we present to you the five key ministers to understand the first government of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni

He will give him the bell used by the President of the Council to regulate the debates in the Council of Ministers. The transfer of power between Mario Draghi and Giorgia Meloni, the new President of the Italian Council – the equivalent of Prime Minister – takes place on Sunday 23 October. The ceremony is held at Palazzo Chigi in Rome, the seat of government a stone’s throw from Parliament.

The government team formed by the leader of the post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia shows that it wants to reassure Italy’s partners, worried after the arrival in power of a leader of the extreme executive right and government Italy’s most Eurosceptic since 1946. “There are no surprises”commented on franceinfo Hervé Rayner, professor of political science at the University of Lausanne, specialist in contemporary Italy. “Fratelli d’Italia [le parti de Giorgia Meloni] obtains a dozen ministries. The other two union parties, Forza Italia [de Silvio Berlusconi] and the league [de Matteo Salvini], have five ministries each”, he notes. Franceinfo looks back on five posts shedding light on the balance that the new strong woman of Italy has found for her first government.

Ecco la squadra di Governo che, con orgoglio e senso di responsabilità, to serve Italy. Adesso suddenly al lavoro. pic.twitter.com/QnaJ20fqyK

— Giorgia Meloni ن (@GiorgiaMeloni) October 22, 2022

At Foreign Affairs, a former president of the european parliament

Although Eurosceptic, Giorgia Meloni has placed at the head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani. This convinced Europeanist, who also finds himself with the title of Deputy Prime Minister, was President of the European Parliament between 2017 and 2019. The appointment of this senior member of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party was quickly greeted by the chairman of the European People’s Party, the German Manfred Weber, as “a guarantee of a pro-European and Atlanticist Italy”. The ties forged by Tajani over almost twenty years as an MEP and European Commissioner for Transport will be essential to maintaining good relations with Brussels.

On the diplomatic front, Giorgia Meloni, an Atlanticist and in favor of supporting Ukraine against Russia, was forced to step up after Silvio Berlusconi’s remarks. The latter stated that he had “knotted” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and accused Ukraine of being the cause of the war. She then replied that Italy was doing “fully gone and with your head held high” of Europe and NATO.

In Transport, the populist Matteo Salvini

Known for his controversial statements, particularly on immigration, Matteo Salvini was already Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior in the first government of Giuseppe Conte, from June 2018 to September 2019.

He hoped to find the Interior portfolio in the Giorgia Meloni government but he had to be content with the post Infrastructure and Transport. If he is less prestigious, this position allows him to have control over the country’s ports. Under the policy of “ports closed” of the League, he had blocked several NGO ships coming to the aid of migrants in the Mediterranean when he was Minister of the Interior. Above all, he still finds himself propelled Deputy Prime Minister.

At the Economy, a former member of the outgoing government

Giancarlo Giorgetti, one of Matteo Salvini’s right arms, is a rrepresentative of the moderate wing of the League (extreme right). Already a member of the outgoing team of Mario Draghi, to the post of Minister of Economic Development, he finds himself Minister of the Economy, a crucial portfolio.

A powerful figure in the League, he already served in the first government of Giuseppe Conte, including the League and the populist Five Star movement (2018 to 2019), as Secretary of State for Sports.

Inside, a technocrat who was Matteo Salvini’s chief of staff

Matteo Piantedosi, who has been prefect of Rome since August 2020, takes over the interior ministry, a key portfolio for a nationalist government, which considers security and immigration issues as priorities and strategic issues. At 59, he has spent his entire career in the prefectural body and the senior civil service, largely in the Ministry of the Interior, where he was chief of staff to Matteo Salvini.

To the Family, Birth Rate and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella

Among the 24 ministers of this new government, there are only six women. Some are confined to minor portfolios. “None has a ministry of weight, whether it is the Interior, the Economy, Defense or other”notes Hervé Rayner, specialist in contemporary Italy.

But Eugenia Roccella finds herself Minister of the Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities. This position is highly symbolic for Giorgia Meloni, a conservative Christian hostile to LGBT + rights, who has put the family at the heart of her campaign. She “defends a very conservative vision, with ‘God, family and country’ as its central values”, insisted Alban Mikoczy, correspondent for France Télévisions in Rome. The new title of the portfolio is therefore not insignificant.