Billionaire former prime minister, 86, had been suffering from a lung infection linked to leukaemia
Silvio Berlusconi has been discharged from hospital in Milan, declaring “the nightmare” is over, more than six weeks after the former Italian prime minister was admitted with leukaemia and a lung infection.
“Today, after 45 long days, I finally returned home,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said in a statement after leaving the San Raffaele Hospital on Friday.
Continue reading...Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Continue reading...The former Italian prime minister was speaking for the first time since he was hospitalised a month ago
The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his first address to the public since being hospitalised a month ago, delivering a video message to party members from his hospital room.
“Here I am, here for you, wearing a shirt and jacket for the first time in a month,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said, in a pre-recorded address to a convention of his right-wing Forza Italia party.
Continue reading...Far-right Italian prime minister in London for ‘new beginning’ aiming at deeper and wider alliance between the countries
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has praised the work undertaken by her British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, to fight people traffickers and clandestine immigration networks, as two of the most prominent rightwing leaders in Europe met in Downing Street.
At the start of a two-day visit designed to deepen relations between the two governments, Meloni was greeted outside Downing Street by a small group of demonstrators carrying placards reading “stand up to racism” and “no to fascist Meloni”.
Continue reading...Italy’s new rightwing government put a strong emphasis on traditional family values during elections
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Milan in protest against moves by Italy’s new rightwing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.
“You explain to my son that I’m not his mother,” read one sign held up amid a sea of rainbow flags that filled one of the northern city’s central squares.
Continue reading...PM to reassert support for Ukraine after coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi blamed Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has arrived in Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and reiterate Italy’s support for the war-torn country, as she navigates tensions on the issue within her rightwing alliance and divided public opinion.
Tuesday’s trip is seen as one of the most significant made by Meloni since she came to power in October and comes a week after her coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi, the Forza Italia leader, blamed Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Andrea Costantino says he has been in tiny room since release from prison on ‘totally unfounded’ charges of funding terrorism
An Italian man trapped for six months in his country’s embassy in the UAE has claimed he is the victim of a diplomatic spat between the two states and pleaded with Giorgia Meloni’s government to bring him home.
Andrea Costantino, 49, said he had been living a “Groundhog day-like” existence in a tiny room at the Italian embassy in Abu Dhabi since being released in late May from the emirate’s notorious maximum-security prison, Al Wathba, where he spent more than a year on charges of funding terrorism in war-torn Yemen after shipping a cargo of diesel to a client there.
Continue reading...Anti-mafia journalist to appear in court in Rome over comments made about policy towards migrants drowning in Mediterranean
Italy’s new far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is suing one of the world’s best-known journalists, the anti-mafia and human rights campaigner Roberto Saviano, for criminal defamation, over remarks he made regarding her policy towards migrants drowning in the Mediterranean sea.
This is the second time in just under four years that senior government ministers have targeted Saviano, 43, with criminal proceedings, despite a duty to protect him after the Neapolitan Camorra issued a death threat following publication of his book Gomorrah in 2006.
Continue reading...Children and the sick were allowed off when boat run by German organisation SOS Humanity docked in Sicily
In the first test of its immigration policy, Italy’s new far-right government has prevented 35 asylum seekers from disembarking from their boat, claiming they did not qualify for asylum.
On Saturday night, Rome allowed the ship Humanity 1, run by the German search-and-rescue organisation SOS Humanity and carrying 179 people, to enter the port of Catania, in Sicily, and begin disembarking only children and sick or “vulnerable” people.
Continue reading...Brothers of Italy politician Galeazzo Bignami says he feels ‘profound shame’ over wearing swastika in 2005
A Brothers of Italy politician who was once photographed wearing a Nazi swastika armband is among the junior ministers appointed in Giorgia Meloni’s government.
Galeazzo Bignami, named undersecretary at the infrastructure ministry, caused controversy after a photograph of him wearing the armband was published by an Italian newspaper in 2016. The photo dated back to his stag party in 2005, and after it initially emerged in the press he shrugged the gesture off as a bit of “lighthearted” fun.
Continue reading...Picture of dictator along with text exalting in his seizure of power 100 years ago reportedly placed by far-right militants
Neofascist militants have hung a banner from a bridge near the Colosseum in the Italian capital to celebrate Friday’s 100th anniversary of Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome.
The banner, which features a large picture of the fascist dictator wearing military uniform alongside the words “100 years after, the march continues”, appeared on the Ponte degli Annibaldi, a small elevated bridge close to Italy’s most visited cultural monument, on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Leader restates support for Ukraine and vows crackdown on illegal immigration in address to MPs
Giorgia Meloni said she felt a “burden weighing on my shoulders” after “breaking the heavy glass ceiling” to become Italy’s first female prime minister, in an address to parliament restating her pledge to back Ukraine and her opposition to illegal immigration.
Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots, has taken the helm of Italy’s most rightwing government – which includes Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia – since the second world war.
Continue reading...Country’s first female prime minister leads the most rightwing government since the second world war
Pope Francis offered prayers for “unity and peace in Italy” as Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, took the helm of the country’s most rightwing government since the second world war.
Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, met the outgoing prime minister, Mario Draghi, for a formal handover ceremony on Sunday. “I did not expect this welcome,” Meloni, 45, said as she was greeted by Draghi, referring to the ceremonial guard. “It’s an emotionally impacting thing.”
Continue reading...In Predappio, supporters celebrate victory of their first female prime minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of a party with neo-fascist origins
Dressed in a black sweater, with “Propaganda” written in bold white letters across the back, Marco, 32, and his two friends had travelled to Predappio from their home in the Marche region to pay their respects at the grave of Benito Mussolini before the impending 100th anniversary of the fascist dictator’s march on Rome.
The ornate Mussolini family crypt, located in the tiny San Cassiano cemetery of the Emilia Romagna town, has attracted thousands of admirers since it reopened on an all-year-round basis in March, with the daily flow increasingly more consistent since the late September general election victory for a coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, which was sworn into government on Saturday.
Continue reading...Meloni took the oath of office as Italy’s first female premier at the presidential palace on Saturday
Giorgia Meloni, whose political party has neo-fascist roots, was sworn in on Saturday as Italy’s prime minister.
Meloni, 45, took the oath of office as Italy’s first female prime minister before the Italian president at the presidential palace.
Continue reading...Observers expect Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini to float policies inimical to migrants, LGBT rights and abortions
Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League, has promised that his alliance with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy will deliver a long-lasting government as Italians began to digest the outcome of an election that delivered the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.
Final results on Monday gave the coalition control of both houses of parliament with 44% of the vote and confirmed the swing in the balance of power in the Italian far-right towards Meloni after her party made spectacular gains in the League’s northern strongholds of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Continue reading...The leader of the Brothers of Italy party appears set to become country’s first female PM
A coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy is set to form the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war after exit polls gave it a clear majority.
With full results due on Monday, the far-right party leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states.
Continue reading...Early official results from the Italian interior ministry confirm exit poll suggestions that the rightwing coalition led by Brothers of Italy could win enough seats to form a government
The vote was triggered when the Five Star Movement abruptly withdrew its support for Mario Draghi’s technocratic government, but an election was due next year in any event.
Continue reading...Francis said migrants and refugees should be able to ‘live in peace and with dignity’ at open-air mass in Matera
Pope Francis has urged Italians to help migrants as voting proceeded in a general election widely expected to bring an anti-immigration rightwing coalition into power.
Speaking at the end of an open-air mass in the southern Italian city of Matera, the pope recalled that Sunday coincided with the Catholic church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees. “Migrants are to be welcomed, accompanied, promoted and integrated,” he told the assembled faithful.
Continue reading...Matteo Salvini has described Giorgia Meloni as a ‘pain in the ass’, while Silvio Berlusconi is rumoured to be unsupportive
Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. But despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has limited government experience.
If Meloni is confirmed as prime minister over the next few weeks, she will be in charge of steering Italy through one of its most delicate periods, dealing with mammoth challenges from the energy crisis and high inflation to a possible recession and a winter wave of Covid-19.
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