While Elly Schlein and Giuseppe Conte are still celebrating loudly on the benches of Montecitorio, amid applause, shouts of “resignations resignations!”, kisses and hugs, among the ranks of Brothers of Italy speaks Galeazzo Bignami, the party leader of Giorgia Meloni. And his vehement words resonate in the chamber of the Chamber as a warning to the opposition.
“We have made a commitment before the Italians, to give them the possibility to choose the deputies who sit in this Chamber. Others, who say they want to do it, have not even presented an amendment to do so. And this means mocking the Italians,” thunders Bignami referring to the electoral law reform under discussion. A few minutes earlier, the FdI-sponsored amendment that reintroduced preferences had been rejected by one vote, due to the betrayal of 31 mavericks from the center-right.
“You applaud mocking the Italians – continues Bignami, referring to colleagues from Pd and M5s -. But it is not the only thing I believe is important to restore. Because you see, colleagues, the difference between us and you. It is that we put our face on it, you put something else. And the result is that we, before the Italians, take responsibility for what we say, what we do, what we vote. You are yet another example of cowardice that is not able to openly say what it votes. And you come to lecture us. You tell us you want preference voting and you vote against preferences. You tell us you want seats for women but you do not have the courage to nominate them. The difference, President, is all here. Between those who take responsibility for their actions and those who hide. And if I were in your place, I would go hide”
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At the end of the leaders’ conference, Bignami then spoke about the center-right: “We will complete the measure and then afterwards we will make a point on everything.” Within FdI they are convinced that the “betrayers” were the women of Forza Italia and Lega: “I do not allow myself to put my nose in other people’s business. If there was a conviction of reliability we would not have asked to continue,” emphasizes the FdI leader in the Transatlantic, adding however that he has “seen some majority colleagues who chose to vote differently, some openly, others in the secret ballot. Some that we saw openly, get the list of who was there before, who was there after and who was in between. I do not name names. The majority was there on previous secret votes, remember that the majority cannot avoid the secret vote. We literally saw some colleagues who ostentatiously did not vote.” When asked if there will be consequences, since the government had given a favorable opinion, he replies: “The vote of confidence if rejected entails resignation, if instead a vote where there is no confidence corresponds to resignation then we abolish the vote of confidence. It is a parliamentary vote, we do not hide from seeing what happened but resignations are another matter. No one said ‘if it does not pass I resign’ like Renzi who had to leave politics.”
