Fratelli D’Italia (FdI) leader, and likely future premier, Giorgia Meloni and centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader and three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi have buried the hatchet, following peace talks in Rome on Monday after the coalition partners had a major tussle.
Media billionaire Berlusconi described Meloni as “presumptuous, over-bearing, arrogant and offensive” last week in written notes photographed by the media.
This was after FI failed to back FdI bigwig Ignazio La Russa in the election that saw him become the Senate Speaker, due to mounting friction over the composition of the new government.
La Russa was elected thanks to a few votes that are thought to have come from the centrist opposition, though the centrists have tried to blame the centre-left opposition.
Meloni, who is set to become Italy’s first woman premier after FdI spearheaded the right-wing coalition’s victory in last month’s general election, hit back at her ally by saying Berlusconi had forgotten to put “not susceptible to blackmail” on the list.
The tension caused by Meloni’s vetoes on FI ministerial candidates, including Berlusconi loyalist and ‘pasionaria’ Licia Ronzulli as justice minister, reached a point in which there was even talk of FI going to consultations on the formation of the new government with President Sergio Mattarella alone, rather than as part of the right-wing coalition that also includes Matteo Salvini’s rightwing Lega party.
However, Meloni and Berlusconi reportedly spoke on the telephone on Sunday and then met at FdI’s Rome offices on Monday as they sought to patch things up.
Flamboyant Milanese businessman turned politician Berlusconi, 86, arrived at FdI’s historic headquarters in via della Scrofa alone and was personally met by the 45-year-old plain-speaking Roman Meloni in the courtyard.
He left about an hour and a half later, without making any public statements.
The two leaders have both dismissed talk of tensions between them over the cabinet list that Meloni is expected to present to President Mattarella later this month.
After the talks, FdI and FI issued a joint statement saying “the meeting took place in a climate of unity of intent, and the utmost cordiality and collaboration.
“Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia will present themselves united, with the other forces of the coalition, at the upcoming consultations with President Sergio Mattarella.”
The joint note said the two parties “are at work to give Italy a strong, cohesive and high-profile government as soon as possible, that will get to work immediately to tackle the emergencies” facing the country, including a cost of living crisis spurred by an energy crunch and a looming recession.
On Sunday Meloni said the centre-left opposition should “come to terms” with the fact that the coalition she leads “will lift Italy back up.”
