Meloni against Conte. The League is a case – Corriere.it

It’s a non-stop back and forth. The Five Stars accuse her, the Democratic Party raises its voice, lists the alleged disasters of its first months of government. About the war, about the position in Europe, about the drought. They raise their voices, she does the same and bluntly. On Ukraine “you are making irresponsible propaganda on the skin of a sovereign population”.

The slip

The most heated debate, at times fiery, has been staged in the Chamber since Giorgia Meloni took office. During the day you had an interview with the Polish prime minister and the usual lunch at the Quirinale with a small group of ministers, this morning you will see the UN secretary general before the start of the European Council. But on the eve of the appointment in Brussels, the maximum degree of incommunicability between the majority and the opposition is recorded. Giuseppe Conte spends the hardest words: “I must admit that you put your face on it, but it is a bronze face”, like the one you yesterday in the Senate “said to put on arms” to be sent to Ukraine . For Conte this government is contributing “to bring the world closer to a nuclear war”. You accused him, the day before, of having dealt with Merkel, when he was prime minister, with “tones for which I would rather have preferred to resign”. There is not a single point of contact between the two. They ask him if he is angry about what she said: “But not even in a dream, it was I who brought the 200 billion from the Pnrr to Italy”. Yet he recorded a moment of weariness, a slip of the tongue during her speech, the Matteotti crime as the first violent act in the rise of fascism which becomes the «Andreotti crime».

Empty benches

There is also a case involving the League. When the debate begins, the government benches are devoid of members of Salvini’s party. For Carlo Calenda “they are already in crisis”. The League is pushing the hardest for a reflection on sending arms to Kiev. But what appears to be a political anomaly soon deflates. When he begins his communications there is not a single minister on the benches of the government. This is not unprecedented and probably not even intended.

Drought

The fact is that the Northern League are not there even when the others arrive. They realize it and run for cover. Matteo Salvini posts photos of the work table at the Ministry of Transport for road safety. As if to say: I could not miss that meeting. And Minister Valditara makes his appearance in the Chamber. Then Calderoli arrives too. Meloni’s reply to the accusations made against her is scathing on several occasions: “I’ve heard a large amount of false things and I consider it good news” because “when there is a need to say things that are not true, obviously there is no a lot to say about what is real.’ However, they insist from the Five Stars: when Conte was prime minister, she accused him of “betrayal” against the country, she was always the one who rowed and voted against the Pnrr, under what title do you appeal today to a different way of opposing? The criticisms also concern the management of the drought emergency, the toughest being Angelo Bonelli of the Greens, who brings two stones from the Adige into the Chamber.

I’m not Moses

«I assume you don’t mean that in five months I dried up the Adige, not even Moses. I’m not Moses, dear Bonelli, thank you for acknowledging these powers in me but I don’t have them». But the “lies” of which Bonelli accuses her, and with him the exponents of the Democratic Party and the Five Stars, are many and she replies by overturning those accusations: “Telling that we let children die in the Mediterranean is a slander not only by the government but in towards the Italian state, the men and women of the forces of order, our entire system”. Meloni instead claims to have saved, during his government, many more refugees and immigrants than in past years, “beyond the demeaning comments on whether or not I am a mother and I act like a mother or not” to “colleagues consequence of this debate: since the beginning of my mandate, Italy has saved 36,500 people at sea”.

Lies

Today in Brussels Meloni will ask the European Commission for concreteness, steps forward in the operational responses that have been promised. On top of the short-term objectives, the Italian government has the release of IMF aid to Tunisia and a financial agreement with Egypt, along the lines of what the EU did with Turkey years ago. That is, putting several billion euros on the plate. If action is not taken immediately on both fronts, there is a risk of “a flow” of migrants that “no one could govern”. More sparks on the ecological transition of the car market. Here is “another lie from President Meloni – continues Bonelli – according to her we should still go by horse-drawn buggy”. The premier’s reply is once again clear-cut, “we agree on the objectives that the EU has set itself, but not at the cost of destroying our production system”. Today in Brussels, Ukraine will be the first point. In Rome, Gianni Alemanno manages to get all the parties around a table, except FdI: the reflection is on the suspension of the shipment of arms to Kiev.