The first words that came out of the mouth of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in the press conference that closed the G7 in Puglia, were: «It was a success». For the position of Italy, which has “charted the course”, but also for the “compactness” demonstrated by the leaders in the choices – starting with the support for Kiev, the peace program for Gaza and the sharing had on the Italian plan for the ‘Africa – contained in the conclusion of the summit. A «unity of purpose in global challenges, which demonstrated that «the G7 is not a closed fortress but has opened up to the world». As well as unanimously supporting the Olympic truce for the Olympics, proposed by France.
Also thanks to the presence of a special guest like Pope Bergoglio: «We experienced an extraordinary day, a historic moment, with the presence of the Pontiff whom I cannot stop thanking enough, it was the first time in almost 50 years of the history of the G7 that a Pontiff participated in the work, giving us his invaluable point of view on artificial intelligence and staying for over three hours to listen to all the speeches”.
But the Prime Minister does not even hide her disappointment at some scenes that were seen on the eve of the summit in the Chamber of Deputies, where the debate on the autonomy bill was underway, which led President Ignazio La Russa to label them as «a harakiri ». To those who ask her if that definition, on the eve of the G7, caused her any embarrassment, Meloni replies: “I find it very serious that there are members of the majority who fall for provocations, I predict that they will increase.” Then speaking of the opposition, the prime minister went so far as to ask for “more respect for the institutions”, underlining that “not even this managed to ruin the excellent outcome of this summit”.
Furthermore, referring to the post-vote for the European elections and the consequent upheaval of political balances in many European states, the Prime Minister reiterates that «the first two issues that interest me, on the basis of which we will make our assessments, having consulted the other majority parties , are that Italy is recognized for the role it deserves in terms of skills and that Europe understands the message that has arrived from European citizens”. In short, if we want to draw from the vote the indication that everything was fine – the next step – it is «a distorted reading. Citizens want pragmatism, a less ideological approach. Citizens vote to give indications on which line to follow, the message has arrived clearly and this is what interests me. The reasoning” about the roles “is done downstream and not upstream, this is a game that others play”.
Responding to the question as to why the word abortion is not present in the conclusions (a topic on which yesterday evening she was also attacked by the dem secretary Elly Schlein because she would not defend women’s rights), the prime minister explains that «the word was not written abortion” in the final declaration of the G7 summit “simply because, when there are things already taken for granted, a reference is made to the previous document. I believe it was an artificially constructed controversy, a controversy that never existed at the summit.” Furthermore, Meloni reiterated her position on law 194: «It will not be modified but only applied in all its parts, because there is no need for modifications, it is a good law». In short, the conclusion is that the Italian government «has not taken any step backwards on abortion, on the rights of LGBT people, therefore the expectations of some have been disappointed, because the story that had been told about the government and the majority on these issues It didn’t correspond to the truth.” Finally, the prime minister announced a mission to China in the coming weeks, to forge new collaborations with the Asian country.
