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The leader of Fratelli d’Italia, Giorgia Meloni, and former PM Silvio Berlusconi made peace today after a series of attacks in recent days over the formation of the future government.
The tycoon went today to Meloni’s party headquarters, in the center of Rome, and the two held a meeting “in a climate of unity of intentions and maximum cordiality and collaboration”, according to sources close to both parties.
In fact, they renewed their plan to jointly attend, together with Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega and member of the electoral coalition, the round of consultations that the head of state, Sergio Mattarella, will undertake in the coming days to form a government after the general elections of September 25.
Both Meloni and Berlusconi are working to “give Italy as soon as possible a strong, united and high-profile government that will immediately set in motion to face the urgent needs” the country is experiencing, the sources underline.
The meeting aroused great expectation as tensions between the two in recent days had shaken the right-wing coalition they share with Salvini, which won the last general election.
Meloni, who received the most votes in the elections with 26% of the ballots, is preparing her future government’s structure while waiting for President Mattarella to entrust her with its formation, which should take place in the next few days.
But Berlusconi has shown his disagreement with the distribution of power and ministries that Meloni is organizing.
First, because the presidency of the two seats of Parliament, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, fell to the parties of Meloni and Salvini: in the former, Ignazio La Russa of Brothers of Italy was elected, and in the latter, Lorenzo Fontana of the Lega, thus excluding Berlusconi’s formation, Forza Italia.
On the other hand, the businessman and three-time Italian PM has made no secret of his anger at Meloni’s refusal to give a ministry to Licia Ronzulli, one of his closest collaborators.
Thus, on the first day of the legislature, Berlusconi went so far as to dedicate a “vaffanculo” (fuck off) from his seat in the Senate, where he returned nine years after being expelled for his conviction for tax fraud in the so-called “Mediaset Case.”
And then she released to the press notes in which she openly criticized Meloni: “Stubborn, overbearing, arrogant and offensive. No disposition to change. It is not possible to agree with her,” his notebook read.
Shortly thereafter Meloni answered him with her usual caustic tone and visibly irritated: “He was missing a point: that I am not blackmailable,” she told the media, getting into her car.
This morning Guido Crosetto, one of Meloni’s closest friends, pleaded for harmony.
“I think it’s difficult for anyone not to find themselves in the position of dealing the cards. It is for a normal person, imagine for someone like Berlusconi who has done extraordinary things as a leader in all sectors,” he told Il Corriere della Sera.
Berlusconi believes he should be treated the same as Salvini, as both received around 8% of the vote, and is pushing for as much power as possible in the future Executive, aware that his senators and deputies are essential for him to be sworn in.
