The Meloni government passes its first examination in Parliament after a long day that began at 11 in the morning with programmatic statements of the Premier. The Chamber voted for confidence to the Executive with 235 votes in favor and 154 against. Five abstentions. 389 out of 400 deputies voted.
Tomorrow it's the turn of the Senate, where the session will begin at 13. The reply from the Prime Minister is scheduled for 16.30, while the vote of confidence will begin again around 19.
Meloni's reply to the Chamber
Premier Meloni began her afternoon reply to the Chamber by addressing directly to oppositions: “The only thing I ask is to be judged for what I really say, think and do. I want to say to you that I find their criticisms useful”. “I think there was in some cases a skewed reading or maybe I misunderstood,” she said.
Sul Pnrr, the Prime Minister clarified: "I don't know that we have ever rowed against Next GenerationEu and Pnrr". “It has been said that when the Next Generation EU and the Pnrr were born, there were those who fought against it. I don't understand. I understand that we have supported the issuance of common debt to face the pandemic crisis. We never voted against that mechanism, we abstained when the 370 pages pledging 250 billion euros arrived in the Chamber an hour after the start of the debate", continued Meloni, stating that "the resources of the Pnrr were distributed on macroeconomic data, it's not money that comes from the sky, it's in debt. For this they must be spent effectively. It is wrong to say that nothing must be touched, otherwise the races will be deserted".
Responding to the words of the deputy Debora Serracchiani (president of the Democratic Party), Meloni said: "I have heard that I would like women one step behind the men: look at me Mr Serracchiani do you think I'm one step behind the men? Do not doubt, Italian women do not doubt: they definitely have nothing to fear with this government and, President, I say it to the opposition: I am convinced that in their hearts they do not think so either ".
"This morning I spoke about work, welfare but I also spoke about the family and the birth rate because I consider it a defeat that a woman has to give up the birth rate to have a job but also has to give up having a child to work - added the prime minister - I it seems like a way to ensure full freedom, it's a challenge I hope we agree on. I ask for concrete and real freedom, knowing that I am a mother and privileged, but if it is difficult for me to keep everyone together, let alone for those who do not have my privileges".
Speaking of the citizen's income, the premier said: “I have heard that we consider the recipients of the Citizenship Income guilty. I have never considered Income earners a problem, I have sometimes considered a problem a political class that was content to keep people in difficulty in that difficulty in order to make us electoral cash. It is necessary to think about a system that has had problems and does not work. It's yesterday's news, a navigator does on average no more than one job interview a day. Inadequate responses are the problem."
Moving on to the topic immigration Meloni replied: “For years we have been told that mass illegal immigration not controlled by adequate flows was needed because immigrants would have done jobs that Italians did not want to do. I think that if you welcome someone into the community it's not to be a second-class worker but to give them the same life you want to give to Italian citizens. This is the reason why flows must be governed, without prejudice to the issue of asylum. I reiterate that there is absolutely no will to question the right of asylum sacred to me, absolutely. Let's talk about unmanaged immigration in recent years, someone has considered solidarity to let hundreds of thousands of people enter Italy and then not face the problem that many ended up peddling on the streets or in the hands of prostitution. This happens when flows are not managed”.
Finally, responding to those who asked her to make a clear choice about Europe, Meloni said: “I don't have to make any choice. My choice is always and only to defend the Italian interest, I'll never be anyone's cheerleader".
The allegations of the opposition
“We will be against his presidential design,” said the Pd secretary, Enrico Letta, in the explanations of vote in the House on confidence in the government. "The entire center-right coalition was voted for by one voter out of 4 of those entitled, you do not have a majority of citizens". Then the attack on the taxman: “we understood just one word: amnesties. He won't find us." “We have not understood what you will do in the coming months – added Letta – We have not understood what will happen to the bills of the Italians, on the issue of decoupling and the gas ceiling we have not understood what will happen. We have not understood anything about what the budget law will be ”. Finally, speaking of the pandemic, the secretary of the Democratic Party said: “What scares us is concreteness and not identity. We are frightened by the concreteness where we saw it in his speech, in the creepy passage I heard about covid and health. We are proud to have Minister Roberto Speranza in our group”.
“I saw her as very strong-willed and self-confident, but I would advise caution. We are ready to denounce your inconsistencies and inadequacies. Ours will be a solid and punctual opposition, anchored to the needs of the citizens, for this reason it will be implacable and intransigent", said the president of the M5s, Giuseppe Conte, who then addressing the Premier directly asked: “You have never mentioned the only way out: Peace. Does it remind you of anything?" Finally, a dig at the past: “The most evident sign of continuity with the Draghi government is the ministry of the economy in Giorgetti. This explains the soft opposition to the outgoing government, isn't it that in the end Draghi wants to write the agenda?”.
“Giorgia Meloni's speech is an endless shopping list seasoned with tons of rhetoric but no trace of 'how' to do things. No choice or idea of country. It's all a 'but also'. It looked like an intervention by Conte, rather than a sovereign revolution. A mortal bore. Other than democratic alarm, here there is a concrete risk of floating. Vague hints on energy policy, little or nothing on education, culture and health. Good on Rdc and Italy's international positioning. Nice part about women. The rest is crap." This is the comment written on Twitter in the afternoon by the leader of Action-IV Charles Calenda.
In the classroom, the group leader of Action-IV in the Chamber, Matthew Richetti, he added: "Our position is very clear: if you look reality in the face, if you look showing attention to those problems that reach more into the living flesh of citizens, then you will find an opposition that will unambiguously try to improve your answers . If you continue to govern as in the electoral campaign – he added – then you will find us in that case always in opposition, but using every means possible to prevent you from compromising the future of our country and of our generations who watch and judge us”.
Meloni's speech was also commented on by the president of Confindustria, Carlo Bonomi and by the number one of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini. The former, speaking on Tg1, "first and foremost greatly appreciated having reaffirmed Italy's international position, therefore in Europe and atlantist, and we particularly appreciated the fact that we also focused on the theme of work at 360 degrees, a theme on which I think the country must make some great reflections in the coming months. And it is obvious that we agree that without industry there is no Italy, but we are not saying this for a corporate issue, the numbers say so”.
Landini instead he asked the Government to open a discussion on essential issues such as a tax reform that increases the net payroll of employees and the income of pensioners, but also addresses the issue of precariousness. This was stated by the secretary general of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini in an interview with Rainews24, underlining that in the speech to the Chamber of Giorgia Meloni there was consistency with what was said in the electoral campaign. "I have not heard of taxation of extra profits - he said - of intervention on bills, of a real tax reform that increases the net payroll".
