It is now official: the Italian government will propose the name of the Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner: it was announced, according to reports, by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during the Council of Ministers after the majority summit at Palazzo Chigi between the Prime Minister herself, the deputies and secretaries of Forza Italia and Lega Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, and the leader of Noi moderateti Maurizio Lupi.
“I believe it is appropriate to share with all of you, after having already done so for some time with the other leaders of the majority, an extremely important decision,” Meloni began. “I received the letter from the President of the European Commission von der Leyen asking the government to designate the proposed Italian candidate for the role of European Commissioner. This is a delicate and very important choice for us and for Italy in the coming years,” the Prime Minister added. “Our choice falls on a person who has a great deal of experience and who has been able to govern the delegations entrusted to him in this government with excellent results: Minister Raffaele Fitto.”
“Today I will communicate the name to President von der Leyen and I ask everyone to applaud and wish Raffaele good luck, who will have an extremely complex and at the same time exciting task ahead of him. It is a painful choice for me, I believe also for him, and for the government, but it is a necessary choice”, added the Prime Minister.
Meloni: “I trust in a prominent role for Italy”
In the EU, “we continue to work on the role that we ask to be assigned to Italy,” Meloni said. “And, despite seeing many Italians rooting against a role that is appropriate for our nation, I have no reason to believe that that role will not be recognized. Not out of sympathy or antipathy towards our government, but more simply because we are Italy, a founding nation, the second largest manufacturer and third largest economy in Europe, the third largest member state in terms of population, with primacy in many fields.” “Today,” the prime minister emphasized, “we can also count on a newfound political stability and an economic solidity that few others have in the rest of Europe.”
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he was “very happy on one hand and very sad on the other. Very happy because we are giving Europe a person who will represent us very well, who will be welcomed very well” he said during a press briefing in Brussels. “I am sad to lose a government colleague who I respect and who has done an enormous and extraordinary job, especially on the PNRR. It will be very difficult to replace him, but as Italy we will have a great representative”.
