“The EU naval mission in the Red Sea” is predominantly defense policy. 15% of world trade passes through there, preventing the passage of products means a disproportionate increase in prices, we cannot accept the threat of the Houthis in the Red Sea. Italy has always supported the defense of freedom of navigation, we do so within our regulations. For this European defense mission we do not have to go through Parliament, but the US initiative would have meant a parliamentary passage. Italy is there, it takes responsibility”. Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Fourth Republic.
“My idea of foreign policy is having the ability to talk to everyone, those you agree with on most things, but also those you may disagree with.” Thus the Prime Minister speaking about his international meetings, from the last one on Saturday with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Was she ready, Nicola Porro asked her, quoting Meloni’s electoral slogan, to negotiate with Erdogan? “I was ready to make Italy count moreI was ready to design a foreign policy for this nation based on respect for its interlocutors, on people who do not look down on you but – he added – have the courage to tell things as they are, that whoever takes a he maintains this commitment, which does not take a different position when he speaks privately with someone and when he speaks with the press”.
With Emmanuel Macron “I think we could have done a little more together”. This is the response of the head of government to Nicola Porro who asked her if the French president is among those who gave Italy a hand on the new Stability Pact. “The Stability Pact is not my ideal compromise but it was the best possible compromise – added Meloni -. The alternative was to return to the old parameters, which were decidedly worse. There are countries in Europe that prefer the previous parameters because they are more rigid.”
“De Fusco, the scandal is that he doesn’t have a PD card”
“A person was nominated, I didn’t even know it: I learned it from the hubbub of the left” who, as far as I know, has an ironclad curriculum in terms of culture and competence, He doesn’t have any party membership cards and what’s the scandal? Who doesn’t have a PD card”. And he added: “Notice to sailors: the world in which the PD card scores points for public appointments is over: people who have merit go there – continued Meloni – regardless of the membership card they have decided to sign up for if they have one”.
“I wasn’t talking about conspiracies” but about the fact that “Italy is a nation in which friendship exists: this is my little friend...and there are all these clubs of friends with their friends and this circle of friendship also has an spin-off: there are clubs where you go to join, where you try to become part of these friends” but “that time is over, as it is the time is over when you have to have a party card to get somewhere, this is the time of merit”
“In the CDM there is a rule on the transparency of charity, I didn’t want a clash with Ferragni”
“A rule is coming to the Council of Ministers on Thursday” that “we are making, so in commercial activities with a charitable purpose, on the packaging of what you sell you must specify who the resources go to, what they go for and how much of it is actually allocated for charitable purposes”. So again the Prime Minister who explained how the story of Chiara Ferragni’s pandoro “showed that there is a hole in terms of transparency in the regulations of commercial activities that also have a charitable purpose. Wanted or not, now there you can get stuck.”
“I don’t regret” the statements on Chiara Ferragni’s pandoro case, “I was sorry that it was read as a clash. Imagine if there was a desire and interest in a clash with Chiara Ferragni. I was saying something positive, towards the people who produce an excellence that we see through influencers and we give more weight to those who wear it than those who produce it”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2024/01 /22/meloni-I-don’t-accept-lessons-from-anyone-I-decide-at-the-last-time-whether-to-run-for-the-European elections-it-is-important-to-measure-the-consensus-c4562a7f-c3b7-45bf-ac4b-7d22e13dcd55/.”Then – continued Meloni – I made a move because the pandoro story was in the news, but it is the left that went out of its way to defend and created a political case, as if I had attacked Che Guevara”.
“No Italian lessons from whoever put the Fiat up for sale”
“The front page of Repubblica made me smile: Italy is for sale. Everything is nice, but that this accusation – the Prime Minister remarked – comes from the newspaper owned by those who took Fiat and sold it to the French , who have transferred their fiscal and legal headquarters abroad, have put the sites of our historic Italian companies up for sale on real estate sites… I don’t know if the title was an autobiography, but the lessons of protecting Italianness from these pulpits no.”
European elections: “I decide at the last minute whether to run”
“Let’s see, let’s see.” This is how the prime minister responded to Porro on his candidacy for the European elections. “I get along like this because I haven’t decided, I think I’ll decide at the last minute, when the lists are formed – he replied to Nicola Porro -. Imagine if I don’t consider it important to compete with the consensus of the citizens. It’s the only thing that matters to me. Citizens who were to vote for a Meloni who is running for office in Europe know that she won’t go, this does not change the fact that if they want to confirm or confirm a consensus, that too is democracy. It might be important for me to check whether I still have that consent.”
“Privatizations? 20 billion can be done in three years”
“We foresee – concluded Meloni – in the economic budget document 20 billion in 3 years” from privatisations, “a job that can be done with seriousness as I imagine it: we can sell some shares of public companies without compromising public control, and in some companies entirely owned by the State we can sell minority shares to private individuals. Like Railways? Yes also, it is one of the dossiers on the table. The State always maintains control when control is fundamental”.