Now live, President Giorgia Meloni's response to the Senate. Join us!

I will try to be brief, answering, above all, the things that I do not share, clearly those that, from my point of view, need some specifics or answers. Starting with Senator Monti, in an intervention that was then resumed by other colleagues, Senator Monti said, use your own word-of-mouth, to convince the President of the United States, Donald Trump, that Europe is not a demon. Now, Senator Monti, President Trump is a leader who, like many others, works, above all, looking at his national interest, defending, above all, his national interest. This leads us, several times, to disagree with his choices, but I don't think we can say that he considers Europe a demon. The same agreement on taxes, which started from a problem, as you know better than me, that Donald Trump has not invented, seen from the American point of view. Several Presidents of the United States of America, have, over the years, raised the question of a, let's say, commercial failure, which greatly favored the European Union, for the truth, I believe, for our ability, let's say, to be present on foreign markets, and several other Presidents of the United States have acted in a protectionist sense. It has already happened to me to remember that the successor of Donald Trump, Joe Biden, during, let's say, the years that preceded the arrival of Donald Trump, started with the Inflation Reduction Act, an initiative that, in fact, favored the American market, even at the expense of the European one. So, even the agreement on taxes, which, in the end, is an agreement, taking into account, clearly, it was not my solution, you know that my favorite solution would have been an agreement for a free trade area between Europe and the United States. But the agreement, as it is set up, in the end, is a better agreement than the one we could have, let's say, feared, and it is an agreement for which I have personally expressed myself, also in the relations between the President of the United States and the President of the European Commission. So, President Monti, I have already used my authority, not so much to defend Europe, because I believe that there is a fundamental mistake, on a strategic level, in all those who try to create a division between Europe and the United States. It is not valid if it is said that Trump wants to distance himself from Europe, and it is not valid when it is said that Europe must be defended against Donald Trump. I work for the West, because I think that the West is strong together, and I use my authority on the American side and on the European side to try to strengthen a bond without which, I am sorry, we will still have problems. We will have problems, also because it has been said correctly by various parties, and I share it, that Europe, in recent years, has not often done its part. It has not done it on the level of security, it has not done it on the level of defence, it has not done it on the level of competitiveness. This puts us in a situation of weakness, so the issue is not what we want to do, the issue, first of all, is what we can do. What can we do in the current scenario? We can strengthen our competitiveness, we can learn to defend ourselves, because, as I have said dozens of times, unfortunately, when you ask someone else to take care of your defence and your security, you will also know that someone else does not do it for free. And I, who do not want to be subordinate to anyone, who want an Italy that is not subordinate to anyone, unlike those who accuse those who tell us that we should not invest resources in security, I think we should invest in defence and security exactly because we want to be fully sovereign. And so, mine is a fairly linear position. After that, I think that all of us must be aware that when, for example, Putin provokes with drones on European skies, it is not Europe that is under attack, it is the Atlantic Alliance that is under attack, it is the West that is under attack. Is that clear? When there is a solidarity between Russia, China, North Korea, who are trying to solidify the countries of the Global South, clearly reinforcing the influence in those countries, and you know what are the Italian strategies in Africa that correspond to this strategy. It is not Europe that is trying to isolate, it is the West that is trying to isolate. So I think that we must continue to work to strengthen this link. And I think that all those who try to put the question from the point of view of deciding whether to stay with Europe or the United States are making a mistake, because I want to stay with the West, reinforcing the role of Europe and Italy within the West. I think it is a fairly clear thing that I have explained several times. So these are the messages that I transmit to all my partners, because this is my strategy and I think it will be the strategy of Italy, and that is what I intend to continue to do. Colleague Pucciarelli. I agree. Europe, as I said, has made a lot of mistakes in the past. Now it is trying to correct the mistake, even if it seems that it is correcting it as much as it should correct it. This was the subject of what I said this morning. But it certainly had to take into account how wrong its strategy was, when the shocks arrived. We have said this several times. When the pandemic arrived, we realized how dangerous it was not to control our supply chains. When China, during the pandemic, for example, in Egypt, decided to favor the domestic market, we found ourselves with entire supply chains that were blocked. Today we are running to the rescue and we are trying to make a competitiveness policy that also takes into account the control of the value chains, that takes into account the problem of the raw materials, which are, let's say, a fundamental element in geopolitics. Just as when the war broke out in Ukraine, we realized how much energy policies, which Italy did not exactly favor in Europe in the past years, were, let's say, wrong. This is the reason why I think that we cannot remain inert if we continue on a path that has already shown to be failing, to have limits and to have problems. This is what I said this morning, for example, in reference to the Green Deal, and this is why Italy, from my point of view, must be clear in saying what does not work in the new proposals and try to correct the path. Because, colleagues, this does not mean being against Europe. It means trying to save a Europe that sometimes, due to senseless ideological dictates, has unfortunately devastated its strength and competitiveness. And if this is the case, it must be said if we want to give a hand. It is not by saying yes that we give a hand, it is by saying no when it must be said. Say no that we give a hand to be stronger. Senator Roic, I am not in favor of expanding the majority vote within the European institutions, because, of course, it would be useful for Ukraine, but it would also be useful for many other issues. And on many other issues, the positions of the majority could be quite distant from ours and from those of our national interests. And my priority remains to defend the national interests of Italy. So, to answer you, I do not mean, as you urged me to do, to propose a revision of the treaties, in the sense of expanding the majority vote in the place of unanimity. Senator Meni, I thank you for having once again remembered the work that Italy has done for the Palestinian population, starting from Nave Vulcano. I want to tell you, I want to tell this room, that it is not the only one. Like you, many others have thanked us. Like you, the Palestinian National Authority has thanked us several times, and that is enough for us, because we are interested in reality and not in propaganda. I agree on the issue of the defense of the home, which is a sacred good for us, especially the first home, and I take this opportunity to remind you of the choice made in the last law of balance to exclude the first home up to a given catastrophic value from the calculation of the ISEE. Senator Gasparri, like you, I am proud of Italian democracy. Like you, I consider it irresponsible to go around the world to cast shadows on the nation that represents itself when it is not governed, just to try to get some consensus, or worse, just to look for external help to do what it is not able to do in its homeland. Senator Claudio Borghi, you said it is difficult to explain to citizens that there is no money for hospitals, but there is money for weapons. It is not exactly like that, as you know, given the law of balance, but this gives me the opportunity to remind you what we did with the law of balance on health and hospitals. We started with an increase in the national health fund from 126 billion in 2022 to 136.5 billion in 2025. We were committed to increase by 5 billion in 2026, but when we wrote the law of balance, we decided to do more. So the increase from 2025 to 2026 of the expenses of the national health fund is 7.4 billion euros. And with the commitments that this majority has made for the next few years, if we were to reach the end of the legislature while maintaining those commitments, there would have been an increase in the national health fund of about 30 billion euros. Colleague Cristina Tagliani, I share some things she said, not for the name Tagliani, which would obviously lead you to... I share some things she said, such as the need to solve the annual issue of tax dumping. We can work together on this, if you want. I hope we can work together, because then I have to remind the Democratic Party that in Europe it is in the majority, and it has been in the majority for several years, so it can make a difference, much more than it has to when it is in this room. But let me tell you, colleague Tagliani, that saying that this government has brought Italy into a procedure of infraction is objectively a misrepresentation beyond the misrepresentations we are used to. That is, during Covid the rules of stability were suspended, as you know, and a total freedom was given to the Member States. In Italy, that total freedom was used for waste of every kind, on which I do not go back, from the masks you bought five times the price they had, up to the scooters, the scooters, the wheelchairs and the singing company. When they came back, and you say things and I have to answer you, gentlemen, it's not the mantra, but as they say, you call them a little bit, they say on my behalf. So, when the rules of stability came back, we found ourselves in a procedure of infraction. We found ourselves in a procedure of infraction. You know what? After three years, we are getting out of the procedure of infraction, in which the current opposition had brought us. We must also be honest. On the subject of the House. Croati, please. Croati. Croati, but why do you want bread today? He had two minutes. He had time to intervene. He refused to intervene. You wonder why. So, so, there is no need for support. A thousand euros with a click. In any case, they are years of light from the income of the city of Nanza that you gave to people who could easily go to work, as they did. After that, always the Italian colleagues. On the House, but clearly we will talk about it at the national level, because I have made some announcements and we are working, so it is a topic that will obviously also reach the Parliament. I wanted to tell you that at the European level, but because it represents everyone, Italy has already decided, because, as I said in my report, the proposal to enter the House in the five priorities of the revision of the Cohesion is a proposal that bears the name of a gentleman, Vice President of the European Commission, whose name is Raffaele Fitto. And I think we can all thank him for making this choice. After that, always the Italian colleagues said, if the government will take care of wages, of the House, of social, but go to memory, the PD will recognize it. Let's say, I have the presumption that this government has taken care, mainly, for example, of wages, but we did not find it on our side. Senator Borghi. Senator Borghi said that I have provided guarantees to the White House on Big Tech. I don't know what you are talking about, I have not provided any guarantees to the White House, especially on Big Tech. I remember that this nation is one of the European nations that has a tax on the big web companies and I don't think we are committed in a different way and I add, Senator Borghi, I don't know how it would work for others, but when I take a commitment, I declare it. So, commitments that I do not declare are commitments that I have not taken. Others, others signed commitments and then pretended not to have taken them, but it is not my way of doing politics. On the shipment of troops to Ukraine, Senator Borghi accuses me, accuses us of wanting to back up on Ukraine because we do not agree on the shipment of troops in the context of the Volenterosi coalition, I take note. It seemed to me one of the few things on which this parliament was in agreement, I have to take note of the fact that not even on this, in the so-called wide field, there is a unitary position, since Italy is in favor of the shipment of troops. Senator Galenda, I share many things he said, including on the peace plan in Gaza, because it is evident that it is still a very long, very complex work and a fragile truce, as we are seeing, as I have said and as we are seeing even in these hours. On the relationship with the USA, I have already answered when I was answering to Senator Monti, but I also refer to her, in short, whatever the strategies of our allies, the point is that what we can do depends on how strong we are. And I believe that this is the compass, let's say, of the positions, even uncomfortable, that, if necessary, Italy must assume in Europe, for example, on competitiveness, for example, on defense. Colleague Alfieri, I have shared several things that she has said, so I want to say only two things quickly. She said that she is not afraid to be part of the Volenterosi format. Look, I'm not afraid to be part of any format, but I'm not even afraid to say mine within the formats in which I participate, which is exactly what Italy is doing. She participates in meetings and supports her positions. After that, she also says, look, we are a responsible force, if Trump does the right thing, we are there. But then, I have to ask you why the Democratic Party did not accept to vote with the majority in support of the peace plan of President Donald Trump. Colleague Maiorino, so, on freedom of the press, clearly, I have not personally expressed my solidarity with Frigatore Annucci, so, clearly, I do it also in this room. After all, the issue of freedom of the press is a very serious issue, but it is also an issue that must be addressed with balance and with objectivity. And I think that, let's say, that balance and that objectivity are a bit lacking by some, because it is worth perhaps also to mention some previous ones. I do not remember mobilizations when the director of the newspaper Alessandro Sallusti was arrested in the newsroom to excuse a conviction to the homeless, or when Tommaso Cerno and Daniele Capezzone were threatened with death. No reaction even when Tommaso Cerno was excluded from an official hearing on freedom of the press organized by the European Parliament of the Five Stars Movement. I do not want to go back to Beppe Grillo who called the people's courts against some unpleasant journalists or when he said I would eat you for the pleasure of vomiting you. But I ask myself if it is possible to learn freedom of the press lessons from the Five Stars Movement which today went down to the square to defend it and yesterday was drafting lists of prescriptions for journalists who did not like them. After that, if we want to stick to the facts on freedom of the press in Europe, if we want to stick to the facts on freedom of the press in Italy, according to the NGO Reporter Senza Frontiere, in 2022 Italy was the last year in which it was under the government. Italy was the 58th place in the world freedom of the press Three years have passed and today we are at the 49th place. We have risen nine positions. There is still a lot to do but I would say that we are trying to do our part. After that, as regards answering the questions of journalists and the press conference, I am not a colleague, I am sorry that you say it, who escaped from a press conference. I had to leave to participate in the funeral of three carabinieri who died while doing their job and it seems to me more than necessary that the institutions of the Republic for those who die for this nation are there. I claim it with pride. After that, given that you mentioned the forces of the order and we say that we have not done enough for the forces of the order, even here we call it. Colleague Majorino, the law of balance is worth 18.7 billion euros and the super bonus this year is worth 40. If I had had those 40 billion euros and not 18, I would have covered the forces of the order. I would have covered them with increases as I would have done with health as I would have done with wages as I would have done with business as I would have done for all that I cannot do because we have restructured the second houses and the castles. And if we care a lot about the forces of the order, I am happy that now you care a lot about the forces of the order since a few months ago you were still doing obstructionism against the security decree that asked to suck the pen for those who insult and attack the forces of the order. In Gaza, I take note that you do not share the plan. I also take note of the fact that everyone shares it. The plan of President Trump is a plan that has been shared by all the Arab countries, by the Palestinian by Israel, by India, by everyone, by all the European So I take note of this because it remains behind the international that if today we had the 5 star government, Italy would have been totally isolated at the international level. Let's take note. Last answer that I have to give always to Senator Mayorino. for what concerns squares and mobilization I am a person who has organized hundreds of demonstrations in his life I always have great respect for the squares I have also declared I clearly do not consider them an element of consensus even when there are millions of people in the square if you want to think about this scheme there would be 1 million in the square and 59 million at home so you have to think about thank you Mayorino because you have said something very important and very honest you said those squares were against you that's true so tell me what is the cynicism of using the suffering of a people to try to make up votes and to try to make propaganda because that's not my way of doing politics thank you