Meloni: 'Never had ideological preclusions on Mercosur, yes after obtaining guarantees'

"These are objectively unfounded evaluations, they are market dynamics and we look at market dynamics". This is how Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in the traditional end-of-year press conference, responds to those who ask for a comment on the criticism that the government was not just a bystander in the recent banking risiko.

"My relations with the Quirinale and in particular with the President of the Republic are very good. I often read reconstructions about clashes and difficulties. The President of the Republic and I do not always agree, he has also said so, but if there is one thing that has made a difference it is that the President of the Republic is there when it comes to defending the national interest. And that means everything to me. So said Premier Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference. And reiterating her agreement with Sergio Mattarella, she concluded: 'We always look for solutions and we have always found them'.

"I have never had an ideological bias against Mercosur, I have always posed a pragmatic question that does not only concern Mercosur: the European strategy of over-regulating internally while opening up to free trade agreements is suicidal. I am for free trade agreements but also for deregulation'. The yes to the agreement on Mercosur came 'in the light of guarantees' obtained for our farmers'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at her end-of-year conference. "We could not" say yes to Mercosur "to the detriment of the excellence of our production. In the European 'multi-year financial framework', 'we opened an interlocution with the EU commission and obtained some results for farmers within the agreement'. For example, 'a safeguard mechanism for sensitive products, a compensation fund, a strengthening of incoming phytosanitary controls. We have started negotiations on the EU budget for the CAP' in order to be able to use 'another EUR 45 billion' and to 'not increase fertiliser prices. In light of these guarantees for our farmers, we gave the OK to the agreement. We balanced different interests, those of the farmers and the drive of the industry, which I thank. I explained what the issue was also to Orsini and I saw solidarity, the ability to work together' in a 'sustainable balance, hoping that this agreement will only bring benefits'. (ANSA).

"I think that the task of the state is not to encourage pathways to suicide but is, if anything, to try to minimise the loneliness and difficulties of those with serious illnesses and their families and this is the work that the government is doing with the increase in funding for palliative care and home care and this is what the government is doing with the forthcoming family caregiver bill. I think our task is to combat the loneliness and abandonment that make assisted suicide seen as an option. On the decisions we defer to Parliament," said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at her traditional end-of-year press conference, speaking of an end-of-life law. As for whether she is in favour or not, the premier added: 'Whether I am in favour or not depends on the content, the Senate is dealing with it where there are proposals, there are no government initiatives'.

"I made a list of the responsibilities of magistrates on security issues. Those who have roles of responsibility are called to those responsibilities. The issue of delegitimisation is not there. Delegitimising magistrates is the ANM's campaign in the stations. If someone who has in his DNA the search for truth writes a lie to defend his campaign, this delegitimises it. Just as lies delegitimise politics and journalists. Those who have a role of responsibility are called upon to fulfil it with dignity and honour'. This was said by Premier Giorgia Meloni.

'I don't know why I never propose to go and work with Fiorello for a fee', which 'I would like to do'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this in response to a question on her aspiration of a future on the Hill. "It is enough for me and I am passionate about what I am doing," she added. "If I will still do it" in the next legislature "it will depend on the Italians' vote". Meloni explained that she does not aspire to 'move up a level'. 'I make my own level enough,' she concluded.

"I see no risk for the majority that supports my government. I have been hearing for three years that the majority is at risk. After three years of government we are the most solid government among European democracies. We are called upon to make decisions and it is normal that there is debate, with different positions. We are not barracks but parties that confront each other. But the government's line is clear on international policy, economic policy, security and justice. I am proud of the majority parties and their leaders, of Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini. I do not think there is any risk of fibrillation in the majority, I know that the debate is there and will be there'. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"I would have expected a question about another important scoop, namely the fact that I would have brigaded with the Inland Revenue Agency to have my house listed in a different cadastral class from the one it deserves, you presented this as a great investigation and I am surprised that you do not ask me about it: probably not because it was not a great investigation". So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference, replying to a question from the Domani newspaper on the case of her chief of staff, Gaetano Caputi, a 'scoop' of the newspaper. "Forgive me," she said, addressing the reporter, "but I took the opportunity to respond to one of the many lies and slanderous accusations that I have heard told about me over the past few years. 'Anyone who wanted to do a very, very quick check would have realised that in the neighbourhood where I live outside the ring road there is no house stacked at A8 level, where you think the Inland Revenue should have stacked my house and I would have brigaded to avoid it. There isn't a single one, and there are bigger ones than mine, in the whole of the municipality there are two houses stacked A8 and one is the villa of a famous footballer with tennis courts inside.

"The immigration dossier is the one on which Italy has totally made a difference". Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this when answering the question on which international policy issue Italy now carries more weight, during the traditional end-of-year press conference. She continued: 'I think it escapes anyone's notice that in the last three years Europe's line has been totally overturned: at my first European Council meeting, immigration was not being discussed and there was talk of redistributing illegal migrants that it was impossible to stop. Today, reading the documents that the EU produces on this subject, we talk about the external dimension, border defence, more effective rules for returns. So now the issue is no longer to distribute migrants, but to manage migration policy and to stop it also by working with the countries of transit and origin'. Instead, speaking of the dossiers on which to improve, the premier mentioned the green deal on which "we have obtained important results but I hope we can do more", continuing to favour "a more pragmatic and less ideological approach".

"You can always do better, but the purchasing power of Italians has increased by 20 billion in one year. On wages we work mainly on defiscalisation elements. When Istat gives us the time series it calculates the gross, but most of our measures affect the net wage. Much of the work on the tax wedge, fringe benefits, and productivity bonuses does not appear in that data because it affects the net wage'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at her end-of-year conference. For Meloni 'the issue of wage erosion is extremely important and very old, we have seen a progressive erosion over the decades' and 'they have grown more under this government. Growth is still too low but the scenario is not catastrophic'. The premier also responded on the industrial and automotive crises: in this sector 'the problems are the result of choices that I have contested in particular at European level, which I am working to correct and which are now beginning to be corrected. If it were up to us that problem would have been mitigated'.

"My head of cabinet denounced because he believes he was spied on and on this there is the work of the judiciary that will tell us whether he was spied on or not. I can hardly have spied on him as I am my chief of staff, also because it would mean spying on myself, but you have published sensitive information that, according to my chief of staff, was not available from open sources, so maybe you have something to say to me? This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during the traditional end-of-year press conference, in response to a question by the journalist of the Domani newspaper regarding the news given by the same newspaper according to which the services had spied on the PM's chief of staff, Gaetano Caputi.

'I see no risks for the majority that supports my government'. This was clarified by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her press conference at the start of the year.

"I have been hearing for three years that the majority is in danger" but "after three years of government we are perhaps the most solid government among the great European democracies, among the great European countries. We are the most solid government because we have the most solid majority,' the premier claimed.

With 'Trump on many things I disagree, I think for example that international law must be defended and when the rules are broken we are all much more exposed. When I disagree I tell him. If you talked to my partners you would know it very well too. What is Italy being asked? To distance itself from the US? This is geopolitics and when in geopolitics you take positions then you are consequent". So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at her end-of-year conference. Meloni recalled President Mattarella's speech and the 'guidelines' he indicated: 'the EU and the Atlantic alliance. I look for lights and not shadows in relations with the allies'.

'Growth is still too low, but it is not a catastrophic scenario'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at the press conference organised by the National Council of the Order of Journalists in cooperation with the Parliamentary Press Association, responding to a question on economic growth and wages.

The Prime Minister added that purchasing power has increased over the past year and 'on wages we are working with defiscalisation elements such as the contribution wedge, but this is not the only measure. On the subject of wages, when ISTAT gives us the historical series, what is calculated is the gross but our measures affect the net'.

"At the moment a negotiation phase has been opened but there are not and will not be binding commitments from the government until there are clear answers on a solid industrial plan, employment and environmental safety." This was said by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference talking about the former Ilva. 'No proposal that has a predatory and opportunistic intent,' she added, 'can be endorsed by this government. When there are no announcements it is because we are dealing with it'.

Against juvenile violence 'criminal law does not solve everything, there is the issue of education, responsibility, and the fight against degradation and school drop-outs. When we took office school dropout rate was at 11.5 per cent today it is at 8.7, which means we have recovered 500 thousand minors from school dropout. We should be proud, like the reintroduction of civic education and the grade in conduct". Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"What happened" in the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, "is not a disgrace, it is the result of too many people who did not do their job or who thought they were making easy money". This was said by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the press conference at the start of the year organised by the National Council of the Order of Journalists in collaboration with the Parliamentary Press Association.

"Responsibilities must be identified, they must be prosecuted," he added.

"The State Attorney's Office, at the behest of the Prime Minister's Office, has contacted the Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office and the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, which has in turn opened a file: we are ready to provide the families with all the assistance they need to ensure that they can have justice, the families have my word, they will not be left alone. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference on the New Year's Eve tragedy at Crans-Montana in Switzerland.

"We have dealt with this matter in the past with the decree that accompanied the decree on Caivano, taking advice that came from magistrates working in those territories, resolving some shortcomings including the possibility of arresting a minor in flagrante delicto in possession of a firearm. We were accused at the time of arresting children, our intention was diametrically opposed, it was to save those minors. This measure is not enough, because the phenomenon of juvenile gangs and so-called maranza continues to rage. Yes, we are working on another specific measure on this issue, it will be presented in the next Council of Ministers'. Thus the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, at the press conference at the beginning of the year in the Chamber of Deputies of the Chamber of Deputies. "The first element among all is that very often acts of violence are committed more with bladed weapons than with firearms, I think that carrying them should be banned with an aggravating circumstance in the case of people in disguise or in the case of groups of people gathering in sensitive places. The online sale of bladed weapons and the like to minors should also be banned, and sanctions should be imposed on parents who are responsible for these minors,' he added.

On the housing plan 'there is a very broad project on which we are working with Minister Salvini, whom I want to thank, a very articulated project that I do not anticipate. Our objective is to make 100,000 new homes available at lowered prices over the next ten years, net of council houses". So says Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the subject of the housing emergency. 'We are in the home stretch for the plan, a broad project with the Italian system,' she concludes.

On the reform of electoral law 'there are interlocutions with the oppositions even if not necessarily at my level. Parliament is dealing with it' and 'I hope for a positive interlocution and that there are no prejudicial closures' but 'if there is closure, Parliament will decide by majority'. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

The government is working 'in these weeks' on a measure to 'lower energy prices' and aims to bring it 'to one of the next Councils of Ministers'. This was indicated at a press conference by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

"If you ask me what I consider the 'model for supporting investments "in my opinion is that of the single Zes" of Southern Italy, "the model from which to start in order to encourage investments for the entire national territory". Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"We are in the home stretch with the presentation of the House Plan. It will be a very articulated package. I think we will get there in the next few weeks,' said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a press conference.

"If we want to guarantee security, we must all work in the same direction: government, police force and judiciary, which is crucial in this design. I cite two or three cases from the news of the last few days. Excluding the case of the train conductor, I recall the case of the imam in Turin. The police proved that he was dangerous, the minister ordered his expulsion and it was blocked. Last November a mother killed her nine-year-old son, she had been reported several times for previous murder attempts but the judicial authorities had decided to let her go free. In Acerra, a person was arrested while dumping tonnes of harmful waste, but was set free by the judicial authorities. I can cite dozens of cases. When this happens, the work of the police and Parliament is in vain. A call to all work in the same direction can make a difference'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"According to the law we have to give the date by 17 January, the next Council of Ministers will do it: 22 and 23 March is the most likely date and I would feel like confirming it". Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"We have worked a lot on security, clearly the years of laxity are not easy to erase". That said, 'the results for me are not enough', so 'this is the year in which we change pace and do even more'. Premier Giorgia Meloni said this at her end-of-year conference. "There are many initiatives that we have launched," Meloni recalled, "30,000 hires among the forces of law and order," the "unblocking of investments that had been at a standstill for a long time" on the issue, "the security decree much contested by the oppositions that are now claiming security," "the fight against the mafia with 120 fugitives captured," and "the work done on Caivano. Among the measures 'that we are studying' there is also the one on 'baby gangs', Meloni added that 'some of these measures are beginning to give results: in the first 10 months of 2025 crimes fell by 3.5%'.

"There is a majority slice of Italian opinion that thinks it is easier to defend the national interest by taking steps backwards in Ukraine, I think that to ward off war you have to stand by Ukraine and the only way to peace is deterrence. The word deterrence comes from Latin, its concept is that you have to be strong enough to make the enemy desist from the possibility of attacking you, it is strength that builds peace, this is my reading, whoever has a proposal different from mine I think is entitled to have it without saying that it is thread something". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"There is no option on the ground today with a UN umbrella and what is being talked about is a multinational force within the coalition of the willing to strengthen Ukrainian defence. The reason why I don't think it is necessary to send soldiers is because the main instrument for peace guarantees is Article 5 of NATO, that is the main form of guarantee for Ukraine. Then sending soldiers may be an idea, I don't contest who wants to do it, but I don't consider it necessary. I thought there was almost unanimity in Parliament on this, now I read that someone in the PD has changed, if so they will formalise a proposal in Parliament'. This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during the traditional end-of-year press conference.

"I do not agree with Salvini's reference to the Putin veto, it is a reading that I consider a bit biased. I've already said on several occasions that the debates that take place within the majority particularly on Russia and Ukraine are not debates between pro-Russians and Ukrainians, between pro-Americans and I don't know what...I've always thought that puppets have the strings while politicians don't have the strings". So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the traditional end-of-year press conference to a question on the hypothesis of sending Italian troops to Ukraine.

'By the end of this month the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will present an Italian strategy on the Arctic, we are doing our part'. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at her press conference at the start of the year, responding to a question on Greenland.

"I don't believe in the hypothesis of the US initiating military action on Greenland, which I would not agree with" and "which would not be in anyone's interest". "The hypothesis of an intervention to take control of Greenland has been ruled out by Rubio and by Donald Trump himself. I believe that the Trump administration with its very assertive methods is drawing attention to the strategic importance of Greenland for its interests and security. It is an area where many foreign actors operate and I think the message from the US is that they will not accept excessive interference from foreign actors'. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at her end-of-year conference.

'Freedom of the press is a fundamental prerequisite of the health of any democratic nation, and we are all called upon to protect and defend it'. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her press conference at the start of the year. Meloni also reiterated her 'personal solidarity', and that of the government, which, she emphasised, 'has never been lacking, has always been clear and unequivocal', with 'La Stampa' and its journalists for the attack on the editorial office"

"The government deals with the Trentini affair on a daily basis. We continue to do so by mobilising all channels. We will not stop until Mrs Armanda is able to embrace her son. I am confident,' said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during the press conference.

'Fair compensation is close to my heart, several ministries are working on it. There have been delays,' now 'we are trying to simplify. I think that by February we will have the tables to finally bring this measure forward'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at her end-of-year conference.

"In the European Enabling Act 2025, a government amendment was approved that gives the authority to transpose the anti-Slapp directive, which aims to counteract reckless suits. It was requested during the debate that the scope of extension should also apply domestically. But the directive itself excludes this. The directive is aimed at disputes that have cross-border implications. The government will transpose the directives with the necessary changes, which are not many. Because our legal system already punishes reckless lawsuits'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this at a press conference.

'Journalists for 10 years without a contract but at Fieg millionaire funding'. With two banners displayed at the opening of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's annual press conference, the National Press Federation expressed its concern over the failure to renew the national contract for journalists. In a note issued this morning, the Fnsi stressed that the positions with the publishers are 'even further apart'.

"I would like to thank the President of the Order of Journalists Bartoli and the President of the Parliamentary Press for organising this press conference, which has now become the start of the year; together we have created a new tradition". Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opening what was the traditional end-of-year press conference.

Seven minutes after 11 a.m. Giorgia Meloni's press conference began.

"I am closely following the situation in Venezuela and I hope that with President Delcy Rodríguez a new season of constructive relations between Rome and Caracas will open. In this sense, I express my gratitude for the choice of starting the release of political detaineesi, including Italians, and I sincerely hope that this path will continue with further steps in the same direction'. Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a note, circulated a few minutes before the start of the press conference.

In primo luogo le crisi internazionali, a cominciare da Ucraina, Gaza e Venezuela, con la difesa del blitz effettuato dagli Usa di Donald Trump contro Maduro. E con il tema delle spese per la difesa che si intreccia a quello del sostegno a Kiev. Ma i dossier che potrebbero essere sollevati nella classica conferenza stampa di Giorgia Meloni organizzata per le 11:00 di venerdì 9 gennaio dal Consiglio nazionale dell’Ordine dei giornalisti in collaborazione con l’Associazione della stampa parlamentare sono in realtà molteplici. La leader di Fdi alla vigilia si è preparata ad affrontare le 40 domande (l’anno scorso rispose per due ore e mezza), in cui con ogni probabilità si spazierà dal blitz di Donald Trump in Venezuela alla sorte di Alberto Trentini, dagli sviluppi dei negoziati per risolvere la crisi ucraina alla legge elettorale, dal Mercosur al referendum sulla giustizia, passando per i temi economici.