Rom Italy’s new foreign minister went on a business trip on Thursday – even before he had even taken his oath of office: Antonio Tajani flew from Rome to Brussels for the meeting of the European People’s Party. His mission: to repair what his party leader Silvio Berlusconi had previously destroyed. The 86-year-old former prime minister and chairman of Forza Italia caused a foreign policy disaster this week by flaring up his Putin friendship, understanding for the Ukraine invasion and stories about vodka bottles for his birthday.
Tajani, whose name has been circulating in the media for weeks as the head of the Farnesina, as the foreign ministry is called in Rome, was also confirmed there. But a look at the personal details of the other important departments also shows: Meloni continues to follow a moderate course. Tajani, who will also be Meloni’s deputy prime minister, is likely to be the strongest symbol of the new cabinet’s pro-Europe orientation: The 69-year-old, number two behind Berlusconi at Forza Italia, has been well connected in Brussels for years.
He was EU Commissioner for six years, first for transport and later for industry. In 2014 he became a member of the European Parliament and headed the EU Parliament for two and a half years. Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, called the former journalist Tajani “a guarantor” of a European and transatlantic Italy after his appointment.
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Giancarlo Giorgetti: The only one who remains Minister
The new finance minister should also soothe Brussels and the recently unsettled markets: Meloni’s choice fell on Giancarlo Giorgetti – he is the only minister in Mario Draghi’s government who also made it into the new cabinet. Under Draghi, the number two in the Lega acted as economy minister. With his level-headed manner, the 55-year-old has earned a good reputation with many entrepreneurs, especially in the economically strong north.
In contrast to his party leader Matteo Salvini, who repeatedly rumbles against foreigners and other minorities, he is considered a moderate party representative. Giorgetti studied business administration and worked as an auditor in northern Italy. He has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament without interruption since 1996 – from the beginning of his political career he supported the right-wing party, then known as the Lega Nord.
Now he can take care of the even more important Ministry of Finance – with government debt accounting for more than 150 percent of economic output, rising interest rates on government bonds and a looming recession in the coming year, this is one of the most central and at the same time most difficult tasks in the cabinet.
Giorgetti’s successor in the Ministry of Economics is Adolfo Urso. The 65-year-old will head the department, which will be renamed the Ministry for “Companies Made in Italy”. Urso studied sociology and, like Tajani, used to work as a journalist. At that time he promoted the emergence of the Alleanza Nazionale, a post-fascist party that is considered the predecessor of today’s Fratelli d’Italia.
In the middle of the week she spoke a word of power in terms of Europe and NATO.
(Photo: ddp / abaca press)
From 1994 to 2013 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and in the early 2000s he was foreign trade minister under Berlusconi. He has been in the Senate since 2018 – most recently he was head of the parliamentary security committee that monitors the work of the secret services. “Urso is pragmatic and non-ideological,” says Francesco Galietti of the Roman political consultancy Policy Sonar. “But the question is how much he understands about companies.”
Meloni refuses Matteo Salvini his dream job
Meloni had announced several times in advance that he wanted to set up a “top-class cabinet”. On Friday night, she tweeted that the government “will work quickly to respond to the urgencies of the nation and citizens.” Political observers had suspected that experts would also move into some ministries. But in the end almost all offices were politically assigned. Only the new Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, is not a party politician, but a nuclear medicine doctor, who has been rector of a university in Rome since 2019.
Meloni made her alliance partner Salvini Deputy Prime Minister. However, the head of the Lega did not get his old dream job back: he really wanted to be interior minister again, like he did from 2018 to 2019. During the election campaign, he said that he could not wait to send refugee boats back. Most recently, like Berlusconi, he attracted attention because of his Putin affinity and has repeatedly called for an end to sanctions against Russia. Meloni has now entrusted him with the “Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility” department. An office in which he polarizes less, but can at least have an influence through the billions from the reconstruction fund.
More: Giorgia Meloni receives the government contract – despite Berlusconi’s connection to Russia