"I don't know if this is your Europe but it's certainly not mine." Brawl in the Chamber after Giorgia Meloni read some passages of the Ventotene Manifesto at the end of her speech in the Chamber, on a rather tense morning, distancing herself from it. The opposition whistles, shouts "shame", the benches become ring, on the right there is applause, on the left there is shouting. The session is suspended twice.
"Your idea of Europe is not very clear to me either, because in the demonstration on Saturday in Piazza del Popolo and also in this chamber, the Ventotene Manifesto was recalled by many participants: I hope they have never read it, because the alternative would be frightening", Meloni began, "happy" to "quote verbatim" some "salient passages" of the text written in 1941 by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, such as "The European revolution, to respond to our needs, must be socialist" or "Private property must be abolished, limited, corrected, extended case by case".
Every sentence punctuated by glances and pauses. "In revolutionary times, when institutions must not be administered, but created, democratic practice fails spectacularly - continues the prime minister reading the text -. At the moment when maximum determination and audacity are needed, democrats feel lost, not having behind them a spontaneous popular consensus, but only a murky tumult of passions".
The anger of the opposition resounds among the benches, Meloni interrupts, the president of the Chamber Lorenzo Fontana calls for order, everything is moved for a few hours , to the early afternoon, to put ideas and institutional etiquette back in order. "I ask that when the session resumes, keep tones appropriate and suitable for the Chamber of Deputies," Fontana said. "And this is also to honor the memory of those who put their lives on the line to ensure the principle of freedom and expression for all. Those who fought for our freedom deserve our applause and also deserve the fact that we have respect for this chamber, so I will ask you in the name of that freedom and democracy that this chamber be considered sacred."
Before the controversial speech, Meloni branded as a mistake the "claim" to entrust Brussels with "any reference matter", including those on which national states would be an added value. On defense, the point is to understand how to pay the 800 billion for the Plan proposed by Ursula von der Leyen. Italy has asked for and obtained the separation of defense expenses from the calculation of the stability pact. But Meloni goes further and asks for private intervention. "We cannot fail to raise the issue that the entire plan is based almost entirely on the national debt of the States", she concludes in the Chamber. " This is the reason why we are making other proposals, because it helps us to deduct the expenses, but on the other hand a priority must be to favor private investments in this matter. With Giorgetti - she added - we have developed a proposal that follows the Invest Eu, with European guarantees for private investments and we are trying to make this plan more sustainable. But the position seems clear to me".
(Online Union)