No Republican executive has lasted this long. Comparison between the opposition’s attacks and the figures on employment, BTP and landings that shield the Meloni executive.
The government of Giorgia Meloni he is the longest-serving of the Republic: in eighty years of history no executive, not even those led by Silvio Berlusconi or Bettino Craxi, had ever managed to last so long. And if there are no accidents in the coming months, that of the leader of Brothers of Italy he has the possibility of breaking another record, that of being the first to conclude the legislature after having started it. In the past there have been governments that lasted less than a month (the first Fanfani, from 19 January to 10 February 1954), others who remained in office for 82 days: in total, out of 68 executives, almost half did not reach the finish line of the year. Instability, with the rotation of ministers and frequent new entries, was the political hallmark of Italy, to the point that foreign counterparts, during bilateral negotiations, never knew if they would have the chance to meet again with the head of the department whose hand they had just shaken. Today, paradoxically, Italy is the only one of the large European countries not to record a continuous turnover at the top. In France it seems like we’re on a merry-go-round, in Germany we’re close, Spain is in the midst of a nervous breakdown and Great Britain, despite not being part of the EU, is suffering from the same pathology: instability.
So when someone asks me what is the result obtained from Giorgia Meloni in four years to Palazzo ChigiI reply that having put an end to transitional governments – seaside, technical, purposeful, of large or small agreements, or of the president – is certainly a success that no one had achieved until yesterday. The well-known political scientist Marina La Rosa, former contestant of Big Brother, on Wednesday, during the episode of È semper Cartabianca, said she was “horrified” by the fact that this government lasts so long, adding that the duration is not strictly correlated to the political result: “You can also stand in line at the post office for three hours, but this doesn’t mean that they work well”. The illustrious commentator’s connection between waiting at the counter and the efficiency of the executive is not very clear to me, but this is not the point.
The test of the markets and the boost of employment
The theme is that the political stability produces significant results on its own. Do you think the spread dropped by chance? In five years the differential between BTPs and Bunds went from 233 basis points to 80. Not even Mario Draghi had managed that much, but the stability produced a result that the banker’s banker was unable to grasp. And after twenty years the relationship with French government bonds has also reversed in favor of our country, with lower yields than the transalpine ones. All this means one thing, which is that political stability has calmed the markets and investors are starting to buy our bonds again because they don’t fear default. Does it seem like little to you? Not to me. Just as it doesn’t seem marginal to me that the deficit has gone from 8.1 to 3.1 and that theemployment has started to grow again. If 23.2 million Italians worked in 2022, today we are at 24.3 million. They say that most of them are workers in their fifties? Given that even those who have passed the “ante” must support a family, youth unemployment has fallen from 24% to 18.9. And in total we are at 5.8, with an 8.7% growth in permanent contracts. Little? Of course, more could have been done, but until yesterday there were those who had done worse.
Today the opposition complains, saying that wages are growing little compared to inflation. True, but salaries have been among the lowest in Europe since the 1990s and until yesterday the left didn’t seem to have noticed it. And if the gap with the pay slips of the rest of the EU remains, there is an improvement, also because after years that in the public employment no agreements were reached, for workers in state and municipal administrations, education, defense and healthcare, the agreements made it possible to provide increases ranging from 200 to 400 euros gross.
Migration routes and the response to opposition
Among the government’s results that horrify the Big Brother commentator there is also theimmigrationdropped by 80% in four years. From over 100,000 landings in 2022 (150,000 the following year), we are at 16,000 in the first months of this year. Too many? Yes, but the trend highlights that making agreements with Mediterranean countries, stopping NGO ships, opening centers abroad and implementing measures for repatriations (almost 6,000 in eight months), is needed. Are the opposition attacking because Meloni didn’t implement the naval blockade? But in 2015, when Renzi was at Palazzo Chigi, the landings were more than 153,000 and the repatriations were certainly not record-breaking. The work is not completed, as the Prime Minister probably expected, however the strategy seems to me to be starting to work.
Obviously, Italy after four years of Meloni’s government is not Bengodi. Not everything is working at its best and there is still a lot of work to do. But it is not the disaster that the left describes, which, if it had remained in Palazzo Chigi, would probably have sent us into bankruptcy, with citizen’s income and Superbonus. However, to give an objective judgment of the longest-serving executive in history I believe it is sufficient to re-read the judgments that the left has pronounced since the day of his inauguration.
The political budget and the framework of alternatives
Meloni has been accused of authoritarian drift, of post-fascist nostalgia, of squeezing civil rights, of international isolation and on the financial markets, of failure in the management of the PNRR, of sovereignist alliances and also of ambiguity on the war in Ukraine, as well as obviously of war crimes for not having bombed Israel and attacked America after the start of the conflict with Iran. In short, apart from the accusation of robbing old ladies and beating up kids, I think they told her everything. But as far as I’m concerned, even if I’m not one for easy enthusiasm, I’m happy that she has been at Palazzo Chigi in recent years and I believe that the Italians should be too. I don’t want to diminish its role: but the alternatives are called Schlein, Count And Salis. Silvia obviously, but thanks to Avs it could also be Ilaria.
Not to mention Ranucci.
