By kind permission of the publisher, we publish some excerpts from La versione di Giorgia, a book-interview by Alessandro Sallusti with the Prime Minister, published by Rizzoli.
The greatest goal, or rather the one on which all others depend, is to restore to Italians the pride of being such. To give them a State worthy of its great people, with which to identify. An undertaking that today seems impossible. No one can save this nation alone; it can only be saved if we all believe in it together. If each of us, in whatever field we operate, decides that it is worth doing what we do with an eye to what is best not only for ourselves and the people we love, but for the nation as a whole. To recover that sense of community without which it will be impossible to express our potential to the fullest. And to do this, it is necessary to restore credibility to institutions (…).
Simply put: you can make excellent laws, but if the State is perceived as an enemy, there will always be someone who will circumvent them. You can raise capable people, but if the State does not value those skills, they will flee abroad, or end up believing that the most effective path is not the sacrifice of study, competence, and value, but the shortcut of the right friendships or empty models, those of «minimum effort maximum result».
Laura Boldrini, the latest delirium: “What Meloni will be remembered for in history”
Laura Boldrini “celebrates” the longevity of the Meloni government with one of her sharp remarks. The current…
NO LIMITS
I dream of an Italy where the social profiles with the most likes are not those of influencers who flaunt their glossy lives made of boats and luxurious clothes, bought with money made by showing other boats and other clothes, but those of researchers who change humanity, soldiers who risk their lives to build peace, doctors who perform real miracles, those who, coming from nothing, have made history with passion and sacrifice.
And I dream that tomorrow when a young person is asked what they want to be when they grow up, they answer: «I don’t set limits for myself, but in any case, I want to do something that is also useful for my nation».
The successes of the Meloni Government in four years: international credibility, spread at minimum and record Stock Exchange
After four years of Meloni government, it is undeniable that Italy has strengthened its own cre…
THE OFFICE OF THE GREATS
Am I deluded? A dreamer? We will see, certainly a dreamer. After all, I am living proof that willpower can lead you to do things you had not foreseen. Would you have bet that one day you would come to talk to me, a 46-year-old right-wing woman from a working-class neighborhood, opposed by every means by the established system, in this office on the first floor of Palazzo Chigi?
Look around you. Since 1961 this has been the seat of government and here have worked people like Aldo Moro, Giulio Andreotti, Francesco Cossiga, Giovanni Spadolini, Bettino Craxi, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Romano Prodi, Silvio Berlusconi, Mario Monti and Mario Draghi, just to name a few who – for better or worse – have made the history of Italy. In short, has anyone ever seriously considered that what then happened could happen? And that I could sit at this desk?
Meloni, Piccolotti’s grudge: “Good at clinging to the chair”
Less than 24 hours to Giorgia Meloni’s record. The leader of Brothers of Italy is about to become in every eff…
«WHY ARE YOU CRYING?»
When I became Prime Minister, what struck me was not that many were happy, but that too many were moved. «But why are you all crying?» I happened to say, with surprise and embarrassment. I even joked: «Oh, I haven’t even started and you’re already crying?».
But then I understood. Because mine is a story that breaks the taboos of the blocked nation, of people’s lives decided at the table, of too many goals we think are closed to us, of opportunities we are sure we will never have. It was not just the political fact of the return of the center-right to government, and of a government directly expressing the popular vote after a decade of power games and governments decided in the palace. There was something else, in that emotion. I understood it when a very authoritative person, sitting right here in the early hours of my mandate, explained their teary eyes by saying: «Giorgia, this thing could not have happened». It’s true, it may seem like a fairy tale, but it isn’t. It is determination and sacrifice. Study, discipline, and obviously a bit of luck, if one can say lucky someone who finds themselves governing Italy in this conjuncture (…).
Too many times I have heard those who did not have what they wanted say it was «the State’s fault, the politics’ fault, the starting conditions’ fault». Of course, this also influences, and it is what I now have to deal with, but are we sure it is only this? Are we sure we have done everything possible to achieve the goals we set? As I see it, and from my personal experience, I am certain that our destiny depends above all on what we are willing to do, how much we are willing to work, how much we are willing to sacrifice. Destiny is mostly us. And if I manage to get this message across, and at the same time guarantee the necessary conditions so that everyone has the same starting conditions to play the game, we can change everything.
Giuseppe Conte, the 4 Di Sera outburst on the Meloni government: “Deal with the powers that be”
“They had four years and made zero reforms and beyond the records they tell, Italians have bust…
FOREIGN POLICY
I believe I have an advantage over my recent predecessors. For years, when the head of a government or an Italian minister sat opposite a partner, the first question that partner was forced to ask themselves, roughly, was: «I wonder if at the next bilateral meeting this will still be my Italian interlocutor». And indeed, very often at the next meeting the government had changed. The short horizon of Italian governments has been a devastating element also in foreign policy, because serious relationships and strategic choices need time. My advantage, besides speaking English, Spanish and a bit of French, an element that gives the personal relationship an immediacy and empathy impossible to achieve when speaking through another – is precisely time. When our interlocutors sit in front of us, they know that next time, most likely, they will still be dealing with us. And so they are more interested in building a good relationship, and much more open to talking about strategic collaborations. After all, foreign policy is made of understandings, agreements; when a government falls, it is likely that the negotiation that government had started also falls, and this element has made us unreliable in the eyes of the world.
LONG-TERM VISION
For this reason, I consider the issue of government stability not a mere whim, but the most powerful economic measure that can be given to Italy. For this reason, I set myself a legislative goal, not because I necessarily want to stay glued to the chair for five years, but because it is the only way to try to make Italy count more in the world. And I add: I am working on a vision that goes beyond these five years, hoping that whoever comes after me does not feel the need to destroy everything (…).
I give it my all, but it will be through the test of facts that others will know whether or not I am the serious person I say I am, and I am aware of that. As I am aware that if and when I pass the test, then the fruits of this hard work will really be seen.
