The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, welcomed this Sunday the good economic results, a year after winning the general elections, but confessed that, in terms of immigration management, the great electoral trump card, she hoped to “do more.”
“I expected more on immigration. We worked hard, but the results are not what we expected, because the issue is very complex. This issue deserves a second phase of efforts,” acknowledged the far-right Italian prime minister in a statement. transalpine public television program.
Meloni won the elections on September 25, 2022, after the resignation of her predecessor, Mario Draghi, and, on October 22, she took office as Prime Minister, the first woman in the position in the country’s history, supported by the coalition of Brothers. of Italy, for the League, of Matteo Salvini, and for the Força Italia, of Silvio Berlusconi.
“The balance has to be achieved by the Italians. Personally, I can say that I promised to deliver a better Italy than the one I received and, after a year, Italy is more credible, more stable and more listened to. It is the beginning of work that must be evaluated at the end of five years [da legislatura]”he told TG1.
Meloni acknowledged that, in immigration matters, the results are not as expected, since 132,867 immigrants have landed in the country so far this year, double that of a year ago and triple that in 2021, despite having promised during the electoral campaign a “naval blockade” in the Mediterranean to avoid this situation.
On the other hand, Meloni said she was proud of the economic data, of “an Italy that, after years of hitting rock bottom, is now growing more than the European average”: the European Commission (EC) predicts a growth of 0.9%. for Italy this year, compared to 1.2% in May, while the euro area average will grow by 0.8%.
The Italian leader was also proud of having “found resources for those who have difficulties and for those with lower average incomes” and also for having fulfilled her promise to dismantle the controversial “Citizenship Income”, a subsidy approved in the last legislature by the Movement Five. Stars.
She was also satisfied with having acted “where it was necessary, such as in banking and in areas where other governments did not dare,” in reference to the bank tax on extraordinary profits that scared the sector last August.
On the other hand, he once again expressed doubts about the introduction of a minimum wage, requested by the center-left opposition.
“I am surprised that the opposition is discovering its usefulness today, because in ten years of government they have not made it possible. I fear that it could worsen the conditions of more workers than it benefits, but we await the report from the National Economic and Employment Council ( CNEL)”, he stated.
Meloni intends to remain in office for five years, a rarity in a country that has had 68 governments in about seven decades of democracy.
“I see a five-year horizon to carry out the major reforms that the country needs,” he said, listing fiscal, justice, “merit in education,” constitutional and other reforms to intervene in the “housing emergency.”
“There is a lot of work to do, but we will fulfill the commitments we made,” he concluded.
Source: TSF
