The case

Meloni at Colle after FdI-Quirinale controversy: "Institutional harmony but Garofani's words inappropriate"

Galeazzo Bignami, leader of the Fratelli d'Italia group in the Chamber of Deputies, had asked La Verità to deny an article entitled 'The Quirinale's plan to stop Meloni', according to which advisers to the Head of State 'would like to take action against President Giorgia Meloni'. Fazzolari: from Fdi and Chigi never doubted Mattarella's loyalty

by Rome Editorial Staff

18 November 2025Aggiornato il 19 novembre 2025 alle ore 14,28

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Meloni to Mattarella: Garofani's words inappropriate
Meloni at the Hill to emphasise that there is no clash
Bignami: Hill councillors against Meloni? Deny it,
The Truth article
Belpietro in Quirinal: I confirm what was written, ridiculous is only attempt to silence
Pd: Bignami's words unacceptable, Meloni distances herself
Bignami (Fdi), my words not against Quirinale but aimed at advisor
Fazzolari: from Fdi and Chigi never doubts Mattarella's loyalty

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni went to the Quirinale in the morning for a meeting with President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The meeting was preceded by a phone call from the Prime Minister to the Head of State in which he had asked the President to meet. A request immediately accepted by Mattarella.

Meloni to Mattarella: Garofani's words inappropriate

Meloni has expressed her regret to Head of State Sergio Mattarella for the institutionally and politically inappropriate words uttered in a public context by Counselor Francesco Saverio Garofani and reported yesterday by a well-known Italian newspaper. This was reported by Palazzo Chigi sources after the conversation between the two at the Quirinale. Meloni, the same sources report, considered that the request for denial formulated by Mr Bignami was not an attack on the Quirinale, but, on the contrary, a way of circumscribing the affair to its real context, also to protect the Quirinale. It was the relative majority party's intention to intervene in order to dispel any hypothesis of a clash between two institutions that instead work together for the good of the Nation. It was felt that it was up to the person directly concerned, i.e. Councillor Garofani, to clarify, to bring the matter to an immediate close.

Meloni at the Hill to emphasise that there is no clash

It is the Prime Minister's intention, with his visit to the Head of State, to emphasise that there is no institutional clash. This was reported by Palazzo Chigi sources at the end of the face-to-face meeting at the Quirinale between Sergio Mattarella and Giorgia Meloni. What is more, Meloni's visit to the Hill served to reaffirm the institutional harmony that exists between Palazzo Chigi and the Quirinale, which has never failed since this government took office and which no one has ever doubted.

What happened on 18 November

Galeazzo Bignami, leader of Fratelli d'Italia's group in the Chamber of Deputies, asks the Presidency of the Republic to deny the news published by La Verità in an article titled "The Quirinale's plan to stop Meloni", according to which advisors of the Head of State, he says, "would like to take action against the President Giorgia Meloni and the centre-right, also expressing judgments of inadequacy against the current government majority'.

"In particular," adds the leader of the Prime Minister's party, "The Truth reports in a circumstantiated manner of conversations in which this person would hope for the formation of alternative coalitions such as 'a large national civic list'" with the declared intention of preventing a victory of the centre-right and Giorgia Meloni at the next political elections. Projects that would even go as far as hoping for a 'providential shake-up' against the current government,' Bignami stressed. "We trust that these reconstructions will be denied without delay in deference to the respect that is due for the important role played by otherwise having to deduce their validity," Bignami's request.

Stupor from the Quirinal over Bignami's words: it borders on the ridiculous

The Quirinale replied with a dry note in which 'we are astonished by the statement of the group leader in the Chamber of Deputies of the relative majority party, which seems to give credence to yet another attack on the Presidency of the Republic that borders on the ridiculous'.

The Truth article

The article in La Verità, signed by the editor Maurizio Belpietro, points to Francesco Saverio Garofani, a former PD parliamentarian, as one of Mattarella's 'advisors who are apparently agitating in the hope of tripping Giorgia Meloni and preventing her from reaching the end of her term and running again in 2027'.

'There are those who have gone so far as to imagine a moderate centre-left candidate in an attempt to repeat the success of 1996 with Prodi,' Belpietro writes. - The operation, regardless of who should lead it, would, however, pass through the break-up of the centre-right coalition to bring a centrist party into the arms of the comrades'.

Apparently,' Belpietro continues, 'there is talk of 'a large national civic list', a re-edition of the Ulivo. But this may not be enough and so Mattarella's advisor, Francesco Saverio Garofani, invokes providence: 'A year and a half is not enough to find someone to beat the centre-right, it would take a providential shake-up,' whispers the man from the Hill,' Belpietro concludes.

Belpietro: I confirm what was written, what is ridiculous is only the attempt to silence

After the Quirinale's note this is Maurizio Belpietro's reply: "I confirm word for word what was published today by Verità. What is ridiculous in this affair is only the clumsy attempt to silence disturbing statements made by an advisor to the President of the Republic'.

Opposition against FdI, "intimidation" and "mud" on the Hill

The controversy mounts, with the oppositions on the attack. Pd, M5s and Avs in the Chamber are demanding an urgent briefing from the premier Giorgia Meloni after the words of FdI group leader Galeazzo Bignami. "Unacceptable words towards the presidency of the Republic - attacks the Dem group leader Chiara Braga - We ask Meloni to account for the words of her group leader and to distance herself from statements that risk generating an unprecedented conflict". And again: 'The main majority party throws mud at the Quirinal'. The M5s Vittoria Baldino speaks of 'an intimidating act against Mattarella as well'. Action also expresses solidarity with Mattarella

Fazzolari: from Fdi and Chigi never doubts Mattarella's loyalty

In the controversy, Giovanbattista Fazzolari, Meloni's right-hand man, intervened to say that 'neither Fdi nor Palazzo Chigi have ever doubted the institutional loyalty of President Mattarella, with whom the government has always spoken in a spirit of total cooperation, not least on important international dossiers, from Ukraine to the Middle East. In fact, Bignami did not in any way refer to the Quirinale nor did he address the President of the Republic in a disrespectful manner, but simply pointed out that a denial by councillor Garofani for the statements attributed to him by the newspaper La Verità would have been appropriate. A denial that would have nipped any kind of controversy in the bud'.

Garofani: I'm bitter, it was just talk among friends

'I am very bitter, for me and for my family. I am frightened by the violence of the attack and what hurts is the impression that it was used to hit the president,' Garofani said in an interview with Corriere della Sera. Mattarella, Garofani reports, immediately reassured him: 'He was very affectionate, he told me "stay calm, don't get upset"'. Garofani says he is convinced that 'I have demonstrated with facts my absolute respect for the institutions, in all the roles I have held' and explains: 'It was a free chat between friends'. The councillor is convinced that he 'has never made any out-of-place statements, never any grandstanding'. He reveals that he has 'read and reread Belpietro, without understanding what the plot would consist of'. He assures that his 'compass' is loyalty: 'Ever since the president did me the honour of calling me to collaborate with him, I have always been at his service, at the service of the institution'. Asked about a possible party membership, he replies: 'I have not been in politics since 2018, I have not been a member since I left Parliament'.