Meloni: ‘The Quirinale isn’t part of my plans, but enough is enough with the centre-left’s monopoly’

“I am fully focused on bringing this term of office to a successful conclusion and on asking the Italian people to reaffirm their confidence in me for another five years. The Quirinale is not part of my plans. That said, it is not clear why the idea that a figure with conservative views might one day aspire to that role should cause such a stir.” So said Giorgia Meloni in Bruno Vespa’s book “History of the Second Republic. From Berlusconi to Meloni, from Prodi to Schlein”, due to be published tomorrow, Monday 2 November, by Mondadori-Rai Libri.

‘But who said that to be an excellent President of the Republic you must necessarily come from the centre-left? I find this ‘cultural racism’ unbearable – the idea that a section of Italians, roughly half or more, must always be regarded as the children of a lesser god, in many cases by people who, in their youth, used to cheer on the Soviet Union. Enough is enough. That said, however, I think the hysterical outbursts that grip the left every time the possibility is raised that, next time, it might be a centre-right majority that nominates the President of the Republic speak volumes about the proprietary view they have of the institutions,” adds the Prime Minister.

“The public,” added Meloni, “are far more mature than politicians – particularly on the left – often tend to think; they know how to distinguish between different types of election and what is at stake, and I imagine they will be able to do so again when they vote in next year’s general election. There will certainly be an attempt to stir up the usual ‘democratic alarm’; we are already seeing this in the hype surrounding the Constitutional Court’s review of the electoral law. And, of course, we will see it in the next election campaign too; after all, it is the only position shared across the broad political spectrum.”