Meloni: I aim for five more years as prime minister; the presidency is not in my plans

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she is not seeking the post of president of the Republic and has her sights set on a second term at the head of the government. Her remarks are part of journalist Bruno Vespa's new book, “The History of the Second Republic: From Berlusconi to Meloni, from Prodi to Schlein,” which according to the ANSA news agency, cited by ATSH, goes on sale on Monday.

“Fully focused”

“I am fully focused on successfully completing this mandate,” Meloni says, adding that she aims to win Italians' trust to be reconfirmed for another five years. The presidency, she says, “is not in my plans.”

Still, the prime minister does not spare the left. She asks why it should cause a scandal that “a figure with a conservative culture might one day aspire to that post.”

Accusation of “cultural racism”

“I find this cultural racism unbearable,” Meloni writes, arguing that half or more of Italians are treated as “second-class” citizens, often by people who cheered for the Soviet Union in their youth. She adds that the left's hysterical reactions whenever there is talk of a center-right majority proposing the president “say a lot about the proprietary concept they have of institutions.”

As its title suggests, Vespa's book, which goes on sale on Monday, traces Italian politics from Silvio Berlusconi to Meloni and from Romano Prodi to Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein.