ROME. You arrive in the Senate, sidetrack the reporters to avoid overscheduling. This time no jokes or rash phrases, Silvio Berlusconi enters Palazzo Madama shortly before Giorgia Meloni’s reply. During the speech of the new premier, he carefully reviews the sheets with the speech that he will give shortly thereafter. He hints at some applause here and there and nods conspicuously when Meloni remembers the lack of European sovereignty of raw materials. The only passage of Meloni that really involves him is the attack on the “politicized judiciary” and on the senator of the M5S Roberto Scarpinato.
He begins his speech like this: “I have many things to say.” The FdI senators look at each other worried, “what do you have in mind?”. Fears misplaced this time. At the end of the session, when the trust had not yet been voted, Meloni got up from her desk and went to thank Berlusconi. The premier can breathe a sigh of relief: the Knight more than a thorn in her side has played the role of the noble father. The wait for the Forza Italia leader’s first speech in the Senate, nine years after his forfeiture, resulted in concern. The last time he was around here, the show about Russia and ministers bothered “Mrs. Meloni”, as he calls her in private.
The frustrations, however, were put aside and in the Chamber there were only words of openness towards the premier: “Among the last ones this is her best speech,” says the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida. The only unscheduled intervention, filed down to the last, was the debut: «I’m very happy, three hours ago I had my seventeenth grandchild». The joy for the birth of Luigi’s son is mixed with that for the start of a government of which he feels he is the founder: «This is possible because a plural coalition was born 28 years ago». Forza Italia, despite the discontent, remains well within the coalition: “We will work with loyalty and with a constructive spirit, to carry out our program”.