A tense standoff that ended on one of Giorgia Meloni's longest days, as she took off from Algiers to return to Rome while Daniela Santanchè formally announced her resignation. Because "friendship" matters more, the minister says, even if relations had been strained for some time: the prime minister had felt "humanly disappointed" by the Minister of Tourism, who was involved in several, too many, legal proceedings. And now, following the resignations of Andrea Delmastro and Giusi Bartolozzi, with the departure of Tourism Minister Meloni, she closes the circle by explaining her fury to her people with a definitive "I have corrected some mistakes."

For much of the day, Meloni was busy securing Italy's gas supplies (without suffering steep price increases) from her Algerian "friends." She also spent much time with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, longer than protocol dictated. Tensions were sky-high in Rome, while in Montecitorio her majority offered no resistance to the opposition's request to schedule the motion of no confidence in the minister as soon as possible , and Ignazio La Russa had been conducting his moral suasion all day, phone after phone call, to convince Santanché to tender the resignation the Prime Minister had officially and completely unexpectedly requested, in an official statement from Palazzo Chigi .

A violent clash, unprecedented in recent history, which ends after what, in the Senate, is being described as a "miraculous birth." Because Santanchè resists, insists, tries to demand guarantees (some say a re-candidacy, some even the coordination of FdI in Lombardy) that the prime minister is unwilling to grant . "You have to resign and that's it," Meloni's iron fist is said to have confronted the minister, because she let things slide for too long—and even among her own people there are those who quietly say that it was, in fact, a game that should have been over a long time ago.

From a certain point in the afternoon, word spread of her imminent resignation, which finally arrived shortly after 6:00 PM . And immediately, the race to find a replacement began. She would like to avoid it, but it's actually possible that Meloni herself will take the interim role, at least for a few days, to consider a possible new appointment with a year or so to go before the end of the legislature. The name of Gianluca Caramanna, tourism director for the Brothers of Italy party and Santanché's advisor at the ministry, is being floated—he has since flown to Dallas with his party's delegation to attend the CPAC . But some are bringing up Lucio Malan, current president of the FdI senators, pointing out that his name had been circulated in the past for a promotion in a ministry. Also within the FdI, there's talk of Sicilian Senator Salvo Sallemi (also with a view to rebalancing the region). But among the possible candidates, in addition to a figure considered technical like that of the former president of the CONI Giovanni Malagò, the name of Luca Zaia also emerges from the rumors.

(Unioneonline)

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