ROME (Reuters) – Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has agreed to form the new government, a presidency official said on Friday, a move that will make her the first female president of Italy’s Council.
“Giorgia Meloni has accepted the mandate and submitted the list of his ministers,” presidential official Ugo Zampetti said after the interview at the Quirinal Palace.
The coalition government formed by Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party, Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia will be sworn in on Saturday morning and will submit itself next week to a vote of confidence in both chambers of Parliament.
The names of the future members of the government have been revealed, and it is finally Giancarlo Giorgetti, the leader of the League, who has been appointed to the key post of Minister of the Economy.
Giorgia Meloni had encountered difficulties in filling this position, considered both the most important and the most difficult in the government, several potential candidates having rejected his proposals.
Antonio Tajani, ex-president of the European Parliament and member of Forza Italia, becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs, Matteo Piantedosi (without label) was assigned the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense returned to Guido Crosetto, one of the founders of Fratelli d’Italia.
The Fratelli d’Italia (post-fascist) party came out on top in the legislative elections of 25th September last, ahead of its coalition partners, but tensions have already arisen in recent weeks between the three partners.
The new Italian government will take office in a tense economic and international context, marked by soaring energy prices and the war in Ukraine, while the third economy of the euro zone is on the verge of recession.
Giorgia Meloni, 45, is due to deliver her policy speech next week to both houses of parliament, where her government will need to win votes of confidence before her governing coalition can formally begin work.
(Report by Gianluca Semeraro, French version Tangi Salaün and Camille Raynaud, edited by Sophie Louet)