Regionals of Lazio, center-right gathered for Rocca. Meloni: “The state does not deal with those who threaten it”. But Tajani distances himself from the premier on Delmastro: “Forza Italia has never raised its tone”
ROME. A week after the vote for the regional elections, all the leaders of the centre-right met today in Rome to support the candidacy of Francesco Rocca as president. “We will win the government’s challenge – says Silvio Berlusconi, in his video message -. Forza Italia will be there, and it will be decisive not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of politics ». But at the Conciliazione Auditorium, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, distances himself from Meloni by commenting on the Donzelli-Delmastro case. And referring to yesterday’s appeal by the premier, he sends back to the sender the appeal to the majority and the opposition: “We at Forza Italia have never raised the tone”. On the contrary: “I believe that the Donzelli-Delmastro case should be closed: there is a grand jury in the Chamber that will have to decide whether there has been any misconduct or not”. «We at Forza Italia – he continues – work for the unity of the government and to give concrete answers. We have to worry about that.”
The entire staff of the centre-right is in the audience. The center-right candidate for the presidency of the Lazio Region is sitting in the front row between the prime minister and the defense minister, Guido Crosetto. From Tajani to Salvini, the government ministers were present, some of whom followed one another on stage for the speeches. Giovanni Donzelli, the Fdi deputy who ended up in the storm for the Cospito case, was also in the audience.
Meloni’s message
“The Italians hope that we will get our hands on the incrustations of this nation, we will free up energy, we will give Italy the chances it deserves, we will make the reforms that have not been able to make”, says Giorgia Meloni speaking at the event. «We are aware that we will have to fight against many resistances, we will bear many low blows. We intend to do it without being conditioned », she assures. From the audience someone shouts: “Don’t lower your head”, she replies in Roman dialect: “Don’t worry”.
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Antonio Bravetti
In life, says the premier, «you need courage, and that was our watchword 10 years ago. Without fear of challenging something that was much bigger than us. This is exactly what we have to do today: we have kept our commitments by securing the Italian right, creating a modern right, capable of looking forward and not backwards. Without ever lowering your head, or becoming something different». If the Italians have entrusted you and the Brothers of Italy with the government of this nation «it is because we have done something that no one thought possible. We know it won’t be easy, that we will have to fight with many resistances, dodge traps, lies, low blows and that we will have to do it without ever letting ourselves be conditioned, without losing sight of the objective».
Space on hot topics, not just justice. «Some say that Italy is isolated, very isolated, a tragedy… But it is not possible to isolate Italy, it is the founder of the EU, of NATO, in the G7, one of the richest nations in the world. But now we are aware of her centrality ». On basic income: “There are no Italians who want to work laying the optical fiber: I understand that, but if you don’t want to do it, if you don’t want to work, you can’t take the state’s money”. «We will do everything possible to put those people in a position to work, promoting growth and encouraging new hires – he guarantees -. But between the basic income and stealing, there is the first option to go to work ». On migrants: “If you save someone you save them immediately, if you keep them on board for ten days waiting for a port, you take the ferry, you don’t save people”.
On the Cospito case and the anarchists, the prime minister reiterates that “we are not negotiating with those who threaten the state”, just as “we are not negotiating with the Mafia”. She guaranteed yes, but “the sentences must be served when they have become final”. The government? The premier uses a “family” metaphor: “You haven’t changed your mind to please your child if you knew it wasn’t right to do so: you made the right choices so that the family doesn’t spend money on less necessary things. I believe that the nation should be governed like this: if you have a short horizon, you look to consensus, if you have a long horizon, the answers will come in five years, because we will still be there. And I will see the data on GDP and employment. Then the real consensus will also arrive, not ephemeral with easy measures ».
2023 “must be the year of great reforms”. Meloni underlines: «We are still at the beginning, I say this to all the members of the government. We will give this nation a reform of the institutions that allows it to have governments chosen by the citizens and lasting”. Returning to the Cospito theme: “We will carry out a justice reform that guarantees certainty of the law and of punishment”. In five years “we will still be here, I will not look at the consensus but at the GDP data, the employment data, the ability we have had to improve the overall condition of this nation”.
The conclusion of the speech is obviously dedicated to the candidate for president of the Lazio Region: «As Brothers of Italy – he says – we had important personalities in Lazio, but we chose Rocca because he is an Italian excellence known throughout the world: he is the first Italian who managed to become president of the largest voluntary association in the world. He dialogued with the world’s greatest leaders, he sat down at the UN because he decided to devote himself to volunteering. It was attacked on his past: as a young man he made mistakes, fell, then got back on his feet. There is huge hypocrisy that he is being attacked for his story by the same people who tell us hard prison is too hard. But his story shows that people can change.”
Bonaccini’s reply from the Pd assembly
While the premier still speaks from the stage of the Auditorium, Stefano Bonaccini, at the assembly of the Democratic Party at the Pietralata wool mill in Rome, replies live to her speech: «President Meloni, with her speech, assumed the responsibility of defending the indefensible and it is in my opinion a serious mistake and a gesture of political weakness. Because the Constitution prescribes discipline and honor for those who hold institutional positions and there is no doubt that Undersecretary Delmastro has shown neither discipline nor honor».
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