Premier Giorgia Meloni told a rally
of her rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in a video-link
to a Rome theatre marking one year of government Sunday that she
walked tall and did not make compromises.
"I am proud of what we have done, of us, of our ruling class and
of myself, I can look in the mirror and still see the same
person, I have walked with my head held high, I have not
compromised," she said at the event, 'Winning Italy - A year of
results", underway in the Teatro Brancacio.
She went on to say that the FdI flew high while others rolled in
the mud.
"What we are proving is that you could achieve unimaginable
things and do extraordinary things without having to be mean or
having to take shortcuts or having to please unpresentable
people. "If we succeed and we are succeeding all these people
will have to reckon with their conscience and I guarantee they
will. So, no fear, head straight, eyes upwards and a smile on
your face. We have great things to achieve for our people and we
will achieve them", she told the event, in the recorded
video-link because she is spending the day with her daughter
after splitting from her partner and TV journalist Andrea
Giambruno over his sexist remarks on TV.
"The others," she added, "go ahead and roll in the mud, we will
fly high. Are they convinced that in the end they will manage to
make us lose our cool? So far only they have lost it because our
shoulders are broad, our conscience is clear. Our goals are big
and what is important for us is not to let Italy and the
Italians down. I love you".
Meloni said the party had suffered "unprecedented nastiness"
from critics in politics and the media.
"The nastiness and the methods they use to attack us have
reached unprecedented heights," she told the event.
The premier also told her supporters that that they were a
mirror of others' pettiness.
"We are the enemy to be put down because we are a mirror, a
mirror of their pettiness," she told the event.
"If we succeed all these people will have to reckon with their
conscience," she added in the video which was recorded Saturday
on the sidelines of a Mideast peace summit in Cairo.
Meloni said that the government would continue to implement
reforms without looking anyone in the face.
"We want to 'reform in depth what needs to be reformed without
looking anyone in the face", she said.
On a personal level, referring to the Giambruno split, Meloni
added that she was a human being and asked for understanding.
"I do not know what time I will return to Italy, I am not sure
if I will be able to be physically with you," she said on the
video.
"I too am a human being and if there is anyone I can ask for
understanding from, it is the sympathisers, representatives,
militants and leaders of FdI".
Meloni told conservative daily Il Giornale Sunday in an
anniversary interview that Italy is a protagonist on the world
stage again thanks to her government.
Meloni said she was also proud of the measures the government
has taken to help households and businesses over the course of
the year, and particularly in the 2024 budget bill currently
before parliament.
"It is difficult to choose between the many things the
government has achieved in a year to get Italy moving again. I
claim them all, but I am particularly proud of the measures
decided in favour of families and businesses and of Italy's
new-found leading role on the international scene," she said.
Meloni said in Cairo Saturday she was very well and doing her
job as usual a day after splitting from her eight-year partner
and father of their seven year old daughter Ginevra, TV
journalist Andrea Giambruno, a day after a string of his
allegedly lewd comments and apparent admission of infidelity
with female colleagues were broadcast on another Berlusconi
channel.
"I am well, I am very well, I am doing my job as always", said
Meloni meeting the press in Cairo on the sidelines of the
Mideast peace summit, responding to those who asked her how much
it cost her to make this trip in the aftermath of her separation
from Giambruno in the wake of a string of gaffes culminating in
him talking of threesome and foursomes off air and apparently
admitting the affair.
Challenged that there was also a political side to her post
announcing their separation after they had parted ways "some
time ago", she replied: "There is no political side". She
stressed: "I don't know what is not clear about the fact that I
don't want to talk about this anymore."
Giambruno, 42, met Meloni, 46, in 2015, and they have a
daughter, seven year old Ginevra.
Before his off-air sexist remarks on Retequattro were broadcast
by satirical show Striscia la Notizia on Canale 5, Giambruno
also got into hot water by telling women they should not get
drunk if they wanted to avoid getting raped, by describing
migrant movements as "transhumance", and by denying climate
change and telling the German health minister that he should
stay at home in the Black Forest if he found it too hot in
Italy.
Meloni's critics have latched onto the split with Giambruno to
renew criticism of her self-characterisation as a Christian
mother and her campaigning on a God, motherland and family
platform, with gay rights activists also saying she and FdI
should stop policies against the registration of gay marriage
and surrogacy outside Italy.
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