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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrives for her first cabinet meeting at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy on October 23 2022. Picture: REUTERS/REMO CASILLI
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, vowed on Tuesday to steer the country through some of the hardest times since World War 2 and to keeping support Ukraine against Russia.
Taking a combative tone in her maiden speech to parliament, Meloni said her nationalist, right-wing coalition would make its voice heard in Europe and stressed her opposition to racism and discrimination.
Italy will continue to support Western sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin despite Moscow’s squeeze on gas imports, Meloni said in her wide-ranging speech.
“Giving in to Putin's blackmail on energy would not solve the problem, it would worsen it by opening the way to further demands and blackmail,” she said.
The leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy, Meloni, 45, swept to victory last month as part of an electoral coalition that included Forza Italia, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League.
The government is Italy’s most right-wing administration since World War 2. Former close ties between Moscow and Berlusconi and Salvini have raised concern about its foreign policy.
Fascism condemned
Meloni said her government would give financial support to families and firms hit by the energy crisis. She warned that the high cost of this meant her administration may have to delay some of its expensive election promises.
“The context in which the government will have to act is very complicated, perhaps the most difficult since World War 2,” she said. The economy could sink into recession next year as it battled rising inflation and disruption linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine.
Meloni, who grew up in a working-class district of Rome, cast herself as an underdog who would defy negative forecasts on her government.
Though her party has neofascist roots she told MPs that her government would fight all discrimination.
“I have never felt any sympathy or closeness to antidemocratic regimes. For no regimes, fascism included,” she said.
“In the same way, I have always considered the [anti-Semitic] racial laws of 1938 the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will taint our people forever.”
On immigration, a key issue for her supporters, she said Italy would seek to stop people being smuggled across the Mediterranean, and work with African governments to help halt the migrant flows from the continent.
Meloni’s supporters gave her a standing ovation after her 70-minute speech, with some chanting: “Giorgia, Giorgia.”
She was expected to comfortably win a lower house a confidence vote on the new government later in the day. A similar vote is expected in the senate on Wednesday.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Italy’s Meloni expects tough times
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, vowed on Tuesday to steer the country through some of the hardest times since World War 2 and to keeping support Ukraine against Russia.
Taking a combative tone in her maiden speech to parliament, Meloni said her nationalist, right-wing coalition would make its voice heard in Europe and stressed her opposition to racism and discrimination.
Italy will continue to support Western sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin despite Moscow’s squeeze on gas imports, Meloni said in her wide-ranging speech.
“Giving in to Putin's blackmail on energy would not solve the problem, it would worsen it by opening the way to further demands and blackmail,” she said.
The leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy, Meloni, 45, swept to victory last month as part of an electoral coalition that included Forza Italia, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League.
The government is Italy’s most right-wing administration since World War 2. Former close ties between Moscow and Berlusconi and Salvini have raised concern about its foreign policy.
Fascism condemned
Meloni said her government would give financial support to families and firms hit by the energy crisis. She warned that the high cost of this meant her administration may have to delay some of its expensive election promises.
“The context in which the government will have to act is very complicated, perhaps the most difficult since World War 2,” she said. The economy could sink into recession next year as it battled rising inflation and disruption linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine.
Meloni, who grew up in a working-class district of Rome, cast herself as an underdog who would defy negative forecasts on her government.
Though her party has neofascist roots she told MPs that her government would fight all discrimination.
“I have never felt any sympathy or closeness to antidemocratic regimes. For no regimes, fascism included,” she said.
“In the same way, I have always considered the [anti-Semitic] racial laws of 1938 the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will taint our people forever.”
On immigration, a key issue for her supporters, she said Italy would seek to stop people being smuggled across the Mediterranean, and work with African governments to help halt the migrant flows from the continent.
Meloni’s supporters gave her a standing ovation after her 70-minute speech, with some chanting: “Giorgia, Giorgia.”
She was expected to comfortably win a lower house a confidence vote on the new government later in the day. A similar vote is expected in the senate on Wednesday.
Reuters
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