Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the presidency of the Republic, known as the Quirinale, is not part of her plans, while arguing that there should be no automatic assumption that the office belongs to the center-left.
Meloni made the comments in Bruno Vespa’s forthcoming book, “Storia della Seconda Repubblica. Da Berlusconi a Meloni, da Prodi a Schlein,” due to be published on November 2 by Mondadori-Rai Libri.
“I am totally focused on concluding this term well and asking Italians to confirm their trust in me for another five years. The Quirinale is not in my plans,” Meloni said. She added that there was no reason for it to be considered scandalous if a person with a conservative outlook were one day to aspire to the role.
The prime minister criticized what she described as a cultural prejudice against the center-right. She questioned the idea that an excellent president must necessarily come from the center-left and condemned what she called “cultural racism” that treats a large part of the Italian electorate as politically inferior.
Meloni also argued that reactions from the left to the possibility of a center-right majority choosing the next president reveal a “proprietary” view of the institutions. The current president’s term is not otherwise discussed in the provided material.
Looking ahead to next year’s general election, Meloni said voters were more politically mature than is often assumed. She said citizens could distinguish between different types of elections and the issues at stake, and suggested they would do so in the parliamentary vote.
She also predicted that opponents would try to raise what she called the usual “democratic alarm,” pointing to the attention surrounding the Constitutional Court’s assessment of the electoral law and to the forthcoming election campaign.
Sources: Il Sole 24 Ore Italia.