Second day of the Lega Congress in progress at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence.
The speech of the premier
Dear Matteo, dear friends of the League, good morning everyone!
I wanted, albeit briefly, to bring my greeting to the Lega congress, in an important moment clearly for any party. In terms of organization, writing of congress motions, preparation of documents, involvement of militants. A congress is never a waste of time, it is always a great exercise of democracy, and it is what strengthens and makes a party lively, vital, dynamic. Celebrating it while in the government it means that institutional responsibilities have not “distracted” us from listening to our voters, people and territories. And they have not moved away from those who support us, by those who give us the strength to continue on this path. An exciting path, in its difficulty, at times physically very demanding, which however allowed us to enter a few days ago on the list of the five most lasting governments in republican history. And, even more important, after two and a half years of government, we can still count on the consent of the majority of Italians.
Our cohesion and compactness have given us the strength to build a vision of development for Italy, to return that authority, that international centrality that for too many years have been denied to it, to put on the pipeline the great reforms that the nation has been waiting for for decades and that the Italians have asked us to make. Program that we intend to respect point by point, because it is exactly what differentiates us from our opponents, which differentiates us from the left: we share the same vision of the world and we are in the government to respect the commitments made with citizens. We are in the government to work, to be at the service of Italians, to do what no one else has had the courage and strength to do in many years. That’s why we will go on, belly on the ground, until the end of the legislature, to build a stable political system with the premiererate and put the choice to the citizens on those who have to govern, to free the judiciary with the politicalized currents with the reform of justice, to guarantee with differentiated autonomy the same levels of performance to all citizens, regardless of the region in which they live. And we will continue to defend the boundaries and fight illegal mass immigration, continuing with that work – patient, daily but determined – that has allowed us to drastically reduce the landings on our coasts.
We will not arouse a millimeter on safety. We are and we will always be at the side of our law enforcement officers, as we have done so far. We have increased men and means, we have unlocked the contracts stopped for years and provided, in the security decree legal protection for our police officers and our soldiers who should be investigated or attributed for facts inherent in their service, that is, while they are carrying out their work. The state will support their legal expenses, up to a maximum of ten thousand euros for each phase of the procedure. It is a sacrosanct rule that our police forces had been waiting for a long time, and that this government proudly claims.
We will continue to work to build a lighter and more fair taxman by fighting true evasion, and above all to put our companies in a position to create development and our workers to have quality employment. We swore to the Quirinale on 22 October 2022 and from that day in Italy one million more jobs was created in Italy. I want to remember it, because I think Silvio Berlusconi, who had made a priority battle of the million more jobs in a legislature, would be proud to know that the government that helped to give birth has reached that goal in just two and a half years.
We are governing in the moment probably more difficult since the post -war period to date. It happened and a little bit of everything is happening. We will also address the theme of duties, with determination and pragmatism, without alarmism. We have not obviously shared the choice of the United States, but we are ready to field all the tools – negotiating and economic – necessary to support our businesses and our sectors that should be penalized. And we will return to forcefully ask Europe to strongly review the ideological regulations of the Green Deal and the excess regulation in each sector, which today constitute real internal duties that would end up adding senselessly to the external ones. We would have happily done without it, of course, but I am convinced that the Italians feel reassured by the fact that this government is at the helm of Italy right now. None of us is perfect, we have made a lot of mistakes many times and we will make a mistake, but citizens know that on us they will always be able to count on because the only thing we are interested in is the interest of Italy and Italians.
Long live Italy, live the center -right!
And therefore, thanks to everyone, and a good congress!
