The Def passes to the Chamber after yesterday’s slip. Giorgetti: “she went well”

After the slip, the patch. The go-ahead for the Def comes from the Chamber: the majority resolution passes with 221 votes in favor, while 116 were against. “I have no words”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had leaked from London, enraged by yesterday’s debacle, when the government did not reach an absolute majority, making the vote that would have authorized the budget variance in vain. The rebuke is served: this morning in Montecitorio everyone was there, a full hall on Friday, big names among government benches and undersecretaries in the front row.

On the other hand, this morning the newspapers were full of statements by members of the same majority, who agreed in judging yesterday’s episode as an episode to be overcome as soon as possible. “The compactness of the executive is not in question, but it wasn’t a good scene”, the sense of their words. A reading that was found in the sad face of Luca Ciriani, the Minister for Relations with Parliament, who has been accused of a lack of activism, so to speak, in closing ranks and informing parliamentarians of the importance of the vote. In short, it is no coincidence that the group leader of the Brothers of Italy Thomas Foti he apologized to the Italians and to Meloni” in his speech, before tensions broke out between the benches.

“In the Chamber it went well but outside, where people work and produce, it went better. Now the Senate is missing, I think you learn from mistakes.” Giancarlo Giorgetti commented instead, with a much different look than 24 hours ago. The Economy Minister was among the most irritated yesterday by the outcome of the vote. “They don’t know or don’t realize”, the message delivered to the parliamentarians. Today he rejoices, recalling that Istat projections for 2023 estimate GDP growth of 1.8 percent. “We take our share of responsibility but there is no crisis, no message that we wanted to give to some ministers”, underlined the group leader of the Carroccio, Riccardo Molinari, thanking Giorgetti himself. The most substantial defections yesterday, eleven, were precisely those from the Northern League. The declarations of Paolo Barelli are also of the same sign: “The center-right is united”, said the leader of Forza Italia, absent yesterday together with other deputies

But the morning in Montecitorio was far from simple. First Angelo Bonelli felt ill and was rescued by the doctors of Montecitorio. Then, above all, the session was marked by mutual accusations between the majority and the opposition, with the Speaker of the Chamber Lorenzo Fonatana forced to suspend the session due to protests during Foti’s statement. “If we want to see who made the bridge on April 25, I advise the opposition to also look among its benches, because there is a common sense of responsibility”, attacked the Melonian deputy. And again: “Whoever comes to give us lessons in institutions coincidentally just yesterday chose the Aventino in the Justice Commission only because undersecretary Delmastro had presented himself in full function”.

Words that have provoked vehement protests from the opposition, from the Democratic Party in particular. In the explanation of vote, Chiara Braga had accused the government of “having no respect for Parliament. You have decided not to extend the long weekend of May 1st, but that of April 25th. Perhaps to understand how to celebrate it”.

Thus, during Foti’s speech, various democratic exponents left the session, while some parliamentarians almost risked coming to blows. “I went down to the Chamber and told Foti that they were wrong, they are the ones who exaggerated”, explained the dem Nico Stumpo. Arturo Scotto adds: “It has never happened that the majority party said to the opposition ‘out, out’. They chanted in the courtroom, never happened”.

After the Chamber, in the afternoon the Senate will have to express itself on the Def, for the definitive pass to the report: a fundamental step in the government’s plan, which on Sunday will meet the unions in view of the CDM convened on May 1st in which interventions will be made on work, tax wedge and basic income.