A bit of a balance sheet for the past, a bit of a program for the future, but without any sensational announcements apart from the confirmation of the extension of the Zes to the whole of Italy. The rally with which Giorgia Meloni celebrates the longevity record of her government in Bari is in fact the first step in the long electoral campaign. "There were days when I felt like I was swimming in glue but I never gave up and I don't intend to do so now", the warning from the prime minister, who for an hour on stage launches attacks on the "left that uses anti-fascism as a weapon of mass distraction" and one on the magistrates who, like the Turin investigating judge in the case of violence against a 13-year-old, "breaks the chain of work" for safety.
Those expecting a long-distance challenge with Roberto Vannacci are partially disappointed. No explicit reference, but Meloni implicitly responds to him when he dedicates a memory to Lorena Isceri, pointing out that "in femicide there is an aggravating circumstance: a woman is killed because she dares to be free, it is not Christian". On the dossiers on which the general beats the most, there are many claims, starting with migrants ("First in the EU they called us extremists, now they copy us"), and commitments, including against "fundamentalist propaganda".
'I was there', we read on the pass of the militants (about 10 thousand according to the organisers) who arrived from all over Italy. We'll see if it will be a historic rally, in the meantime it marks Meloni's first real relaunch just under six months after his defeat in the referendum and a year, a little more or a little less, we'll see from the next elections. On stage Maurizio Lupi claims the "victory of democracy" over preferences, in video link Matteo Salvini remembers Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi, "two giants of the centre-right who celebrate the government's record from up there", and Antonio Tajani assures that "there is no alternative to the centre-right government".
Then, as sunset falls over the port of Bari, here is Meloni. The attitude quickly becomes combative. "I say to our ruling class that we must do more and better, but to those who intend to hinder us I say 'make yourself comfortable, you don't understand who you are dealing with'". Once again it marks the distance between the centre-right "together to build ideas" and the opponents "united only to beat us". The goal "is an Italy that no longer asks anyone for permission".
And he defends the electoral reform: "Whoever wins has the numbers to govern for 5 years, no reversals or palace governments as the Democratic Party would like this time too, no compromises but governments chosen by the citizens." The list of demands is long, starting from the accounts kept "in order because we are patriots", interrupted only to answer a phone call: "Sorry, it was my daughter, she called three times".
His is a praise of stability, which "has not been a quirk but a shield" in almost four years full of international crises and internal emergencies. Stability "is the first major reform", he underlines. Of those envisaged in the program, only differentiated autonomy remains, and in the speech there are no references to the lost referendum on justice nor to the premiership. Ukraine was also never mentioned. And the passage on defense spending is also well calibrated.
"I know it has a cost to say it but I am a serious politician, we cannot afford to leave our nation exposed: security is the precondition for freedom to exist", is the line of the Prime Minister, who receives congratulations from various international leaders, from the Indian Narendra Modi to the Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte. No messages are communicated from Washington, while Meloni has decided not to participate in the UN General Assembly in New York in a couple of weeks, where as always Foreign Minister Tajani will be there.
The focus has long been on internal dossiers and visits to Italy (on Friday 11 September he will be in Vercelli for the International Rice Festival). The most pressing issue is the high cost of fuel, and the Prime Minister confirms that the time for excise duty cuts is over: "Other measures are on the way, but this time targeted: we cannot afford to spend money to give it to those who don't need it or come to get petrol from France".
'We intend to increase the share of oil that can be extracted from our seas, because it makes no sense to go and buy oil in Qatar if we have it in Basilicata', the prime minister then announces. There is also the former Ilva, a hot topic in Puglia: "We protect health but also industrial heritage". And then the safety chapter. "I know that more is expected from us but I repeat that the whole chain must work."
Meloni answers the phone during the rally: 'Sorry, it was my daughter'
"Sorry, she was my daughter." This is how the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, apologized after interrupting for a few moments the long rally from the stage in the port of Bari, at the Fratelli d'Italia event to celebrate the record of the longest-serving executive of the Republic. "He called three times," he added after answering his cell phone and whispering a few words to say 'I'll call you back'.
