Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the far-right MP Giorgia Meloni, leader in the polls for the September 25 elections, has “all the conditions” to govern the country.
The statement was made in an interview with the newspaper QN, after the conservative coalition of which Berlusconi and Meloni are part reached an agreement to give the party with the most votes the right to nominate the next prime minister.
Currently, the first place in the polls is Irmãos da Itália (FdI), an acronym chaired by Meloni, with just over 20% of the votes.
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“Giorgia Meloni, as well as Matteo Salvini (of the League), like so many exponents of Força Italia (Berlusconi's party) and the other coalition parties, has all the conditions to guide a high-level government, trustworthy in the world and firmly linked to Europe and the West”, said the former prime minister.
Research indicates that the conservative alliance led by Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi could even obtain an absolute majority in Parliament, taking advantage of an electoral system that mixes proportional and district voting.
Of the 600 vacancies in the next legislature, 366 (244 in the Chamber and 122 in the Senate) will be distributed through a system of closed lists presented by the parties, following the percentage obtained by each party in the vote.
Another 222 (148 in the Chamber and 74 in the Senate) will be defined through district voting: each coalition or party presents a candidate for a given district, and only the one who finishes first is elected. The remaining 12 seats (eight in the Chamber and four in the Senate) will be held by parliamentarians elected by Italians abroad.
Salvini was also asked, by Radio 24, if he would have any problems with Meloni as prime minister. “And why would I?” he replied. If this hypothesis is confirmed, the 45-year-old deputy will be the first woman to govern Italy.
The FdI is the political heir of the extinct neo-fascist party Italian Social Movement (MSI), even adopting some of its symbols, such as the tricolor flame, and Meloni preaches ideas such as the naval blockade against migrants in the Mediterranean and the defense of the so-called “traditional family”. .
However, the congresswoman recently said she will maintain the foreign policy of Mario Draghi's government, in a nod to those who fear a pro-Russian drift in the event of a far-right victory in September. (Ansa Brasil)
