Italy’s Giorgia Meloni told the country’s president that her rightwing coalition was united and ready to form a government with her as prime minister, after days of rancour inside the alliance over the allocation of cabinet posts.
Meloni and her election allies — Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, and Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi — met Italian president Sergio Mattarella on Friday morning for a formal consultation, following their decisive victory in snap elections last month.
“We’re ready to give this nation a government as quickly as possible,” Meloni said afterwards, citing the “urgent problems” confronting Italy.
Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, said her coalition had “given a unanimous indication proposing me as the person in charge of forming the government”, leaving her poised to become Italy’s first female prime minister since the country was unified in 1871.
The meeting with Mattarella was unusually brief, lasting just 11 minutes, Italian news agencies reported. Mattarella’s office said Meloni would meet the president again on Friday afternoon, when she is expected to be formally invited to form a government.
The coalition’s presentation of a united front follows days of drama, which analysts say was triggered by former prime minister Berlusconi’s inability to secure key positions for his loyalists.
When the new parliament met for the first time last week, Berlusconi was seen clutching a scribbled note describing Meloni as “opinionated, domineering, arrogant and offensive”, and adding she was “someone you can’t get along with”.
Yet even after a photo of the note was printed in a leading newspaper, Meloni appeared unfazed, telling reporters that the note “forgot one point: I cannot be blackmailed”.
Meloni then had to issue a statement affirming that support for Europe and Nato would be a “cornerstone” of her government, after the leak of audio recordings of Berlusconi telling party lawmakers that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and affirming his friendship with Vladimir Putin.
She declared that anyone who did not agree with her pro-Europe, pro-Nato orientation “cannot be part of the government, even if that means not making the government”.
Neither Berlusconi nor Salvini spoke following the meeting with Mattarella. In earlier social media posts, Berlusconi wrote that the right would form a “cohesive government”, while Salvini said he “could not wait for words to become deeds”.
Mattarella was reinstalled for a second seven-year term as president in January. Italy’s head of state plays a significant role in the formation of governments, especially in times of political deadlock, and has the power to veto ministerial appointments.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome