sport and Youth will be Andrea Abodi, a sports leader with experience in the Second Division of soccer and in the Italian Olympic Committee.
Meloni’s government will submit to the investiture in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies as early as next week, but it will be a formality because the right-wing coalition has a large majority to govern with.
Meanwhile, the new Prime Minister made sure to reassure outside borders, asserting her government’s commitment to Europe, the Atlantic Alliance and the Ukrainian resistance support.
