Giorgia Meloni completes last stage before becoming Italy’s new leader

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The ultra-right Giorgia Meloni this Friday (21) fulfilled one of the steps to become the new prime minister of Italy. The leader of the winning coalition in the last elections met with the country’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and received from him the formal task of constituting a new government.

The next step in the political ritual will be Meloni’s oath, scheduled to take place this Saturday (22). The inauguration ceremony is scheduled for next week.

Meloni, leader and founder of the Brothers of Italy party, will be the first woman to lead Italy. A political heir to fascism, she was elected in September to her fifth term in the House. The right-wing coalition she led won the parliamentary elections, and as her party received the most votes, with 26%, the way was paved for the post of prime minister.

This Friday morning, Mattarella had already received, in addition to Meloni, Silvio Berlusconi, from Força, Italia and Matteo Salvini, from the League – partners in the right-wing coalition that won a majority in Parliament. As there were no doubts or disputes about the position of leader of the government, Mattarella recalled Meloni for the afternoon meeting, at local time, in which he made official the mission of the new leadership.

Last Wednesday (19), Meloni said that his government will be pro-NATO and pro-Europe, refuting criticism that he would be in favor of an eventual exit from the European Union. “Italy with us in government will never be the weak link in the West,” he said.

“On one thing I was, am and will always be clear. I intend to lead a government with a clear and unambiguous foreign policy line. Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government.”

The message seems to have been sent directly against Berlusconi. In audios released this week, the former prime minister reaffirmed his long-standing friendship and sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin – the Italian even received a gift from the Russian, which violates sanctions imposed by the European Union.

He even accused the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky of also provoking the war in Eastern Europe. Meloni, on the other hand, has defended Ukraine since February, when the Russian invasion began.

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