Over 1 million pilgrims benefit from golf cart service at Grand Mosque during Ramadan    Visitors welcomed with Eid initiative at Thee Ain Heritage Village in Al-Baha    Tebuk emir reviews rain response in Tayma    Saudi Arabia considers rent cap as part of major real estate reforms    Messi's bodyguard banned from touchline at Inter Miami games    Screen time in bed linked to insomnia, study finds    Le Pen vows to appeal political ban, calls verdict a 'denial of democracy'    Death toll from Myanmar earthquake rises to 2,719 as rescue efforts continue    Russia, Ukraine trade blame over new energy strikes    Putin orders Russia's largest military call-up in over a decade    Albania hosts MWL chief for Eid sermon at largest mosque in the Balkans    Haramain High-Speed Railway transports over 1.2 million passengers during Ramadan    Saudi Transport Authority says passengers can ride for free if taxi meters are off    Ministry of Education forms 425 community partnerships with SR653 million impact    Mexico bans junk food in schools to fight childhood obesity epidemic    Sweet sales surge ahead of Eid as Saudi chocolate imports top 123 million kg in 2024    Saudi creatives shine at Jeddah's Fawanees Nights with art, fashion, and storytelling    T1 CEO confirms Gumayusi's return for LCK Spring after lineup shakeup    100 Thieves claim Marvel Rivals Invitational NA crown as 2025 scene heats up    Bollywood actress vindicated over boyfriend's death after media hounding    Saudi Arabia hold Japan to goalless draw in Saitama to stay in World Cup hunt    Grand Mufti rules against posting prayers and preaching in mosques on social media    King Salman prays for peace and stability for Palestinians in Ramadan message King reaffirms Saudi Arabia's commitment to serving the Two Holy Mosques and pilgrims    Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan 'out of danger' after attack at home in Mumbai    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Squabbles spell trouble for Italy's right-wing coalition even before government is formed
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 16 - 10 - 2022

Mere weeks after Italy's right-wing coalition announced its victory in the general election, the first fault lines are appearing, meaning the three-way alliance could be over even before the government is formalized.
The resounding victory by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in the Sept, 25 vote is not sitting well with 86-year-old Silvio Berlusconi — the former three-time conservative prime minister who, four decades her senior, fancies himself the elder statesman of Italy's political right.
Meloni is expected to be asked next week by Italy's President Sergio Mattarella to try to create a governing coalition with campaign allies Berlusconi and right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and become premier.
Behind-the-scenes divvying up of ministries in what would be Italy's first far-right-led government since the end of World War II started after her Fratelli d'Italia, or Brothers of Italy party took 26% of the ballots cast — more than those won by the forces of Salvini and Berlusconi combined.
The knives carving out those Cabinet posts are proving particularly sharp.
Salvini on Saturday issued a sort of call for a truce between Meloni and Berlusconi so that the three allies' bid to rule Italy isn't derailed.
"I am sure that even between Giorgia and Silvio that harmony, which will be fundamental to government, well and together, for the next five years, will return,'' Salvini said in a statement released by his anti-migrant League party about the escalating post-election tensions.
A spat between Berlusconi and Meloni turned ugly when the former PM and a media mogul scrawled a list of derogatory adjectives about her on stationery emblazoned with the name of his villa near Milan.
He positioned it in the Senate in plain view for photographers covering the election on Thursday of the upper parliamentary chamber's president.
"Giorgia Meloni," wrote Berlusconi, jotting down that her ways are "presumptuous, bossy, arrogant, offensive".
A fifth adjective, "ridiculous,'' appeared to have been scribbled over, said Italian media, who magnified the image.
Some key political differences existed from the beginning — Berlusconi bills himself a staunch champion of the European Union, while Meloni has said national interests should prevail over any conflicting priorities in the bloc.
The octogenarian mainstay is also close friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meloni, on the other hand, openly pledged her full support to Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky in early October.
Yet, their spat also seems patriarchal.
"In Berlusconi's etiquette, the woman is courted and maybe even venerated, but a true male cannot take orders from her, let alone accept that she says 'no,''' wrote Massimo Gramellini in the daily Corriere della Serra.
According to domestic accounts, Meloni had vetoed a ministry for a close political aide of Berlusconi, who is one of his several female political proteges.
With his self-described weakness for young women, Berlusconi has launched the political careers of female lawmakers from Forza Italia, the center-right party he created three decades ago.
He also gave Meloni her first shot at partaking in the government, appointing her as Minister of Youth during his third tenure as prime minister between 2008 and 2011.
Reflecting Berlusconi's aggravation, nearly all of his senators refused to vote for Meloni's pick for Senate president, Ignazio La Russa, a long-time fascist nostalgist who helped Meloni establish Brothers of Italy in 2012 as she forged her far-right political ascent.
The Forza Italia boycott delivered a stiff rebuke to her. Meloni, known for her frankness, did not budge.
"It seems like a point was missing among those listed by Berlusconi — that I can't be blackmailed,'' Meloni told private Italian TV La7.
Meloni already stood her ground during the election campaign as well.
When opinion surveys indicated that she was by far the front-runner over Berlusconi and Salvini, those two unsuccessfully tried to wiggle out of a long-standing pact that the top-getter in campaign coalitions would become premier should their forces prove victorious.
Together, the leaders' three parties command a comfortable majority in the newly seated Parliament. Still, Meloni needs the forces of Berlusconi and Salvini for any viable coalition.
Salvini chafed for days when it appeared Meloni would not let him become interior minister, a post he held in 2018-2019 and used to crack down on migrants arriving by the tens of thousands on smugglers' boats or rescue ships.
On Friday, Meloni's forces backed the election to the presidency of the lower Chamber of Deputies of a Lega, or League party lawmaker, Lorenzo Fontana — an ultraconservative who, like Salvini, has openly admired Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Late Friday, the five-pointed star symbol of the World War II antifascist movement was scrawled along with La Russa's name on a Brothers of Italy office in the Rome neighborhood of Garbatella.
It is the very office where Meloni began her career as a teenager in the youth wing of a neo-fascist predecessor of her own party, MSI.
Meloni on Saturday retweeted her party's description of the act as "a clear reference to the dramatic years that we don't want to live through again" — referring to the so-called Years of Lead marked by political terrorism by the far-right and the far-left alike.
She wants to "unite the Nation, not divide it as someone is trying to do," Meloni vowed in her tweet. — Euronews


Clic here to read the story from its source.