Ignazio La Russa (75) of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party was somewhat curiously elected President of the Senate on Thursday during the Parliament’s constituent session. The 75-year-old was the preferred candidate of his party leader Giorgia Meloni (45), who will soon become prime minister. In the right-wing coalition of the Fratelli, the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative Forza Italia, which won the parliamentary elections at the end of September, surprising differences already emerged in Rome.
The choice for La Russa is a success for Meloni. At the same time, it is evidence for many how much the party, which emerged from a neo-fascist movement, and its members are still attached to the dark past that has never been worked through consistently.
“Heirs of the Duce”
La Russa is a good example of this. During the election campaign, he claimed that all Italians are “heirs of the Duce”, that is, of dictator Benito Mussolini. During the corona pandemic, he advised on social media that Italians should stop shaking hands, but show the “Roman salute” of the fascists. Four years ago, in an interview, La Russa proudly displayed her living room with devotional objects and a statue of Mussolini.
That the Sicilian was proclaimed by Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre (92) in the first session of the 19th parliamentary term is not without – tragic – irony. As the oldest member of parliament, she presided over the session and the election of the president. In an emotional appeal, she called for overcoming divisions in society, to stand up to hatred and exclusion and to stop the “politics of yelling”.
Segre recalled that it was only at the end of October that it will be 100 years since the fascists came to power in Italy. She reported a “nauseous feeling” when she thinks of that Jewish girl in 1938 who was banned from returning to her bank in primary school because of the fascist reprisals, “but today, thanks to a strange fate, she is on the most important bank in the world.” the school finds the Senate.» For Segre, who had survived the concentration camp in Auschwitz, the plenary stood several times with applause.
Problems with Berlusconi
She later announced the winner of the election: La Russa received 116 votes, the necessary absolute majority of the 206 senators was 104. The legal alliance did not unanimously vote in favor of the career politician and former defense minister. Silvio Berlusconi (86) had asked his Forza Italia senators to abstain, possibly to teach the Fratelli a lesson. TV footage showed Berlusconi and La Russa arguing in the hall and Berlusconi even insulted the candidate. Curiously, because he was then elected by opposing senators, Berlusconi was left quite crippled.
Initially, there were no signs of successful elections in the House of Representatives, the House of Representatives. There, a two-thirds majority is required in the first three votes, which the legal alliance does not have. From vote four, scheduled for Friday, an absolute majority is sufficient; this is where the right block comes in.
Only then will the president appoint someone – in this case after her election victory, the far-right Meloni – to form a government. Experts estimate that Meloni could get her cabinet together by the end of next week. (SDA)