Ignazio La Russa is the new President of the Senate. The senator of the Brothers of Italy obtained 116 votes in favor of the first possible vote, but the signals coming from Palazzo Madama are far from reassuring for the future majority, with Forza Italia who did not participate in the vote (except for Silvio Berlusconi and Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati), throwing a clear message to Giorgia Meloni: the party will have to have weight within the Government, otherwise the life of the future Premier at Palazzo Chigi will be anything but simple. In the meantime, the road for the election of the new Speaker of the Chamber seems to be becoming even more arduous, on which the centre-right has not yet managed to find a definitive agreement.
Wanting to summarize in a few words what is happening in the two Chambers: on the first day of the XIX legislature, the coalition has already begun to show the first signs of a split.
La Russa is the new President of the Senate
116 votes in favour, 2 votes for Liliana Segre, 2 for Roberto Calderoli and 66 blank ballots. It is therefore Ignazio La Russa who succeeds Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati (Forza Italia) in the seat of President of the Senate. Ignazio La Russa he is 75 years old and has already been vice president of the Senate and of the Chamber, as well as defense minister in the Berlusconi IV government. His political career began in 70 with his enrollment in the Msi-Dn. In 94 he joined the National Alliance and in 2012, together with Giorgia Meloni and Guido Crosetto, he was among the founders of the Brothers of Italy.
An absolute majority of the members (at least 104 senators) was required for the election of the second state office. A goal achieved thanks to the opposition aid because, without the votes of Forza Italia (which has Palazzo Madama and is represented by 18 senators, including Berlusconi and Casellati), the numbers would not have been there.
Of the two, that of the President of the Senate seemed to be the "simpler" election and instead Palazzo Madama has turned into a battleground within the center-right in view of the much awaited game of government appointments. By not voting, Forza Italia wanted to make things clear: its votes will be fundamental for the survival of the Government that is about to be born, therefore the party will have to have the "weight it deserves" within the new Executive. A weight that Silvio Berlusconi probably identifies with the Ministry of Justice, which however Meloni would not like to grant him.
And in case anyone didn't quite understand what the Azzurri meant, it was cleared first by Berlusconi's "Go to that country" to La Russa, then by a note in which, after due congratulations to the new President of the Senate , the President of FI remarked: “In a meeting of the Forza Italia group in the Senate it emerged a strong unease for the vetoes expressed these days in reference to the formation of the government. We hope that these vetoes will be overcome, giving way to a loyal and effective collaboration with the other forces of the majority, to quickly restore a government to the country".
Difficult road to the Chamber: the center-right continues to negotiate
If the first internal difficulties of the center-right coalition have already emerged in the Senate, the road seems to be still there more impervious to the Chamber.
After the black smoke in the first vote, two more votes are scheduled for today, one at 14 pm and one at 17 pm. However, it seems unlikely that the new Speaker of the Chamber will be elected today. In both votes the two-thirds majorityi (of the members in the second, of the votes cast in the third), and unless several members of the opposition decide to vote with the centre-right as happened in the Chamber, to have the new President we will have to wait for fourth ballot scheduled for Friday morning, when an absolute majority will suffice. Provided that, in the meantime, Forza Italia decides to return to "milder advice" - perhaps thanks to new negotiations and possible reassurances (and concessions above all) from Meloni - and the League chooses to continue on the path of cooperation, despite also inside the Carroccio the climate is not the best.
According to the agreements reached during the repeated meetings held over the last few days, the presidency of the Chamber should fall to the League. But there is a but, because even this agreement seems to have already fallen apart. Just when the Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia had found the square on the name of the Northern League Richard Molinari, everything has been called into question. According to reports from sources in the League a Republicin fact, the center-right candidate for the presidency of the Chamber will probably not be the outgoing Lega group leader. There are two other hypotheses on the table: Nicola Molteni or Lorenzo Fontana.
Towards the new government
The intention of the center-right was to give a solidity signal, closing the game of Presidencies in a short time to then think about the Government and ministries. However, the signals that arrived in the morning from the two Chambers say exactly the opposite: already on the first day of the new legislature the centre-right parties began to squabble on the armchairs. This time it was Forza Italia that "raised its voice", the next could be the League. What is certain is that without Salvini and Berlusconi Meloni will not have the numbers to govern and the scenes seen today in both Chambers certainly do not represent a reassuring start on the future stability in the new Executive.
In the opposition it is a hunt for rescuers
But if the centre-right cries, the opposition doesn't laugh. The election of La Russa, as mentioned, came thanks to the votes of the opposition, which has already launched a search for rescuers, which should number around twenty.
“While the majority started divided, a part of theopposition provided decisive relief for the election of La Russa as president of the Senate. A serious and irresponsible behavior that must be denounced with the utmost force ”, wrote the senator and coordinator of the Pd secretariat, Marco Meloni on Twitter.
According to Serracchiani, however, those votes would not have come from the senators of the Democratic Party: "Our blank ballots are all there, the extra votes for La Russa certainly do not come from us but mixed, Renzians and maybe some 5 Stars …". Renzi, however, has already rejected the accusations against the sender: “It wasn't us, I would have claimed it with pride. The 9 of us voted blank ballot”.
Liliana Segre's noble speech in the Senate
The first session of the new Legislature was in the Senate chaired by Liliana Segre, as a senior senator who in the course of her opening speech – repeatedly interrupted by the standing ovations of those present – mentioned the march on Rome and the memory of her little girl who from school reached the highest bench of the Senate.
“In this month of October – said the senator for life – in which the centenary of the March on Rome, which started the fascist dictatorship, it is up to someone like me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy which is the Senate of the Republic”. “And the symbolic value – he added – of this casual circumstance is amplified in my mind because, you see, in my day school started in October; and it is impossible for me not to feel a sort of vertigo remembering that the same little girl who, on a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and bewildered, was forced by racist laws to leave his elementary school bench empty, today by a strange fate he finds himself even on the most prestigious bench in the Senate!”.
“In Italy – continued Segre – the main anchorage around which the unity of our people must manifest is the republican constitution, which as Piero Calamandrei said is not a piece of paper, but is the testament of 100.000 dead fallen in the long struggle for freedom; a struggle that did not begin in September 1943 but which he ideally sees as the leader Giacomo Matteotti. The Italian people have always shown a great attachment to their Constitution, they have always felt it a friend”.
“Great nations, then, demonstrate that they are great even by unanimously recognizing themselves in civil holidays, finding themselves united around the anniversaries carved in the great book of the country's history. Why shouldn't it be like this for the Italian people too? Why on earth should they be lived as 'divisive' dates rather than with an authentic republican spirit, on April 25, Liberation Day, May 1st, Labor Day, June 2nd, Republic Day?” concluded Segre.
