Added to the injury is the insult. After the case involving former president Vito Petrocelli, the M5s loses the presidency of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Senate. The new president is Stephanie Craxi, daughter of the former socialist secretary Bettino Craxi. There were 12 votes in favor, 9 votes went to the grillino Ettore Licheri, the former group leader of Palazzo Madama, and one abstention. The tip of the scales were the votes of the mixed group. Forza Italia thus obtains, for the first time, the presidency of a commission at Palazzo Madama. Another important defeat for the pentastellati.
Thus what should have been a simple handover - in an extremely delicate international situation and less than a year from the end of the legislature - turns into a clamorous defeat for the Movement, divided internally on many issues, starting from sending of arms in Ukraine.
Petrocelli case: the pro-Putin senator
But let's take a step back. The senator, who wished "happy liberation day" using the Z symbol of the Russian troops, has been at the center of controversy for months but had no intention of leaving his seat. But given that the chairman of the commission by procedure is not distrusted, it took a long journey up to the mass divestments. All but two of the commissioners (Petrocelli and Emanuele Dessì of the Communist Party) have resigned and Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, president of the Senate, has practically eliminated the body and has asked the parliamentary groups to indicate the names of the new members. So the pentastellati bet on Licheri, knowing they didn't have the numbers, instead of on Simona Nocerino, however considered too close to Luigi di Maio. But the choice was fatal, because it pushed the centre-right to turn towards Craxi. Then the secrecy of the polls did the rest.
M5S loses its seat: Conte's wrath
Giuseppe Conte, enraged by the failure to appoint his candidate, would have convened an extraordinary national council "to understand the dynamics that led the Movement to lose the presidency of the commission". The fibrillations within the Movement are intensifying but the repercussions will be much greater.
Stefania Craxi promoted with full marks
"I've never had a question of positions," said Craxi after the appointment. "We must immediately give clear signals: there is a war going on, we must use the necessary hardness to lead to a dialogue, the commission will give signals in this sense".
Daughter of the former Prime Minister Bettino, Craxi was elected to the Chamber in 2006 on the Forza Italia lists, being re-elected to the 2008 political elections with Il Popolo della Liberta. She was a former deputy and landed in the Senate in 2018, she was vice president of the Foreign Affairs commission until the previous composition. Under the fourth Berlusconi government you were appointed undersecretary for foreign affairs, a position you held from 2008 to 2011.
