Government, from Balboni to Barelli: Cdm's approval of new undersecretaries

White smoke on the undersecretaries, black smoke on Consob. While from Terna, after Giorgia Meloni's warning, comes the news that Giuseppina Di Foggia has made herself available to renounce her severance pay, a prerequisite for taking up the new post of president of Eni. Excited hours remain for the government, not only for the casus of the security decree.

In the Council of Ministers, the sub-government game has been closed, filling the vacancies after the latest releases related to the post-referendum repulisti that affected FdI as much as Forza Italia. But it is still a tug-of-war over the succession at Consob.

The executive approved the appointments of five undersecretaries: Paolo Barelli (former leader of the Azzurri group in the Chamber of Deputies) will go to Parliamentary Relations, Mara Bizzotto will replace her Leghist colleague Massimo Bitonci at Mimit, and Massimo Dell'Utri (Noi Moderati) will go to the Foreign Ministry to take over the role of Giorgio Silli, who left to become secretary of Iila (the Italo-Latin American Organisation).

The premier then chose the two names from Fratelli d'Italia to be included in the government team: they are Alberto Balboni, current president of the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee, who will go to Justice in place of Andrea Delmastro. And Giampiero Cannella, deputy mayor of Palermo, promoted as undersecretary for Culture for a geographical rebalancing of the government team.

On the other hand, the question of the succession to Paolo Savona at the Consob remains open. "We are not discussing it," the Prime Minister cuts the question short when asked if the reservation on Federico Freni, indicated by the League since the beginning of the year, could be lifted. "I continue to believe that he is the best profile," insists Matteo Salvini instead - who has a brief exchange of greetings with Meloni, complete with a photo of them embracing and smiling, at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. But the current undersecretary at the Mef has never been a favourite with Forza Italia and even at Palazzo Chigi, majority circles reason that there are questions about his potential conflict of interest, given that Freni was the author of the reform of the Testo Unico della Finanza. His appointment would arouse perplexity even beyond politics, as testified by the trade union of the authority's workers (Sibic-Fisav), which stresses that the president's independence is 'central' and calls for the Frattini and Severino laws and also European regulations to be applied 'rigorously and consistently'.