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Tag: Silvio Berlusconi

  • 13 Newly Crowned Media Billionaires on Forbes 2024 Rich List

    13 Newly Crowned Media Billionaires on Forbes 2024 Rich List

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    Taylor Swift is the first person to join the billionaire list from just music earnings. Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

    Forbes’s 2024 World’s Billionaires list is out, and it includes 13 newcomers who are from the media and entertainment industry. The most exciting name is likely Taylor Swift, who currently boasts a net worth of $1.1 billion. She is also the only person who has made the list through earnings in music and performance alone, according to Forbes. Most billionaire musicians and actors have achieved their financial status through other businesses. Rihanna, for example, became a billionaire primarily through her stakes in Fenty Cosmetics and Savage X Fenty. 

    If you find yourself reading the same last name over and over again on the Forbes list, it’s because five of the newly crowned billionaires are all children of the late former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. They were launched into billionaire status after inheriting their father’s $6.8 billion stake in the media company Fininvest after he passed away in 2023. 

    Here are the 13 media and entertainment figures who are featured on the Forbes billionaires list for the first time: (Age information about Ling Tang and Maria Frias is unavailable.)

    Marina Berlusconi, 57, media executive and heir: $2.1 billion

    Marina is the president of her late father’s company Fininvest, which she joined in 1996. 

    Pier Silvio Berlusconi, 54, media executive and heir: $2.1 billion

    Pier Silvio is the CEO of private television group MediaForEurope, which was also started by his father Silvio. He and Marina inherited most of their father’s wealth when he died. 

    Manoj Punjabi, 51, producer and media founder: $1.9 billion

    Punjabi comes from a prominent entertainment family in Indonesia, where he was the 32nd richest person in 2023. He co-founded the production house MD Media, later rebranded to MD Pictures, with his wife and parents in 2002. 

    Ling Tang, mobile games investor: $1.5 billion 

    Tang is an investor in the mobile game maker AppLovin, with an 8 percent stake. AppLovin boasts a market cap of $24.9 billion.

    Barbara Berlusconi, 39, media heir: $1.2 billion

    Barbara doesn’t currently work for any of her late father’s businesses. She was CEO of the Italian professional football club AC Milan for four years from 2013 to 2017 until her father sold the team. 

    Eleonora Berlusconi, 37, media heir: $1.2 billion

    Eleonora does not have a position in her father Silvio’s media company Fininvest. Until recently, she was the only sibling who didn’t have a seat on the company’s board. This changed in November 2023 when the company announced that she would join. 

    Luigi Berlusconi, 35, media heir: $1.2 billion

    Luigi is the youngest Berlusconi sibling. He also does not work for any of his late father’s companies. 

    Maria Frias, journalist and newspaper heir: $1.2 billion

    Frias owns a third of the Folha de S. Paulo, one of the most popular newspapers in Brazil. She inherited the paper from her late father Octávio Frias, who owned and operated it from 1962 until his passing in 2007. Her brother Luiz Frias is also a billionaire and owns the rest of the company.   

    Dick Wolf, 77, television writer and producer: $1.2 billion

    Famous for creating the Law & Order franchise in the early 1990s, Wolf has benefited from the staying power of the original Law & Order series and its spinoffs, all produced through his company Wolf Entertainment. 

    Gyorgy Gattyan, 53, adult film site founder: $1.1 billion

    The porn mogul founded the adulting camming website LiveJasmin in 2001, which is where he made most of his fortune.  

    Benny Suherman, 76, cinema co-founder: $1.1 billion

    Suherman is the co-founder of Cinema XXI, Indonesia’s first cinema chain. He’s the 43rd richest person in Indonesia. 

    Taylor Swift, 34, singer and songwriter: $1.1 billion

    It was the Eras tour and her music catalog that propelled Swift into billionaire status in 2023. According to Forbes, her wealth breakdown is $500 million from royalties, $500 million from her music catalog and $125 million from real estate. 

    Ric Elias, 57 or 58, digital media co-founder and CEO: $1 billion

    Elias’ media company Red Ventures owns CNET and Best Colleges. He was already named a billionaire in 2021 by The New York Times, which reported that his company was worth $11 billion and he had a 20 percent stake. Elias pledged that same year to give half of his money away.   

    13 Newly Crowned Media Billionaires on Forbes 2024 Rich List

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    Nhari Djan

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  • Putin can’t count on his friends in Italy anymore

    Putin can’t count on his friends in Italy anymore

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    When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni walks into the Oval Office on Thursday, her transformation will be complete. 

    Gone is the ghoulish caricature of an extremist monster, sympathetic to Moscow, whose party was descended from fascists, and in her place stands a pragmatic conservative willing to do business with a grateful international mainstream. 

    For U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s backers in the West, securing Meloni’s long-term commitment to the war effort is vital: Italy will assume the leadership of the G7 next year, at what’s likely to be a critical time in the conflict. 

    Initially, the signs weren’t good. Before she was elected last September, Meloni alarmed officials in Western capitals with her blunt brand of far-right populism. She banged the drum for nationalist causes, vowing to slam the brakes on immigration, stand up to the European Union’s leadership in Brussels and even opposed sanctioning Russia over Ukraine. 

    Yet 10 months since Meloni won power, the picture has changed dramatically. She will receive VIP treatment at the White House Thursday, with a welcome from Biden that will be as sincere as for any other G7 ally. While the Democrat and the far-right populist share almost nothing in their political outlooks, their handshake is likely to be one of mutual relief. 

    Meloni’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, leader of the center-right Forza Italia party, told POLITICO that the Ukraine war had bolstered Italy’s relationship with the U.S. The Meloni government’s “three polar stars” are now the EU, the U.N. and NATO, he said.

    “Italy is part of the Western alliance and wants to be a protagonist in the Western alliance and in particular in its alliance with the U.S.A.,” Tajani said. “Since the crisis in Ukraine, our relationship on issues of security and shared policy with the U.S.A. has been getting stronger.”

    Putin’s pals

    It is a far cry from the sort of rhetoric that had, until recently, emanated from Rome. 

    As leader of the hard right Brothers of Italy, she supported Putin’s strongman politics while in opposition, congratulating him after his re-election by saying “the will of the people appears unequivocal.” 

    After Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea she repeatedly opposed sanctions against Russia, citing the need to protect Italian exports. During the pandemic Meloni endorsed Russia’s Sputnik vaccines. In a TV interview in 2022 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she highlighted how essential it was to remain on good terms with Putin and accused Biden of “using foreign policy to cover up the problems he has at home.” 

    If Meloni seemed like a problem to Western leaders, her coalition partners were an even worse prospect. Matteo Salvini, leader of the right wing League, who once wore a T-shirt printed with Putin’s face to the EU Parliament, attempted to arrange a peace mission to Moscow with flights paid by the Russian embassy. 

    And Meloni’s coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi, who led the center-right Forza Italia party until his death in June, blamed Ukraine for the war and had a personal friendship with Vladimir Putin, continuing to exchange gifts with the Russian leader even after the invasion. 

    When she took power, there were deep, if private, fears within the White House, according to several Biden administration officials who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, that Meloni might shatter the G7 support for Ukraine. 

    But Meloni surprised U.S. officials at the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May with just how eager she seemed to build a strong relationship with Biden, according to two government officials who witnessed their interactions. 

    At the NATO summit earlier this month in Vilnius, Meloni stood just a few feet from both Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when the G7 nations announced additional security guarantees for Kyiv that were meant as something of a make-good after NATO declined to fast-track Ukraine’s membership.

    At the NATO summit earlier this month in Vilnius, Meloni stood just a few feet from both Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

    With Italy set to take over the presidency of the G7 in January, Meloni’s support for the cause has prompted sighs of relief from both sides of the Atlantic.

    “The President and the Prime Minister have built a good, productive relationship as they have worked together closely on a variety of issues such as our support for Ukraine and our approach to China, and President Biden is looking forward to continuing that conversation,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for Biden’s national security council.

    Pleasantly surprised

    Biden has told those around him he has been pleasantly surprised by Meloni’s leadership in the war effort but is eager to get to know the Italian leader better, according to multiple administration officials. 

    For Alessandro Politi, Director of the NATO Defense College Foundation in Rome, Meloni “understood very quickly that when you get into government you have responsibilities and the U.S.A. is a primary ally.”

    Her visit to Kyiv in February was a clear sign she was following “an orthodox path” and a moment when “she convinced the wider international community that she was in charge of the coalition and that her allies had to follow her political line.”

    Meloni’s support for the Western stance does not mean the whole of Italy feels the same way. 

    Some populists on both the left and right of Italian politics still hold pro-Russian views, and the question of whether it’s right to send arms to Ukraine elicits fierce debate in the media. Italy’s longstanding position on Russia has always been to try to act as a bridge, facilitating good relations between East and West.

    But although a majority of Italians are opposed to it, Meloni has continued to back Ukraine with military aid. Ukrainians are “defending freedom and democracy on which our civilization is based,” she told the Italian Senate in March.  

    While Biden and Meloni are likely to agree on Ukraine, it is not certain that they will be in harmony on all issues. 

    In 2019 Italy became the only G7 country to join China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative. Later this year it is up for renewal, but in the new cold war climate the U.S. expects the deal to be scrapped.

    While Meloni has indicated that she might not extend the agreement with Beijing, calling it “a big mistake,” this position is not yet confirmed. If she does return to the more traditional Italian line of walking a middle ground, the cracks in the Biden-Meloni relationship will open up again. 

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    Hannah Roberts, Jonathan Lemire and Eli Stokols

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  • Why Putin should worry his propaganda machine broke down

    Why Putin should worry his propaganda machine broke down

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    Vladimir Putin had an iron grip on Russians’ views of the world. Then Yevgeny Prigozhin ripped that facade apart. 

    In the aftermath of the Wagner Group boss’ aborted uprising, Putin and his propagandists — national broadcasters, high-profile politicians and social media influencers — have struggled to explain how Prigozhin, an archetypal Russian hero, suddenly turned into the country’s most infamous traitor. 

    Five Western security officials, almost all of whom spoke privately to discuss sensitive matters, told POLITICO Putin was still fundamentally in control even though the mutiny had significantly tested his authority. 

    But the Russian leader’s inability to dominate public perceptions of what happened over the last week highlighted a potential fragility within his leadership, according to two of these officials. Putin and his propagandists failed to react quickly when Prigozhin launched his dramatic insurrection and in the subsequent days, their messaging veered from deafening silence to claims that it was all a Western plot. 

    “It’s certainly one of the most challenging, or even the most challenging, situation that Putin has faced,” said Jakub Kalenský, a deputy director at the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, a joint NATO-EU organization tracking state-backed influence campaigns. “It will also be a challenge in the information space. Prigozhin himself controlled quite a significant part of his propaganda machine,” he added. “Now, we have different branches of the propaganda machine controlled by different people.”

    As Wagner troops sped toward Moscow last weekend, state-owned media outlets — where three-quarters of Russians still get the majority of their news — initially downplayed the mutiny. One even broadcast a documentary on Silvio Berlusconi, the now-deceased Italian leader, as the uprising unfolded.

    At the same time, influential users of Telegram, the social media platform favored by Russian speakers, were divided on how to portray the events. A vocal minority — some with hundreds of thousands of followers — sided with Prigozhin’s criticism of Russia’s military leaders, though made it clear they were not attacking Putin. 

    And once the crisis was over, with the Wagner boss on his way to exile in Belarus, Kremlin-backed broadcasters attempted to shoehorn the rebellion into age-old narratives that any attack on Russia must be tied to Western aggression. 

    Prigozhin himself was a key figure in Putin’s propaganda machine. His own Telegram followers number almost 1.4 million people. Groups associated with the mercenary leader remain a linchpin in Russia’s global online influence campaigns, while American authorities have connected him to interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

    Prigozhin’s status as the archetypal strongman made it hard for the Kremlin to accuse him of being a traitor to Russia.

    On Telegram, where influencers focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have become national celebrities, once active groups became eerily quiet as users struggled to decipher who was going to win, according to Eto Buziashvili, a research associate at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who tracks Russian-speaking social media.

    Many of these high-profile Telegram channels have been vocally critical of Russian military leaders during the invasion of Ukraine, and routinely backed Prigozhin’s criticism of how the war has been waged. 

    Prigozhin himself was a key figure in Putin’s propaganda machine | Pool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP via Getty Images

    Yet once the mercenary leader’s march on Moscow fizzled out, many of these social media users did not openly attack Prigozhin, and instead called for peace between Russians — while continuing their criticism of the Kremlin’s military strategy in Ukraine. Russian-language Telegram accounts urged Wagner Group forces and the Russian military not to resort to outright civil war. “Everybody basically said ‘let’s just not do this,” Buziashvili added.

    In the days following the failed insurrection, national media has shifted gears to call for unity, while portraying Putin in everyday events — including, on Thursday, at a local textile conference — to show the country had moved on. The state’s international broadcasters, which have deployed a more aggressive disinformation playbook, also quickly tried to link the aborted mutiny to NATO.

    For Bret Schafer, head of the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s information manipulation team, the confused response to Prigozhin’s rebellion is reminiscent of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. 

    In February 2022, the Kremlin’s disinformation industry was also caught off guard — mostly because Putin had categorically disavowed military action, even hours before his troops invaded. Russian influence operations are often developed over months, if not years, and struggle to shift into new narratives when required to do so almost overnight. 

    “Russia does well in propaganda campaigns because they have so many tentacles,” said Schafer. “But it doesn’t respond particularly well in moments of confusion where there’s a lack of clarity of what’s going on.”

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    Mark Scott

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  • Silvio Berlusconi’s death draws tributes, even from critics, in Italy and beyond

    Silvio Berlusconi’s death draws tributes, even from critics, in Italy and beyond

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    ROME (AP) — Adored, scorned, impossible to ignore in life, former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in death drew tributes even from his critics, and ever more lavish praise from admirers, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as prayers from Pope Francis.

    Following word of Berlusconi’s death on Monday in a Milan hospital, where he was being treated for chronic leukemia, reaction poured in from around the world, from national leaders to announcers who burst into tears on one of his television networks, for the populist three-time premier and media mogul.

    Here are some of the reactions:

    — In a condolence telegram, Putin hailed Berlusconi as a “patriarch” of Italian politics and a true patriot who had improved Italy’s standing on the world stage.

    “I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions even in the most difficult situations,” Putin said in the telegram released by the Kremlin. “During each of our meetings, I was literally charged with his incredible vitality, optimism and sense of humor.”

    Berlusconi hosted Putin twice at one of his Sardinia Emerald Coast villas, and the Russian reciprocated, including with a stay at Putin’s dacha. For Berlusconi’s last birthday in September, Putin gifted him bottles of vodka, even as the Italian government staunchly backed Ukraine in the war against the Russian invasion.

    “Undoubtedly, he was a politician of the European and the world scale,” Putin said. “There are few such people in the international arena now. He was a great friend of our people and did a lot to develop business, friendly relations between Russia and European countries.” Berlusconi had expressed reservations about sanctions against Russian interests over the invasion.

    — Former U.S. President George W. Bush, in a message from Kennebunkport, Maine, recalled Berlusconi as a “vibrant leader with a personality to match. (Wife) Laura and I were fortunate to spend a good deal of time with him during my presidency. There was never a dull moment with Silvio. He strengthened the friendship between Italy and the United States, and we are grateful for his commitment to our important alliance. Laura and I send our condolences to the Berlusconi family and the people of Italy.”

    — Far-right Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose coalition government’s junior partners include the Forza Italia party Berlusconi founded three decades ago, bid him “farewell, Silvio” in a video statement carried on Italian television. With his passing, “a great European political leader and a great Italian is gone. His intuitions, his battles, his commitment transformed our nation and opened spaces for authentic liberty.”

    — Pope Francis, in a condolence telegram sent to Berlusconi’s eldest daughter, Marina Berlusconi, assured his closeness to all the family. The pontiff said that the late premier had carried out “public responsibilities with an energetic temperament.” Francis prayed that God grant “eternal peace for him and consolation of the heart for those who weep for his passing.” Francis said he joined in the condolences “with a fervent remembrance in prayer.”

    — The Biden administration extended its condolences to Berlusconi’s family, friends “and to the government and people of Italy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “The prime minister worked closely with several U.S. administrations on advancing our bilateral relationship. We stand with the people of Italy today.”

    — Tony Blair, a former U.K. prime minister, in a statement recalled his many interactions with Berlusconi. “Silvio was a larger-than-life figure with whom I worked closely for several years as Prime Minister. I know he was controversial for many but for me he was a leader whom I found capable, shrewd and, most important, true to his word.”

    — Former center-left Italian Premier Romani Prodi, who in 2006 narrowly defeated Berlusconi in an election to take the premiership, said that their rivalry “never exceeded into enmity on the personal level, keeping the confrontation in a context of reciprocal respect.” A former European Commission president, Prodi expressed appreciation for Berlusconi’s “support for the pro-Europe cause, above all because it was confirmed and reiterated in a period in which our common European destiny was harshly and unwisely under accusation.”

    — “We had our political differences but on a personal level, he was always charming and engaging company,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister and former NATO secretary-general, said of Berlusconi.

    — Italian President Sergio Mattarella, whose role as head of state was coveted by Berlusconi — he sought unsuccessfully in recent years to be chosen by Parliament for that position — in his tribute described the former premier as a “protagonist of long seasons of Italian politics.

    “Berlusconi was a great political leader who marked the history of our republic, influencing its paradigms, customs and language,” Mattarella said.

    — Former center-left Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, who now heads a centrist opposition party, recalled Berlusconi’s divisive legacy in a message on Twitter. “Silvio Berlusconi made history in this country. Many loved him, many hated him. All must recognize that his impact on political life, but also economic, sport and television, has been without precedence.”

    — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted about her sadness. Berlusconi “led Italy in a time of political transition and since then continued to shape his beloved country. I extend my condolences to his family and the Italian people.”

    — French President Emmanuel Macron said Berlusconi was “a great entrepreneur, and he left his mark on Italian political life over the last few decades, and we send the Italian people and the Italian government our condolences.”

    — Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Berlusconi’s top Forza Italia official, said the late premier was a “precious engine of ideas.” “Berlusconi changed the history of our country,” he said.

    __In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Berlusconi “obviously a tremendously significant figure in the life of Italy, in the political life, in the public life of the country. Many American administrations worked with him over the years.”

    — Fabrizio Marrazzo, a spokesperson for Italy’s Gay Party, recalled Berlusconi as “a liberal person who contributed to the dissemination of LGBT+ issues on his television networks,” including the first television interviews in Italy with gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people. Still, Marrazzo noted that Berlusconi’s solidarity on the political front sometimes wavered. In 2010, buffeted by sex scandals over his partying with women decades younger, Berlusconi offended many with his remark that it was “better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay.”

    — On one of the three private television networks in Berlusconi’s media empire, a pair of announcers hosting a live morning talk show choked up and shed tears when giving the audience the news of his death. Outside one of Berlusconi’s villas, in Arcore, near Milan, someone placed a scarf from AC Milan soccer club, which Berlusconi had long owned, next to bouquets of flowers.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that the spelling of the Gay Party spokesperson’s last name is Marrazzo, not Marazzo.

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  • Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister, has died at the age of 86

    Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister, has died at the age of 86

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    Rome — Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the country’s most charismatic and controversial contemporary leaders, has died in Milan at the age of 86, his lawyer confirmed to CBS News. Berlusconi’s doctors said when he was hospitalized in April that he was battling a rare form of leukaemia, and the Reuters news agency said he recently caught a lung infection.

    The country’s defense chief Guido Crosseto lauded Berlusconi in a tweet, saying his death had left “a huge void because he was great. An era is over, an era is closing.”

    The former cruise ship singer reinvented himself as a real-estate tycoon and a television media mogul before entering Italian politics and becoming prime minister, for the first of his three terms, in 1994. 

    He went on to dominate Italian politics and culture for two decades despite — or perhaps in part because of — seemingly endless gaffes. He once referred to former U.S. President Barack Obama as “sun-tanned,” for instance, and quipped that it was “better” to like girls than be gay.

    Berlusconi long painted himself as a victim of “political correctness,” but his penchant for the seedier side of wealth and power, including the notorious “Bunga Bunga” sex parties he hosted at his mansions in Milan and Sardinia, and his financial dealings, eventually brought legal repercussions.

    He ended up in court accused of paying an underage girl to sleep with him and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Those charges were ultimately overturned, but similar scenarios played out in more than 20 separate trials, most of them on corruption, embezzlement and bribery charges.

    He once claimed to have attended at least 2,500 court appearances.

    In six of the cases, the charges were dropped because of new financial laws he helped pass as the nation’s leader, decriminalizing the actions involved, or because the statute of limitations had run out.

    “All fiction,” he would claim in court, railing against “liberal elites,” “leftist” judges, and a “hostile media” — despite owning TV channels, magazines, and newspapers himself.

    But in 2013, charges against Berlusconi finally stuck. He was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years in prison, though the sentence was commuted to just one year of community service at a nursing home due to his age.

    It marked the end of his foothold on the political center stage in Italy, but his populist legacy was to show the world that people with more star power than political experience could rise to the highest offices of state.

    Chris Livesay


    Chris Livesay

    Chris Livesay is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Rome.

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  • Italy wants to build the world’s longest suspension bridge. The Mafia and geography might make that difficult | CNN

    Italy wants to build the world’s longest suspension bridge. The Mafia and geography might make that difficult | CNN

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    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    There is a popular saying in Italian – similar to how Anglophones use “when hell freezes over” – that translates as “I’ll do it when the bridge to Messina is finished.”

    The dream of a bridge connecting the mainland to Sicily across the Straits of Messina goes back to Roman times, when Consul Metellus strung together barrels and wood to move 100 war elephants from Carthage to Rome in 252 BCE, according to writings by Pliny the Elder.

    Since then, various plans, including a short-lived idea for a tunnel, have come and gone – like water under the bridge.

    If built, the bridge across the Straits of Messina would span two miles (3.2 kilometers) and would be the longest suspension bridge in the world.

    Now the massive engineering project might actually be realized, thanks to a decree passed by the government of Giorgia Meloni last month after Transport Minister Matteo Salvini revived a plan last pushed forward when Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister.

    In 2006, the bid to build the bridge was awarded to a consortium led by the Italian firm Salini Impregilo, now called WeBuild. When Berlusconi’s government fell that year, the plans to build the bridge collapsed with his government after the next prime minister, Romano Prodi, deemed it a waste of money and a risk to the environment.

    Since then, various governments have tried to revive it, and the current ruling coalition under Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi put it on their list of campaign promises. When Salvini became transport minister, he made it his priority, betting his legacy on the bridge.

    WeBuild, which still has the bid award on paper, sued the government for breach of contract after the project was paused, but it remains the most likely company to be given the job back despite “expressions of interest from all over the world, including China,” Salvini told the Foreign Press Association in Rome in March when he presented the plan.

    “The ones who won the 2006 tender are the ones who will most likely continue with the final version of the project,” he said, without naming WeBuild directly.

    WeBuild’s engineering director, Michele Longo, was invited to parliament to talk about the revived plan April 18.

    “The bridge over the Strait of Messina is a project that can break ground immediately. As soon as the contract is reinstated and updated, the project can start,” Longo told parliament. “The executive design is expected to take eight months, while the time needed to build the bridge will be a little more than six years.”

    The cost of the project is 4.5 billion euros ($4.96 billion) for the bridge alone and 6.75 billion euros ($7.4 billion) for the infrastructure to support it on both sides, which includes upgrading road and rail links, building terminals and doing the prep work on the land and seabed to “reduce hydrogeological risks” during construction, according to the plan presented to the transportation ministry.

    Since 1965, 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in public funds has already been spent on feasibility studies, according to Italian treasury department. Salvini is fond of saying it will cost more “not to build the bridge than build it.”

    The plans may seem well advanced but the challenges are complex.

    Southern Italy is prone to corruption with two major organized crime syndicates – the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra – excelling in infiltrating construction projects.

    The recent arrest of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro after 30 years on the lam in Sicily represented a victory.

    Denaro was against the building of the bridge, as are some other mob bosses, according to testimony from informants who contributed to Denaro’s arrest, in part because the organized crime syndicates feed off poverty and underdevelopment.

    Despite this, fears remain. An anti-Mafia from study from the Nomos Centre think tank published 20 years ago and now being updated warned parts of the project, such as transport and supply could fall under criminal control, as well as there being the possibility local mobs could demand protection money.

    Salvini has played down concerns. “I’m not afraid of criminal infiltration,” he told parliament recently, “we will be able to guarantee that the best Italian, European and global companies work there. There will be supervisory bodies that we are working on for every euro invested on the bridge.”

    There are also geophysical problems that may be even more difficult to contend with.

    The government says it will provide a huge boost to the local economy but the scheme faces many challenges.

    The Strait of Messina is along a fault line where a 7.1 earthquake in 1908, killed more than 100,000 people and spawned tsunamis that devastated the coastal areas on both the Calabrian and Sicilian sides of the water. It remains the deadliest recorded seismic event in Europe to date.

    The waters, too, are turbulent. Currents are so strong they often rip seaweed off the seabed, and they change every six hours, according to NASA, which notes that the strong wave patterns are visible from space.

    Under WeBuild’s original plan, which is the only one currently under consideration since bids have not been, and may not be, opened, the bridge deck would be built to withstand winds of up to 300 kilometers an hour – and could stay open to traffic with winds up to 150 kilometers an hour.

    There would be three vehicle lanes in each direction – two for traffic, and one for emergency, with train lines in the middle. Under the current plan, 6,000 cars and trucks could pass each hour, and 200 trains could pass each day.

    The bridge would be around 74 meters above sea level and allow a navigation channel of 600 meters, allowing cargo vessels and even the tallest cruise ships to pass. It would also be designed to withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, slightly stronger than the devastating one in 1908.

    The construction phase alone would contribute 2.9 billion euros to the national GDP and employ 100,000 people and 300 suppliers, Longo told parliament, adding “most of these people would come from the regions of Sicily and Calabria where there the rates of unemployment are high.”

    On the geographical challenges, Longo told CNN it is “one of the most dynamic straits of water anywhere between the depths and currents, but it is also one of the most studied areas. There millions of pages of studies dedicated to this area. We’ve read them all.” On the dangers of organized crime getting involved he said “nothing is impossible, but this is low risk.”

    Environmentalists have long argued the bridge would be devastating to the terrain and wildlife.

    “In the Strait of Messina, a very important place of transit for birds and marine mammals, one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world is concentrated,” a spokesperson for the group Legambiente says, adding that the bridge – both during and after construction – would disrupt migration routes between the Africa and Europe.

    The World Wildlife Fund has also campaigned against reviving the project. “The entire Strait of Messina area is a protected area under the EU Habitats Directive,” WWF Institutional Relations director Stefano Lenzi said in a statement. Back in 2006, before the plan was shelved, the group was preparing a lawsuit to try to stop it for breaching European Union protected areas.

    Salvini unveiling the bridge scheme in March.

    The environmental groups contend that the half-hour ferry is the least disruptive route.

    The post-bridge impact to the economy would be unarguably high, Salvini insists, saying that cargo ships from Asia could dock in Sicily and those goods could be transported on high-speed trains to Europe, once high-speed rails are built on Sicily – although they do not currently exist.

    Public opinion on both sides of the straits remains mixed, with those in a position to prosper through increased trade and easier tourism generally in support of it and those who don’t mind keeping Sicily isolated largely against it.

    The bridge has never been as close to being built as it is now, after Meloni signed the decree to pave the way for concrete plans to be put in place. The decree will become law in June, and Salvini said he hopes to break ground by July 2024.

    The Straits of Messina have long been equated with troubled waters. Homer created the sea monsters’ den for Scylla and Charybdis there for a reason. And while the only monsters might be ecological and criminal, there is little question that no matter when it happens, the dream for some of building the bridge to Messina won’t be put to rest until it’s finished.

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  • The old guard: Joe Biden seems like a spring chicken compared to some of these guys

    The old guard: Joe Biden seems like a spring chicken compared to some of these guys

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    When the U.S. president on Tuesday announced that he would seek reelection in 2024, attention quickly turned to his advanced age. 

    If elected, Joe Biden would be 82 on inauguration day in 2025, and 86 on leaving the White House in January 2029. 

    POLITICO took a look around the globe and back through history to meet some other elected world leaders who continued well into their octogenarian years, at a time when most people have settled for their dressing gown and slippers, some light gardening, and complaining about young people. 

    Here are seven of the oldest — and yes, they’re all men.

    Paul Biya

    President of Cameroon Paul Biya | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    The world’s oldest serving leader, Cameroon’s president has been in power since 1982, winning his (latest) reelection at the age of 85 with a North Korea-esque 71.28 percent of the vote. 

    Spanning more than four decades and seven consecutive terms — in 2008, a constitutional reform lifted term limits — Biya’s largely undisputed reign has not come without controversy. 

    His opponents have regularly accused him of election fraud, claiming he successfully built a state apparatus designed to keep him in power.

    Notorious for his lavish trips to a plush palace on the banks of Lake Geneva, which he’s visited more than 50 times, Biya keeps stretching the limits of retirement. Although he has not formally announced a bid for the next presidential elections in 2025, his party has called on him to run again in spite of his declining health.

    Last February, celebrations were organized throughout the country for the president’s 90th birthday. According to the government, young people spontaneously came out on the streets to show their love for Biya.

    Konrad Adenauer

    Former Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer | Keystone/Getty Images

    West Germany’s iconic first chancellor was elected for his inaugural term at the tender age of 73, but competed and won a third and final term at the age of 85. 

    In his 14-year chancellorship (1949-1963), Adenauer shaped Germany’s postwar years with a strong focus on integrating the young democracy into the West. Big milestones such as the integration of Germany into the European Economic Community and joining the NATO alliance just a few years after World War II happened under his leadership. 

    If his nickname “der Alte” (“the old man”) is one day bestowed upon Biden, the U.S. president would share it with a true friend of America. 

    Ali Khamenei

    Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | AFP via Getty Images

    84-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on all strategic issues in Iran, and his rule has been marked by murderous brutality against opponents. 

    That violence has only escalated in recent years, with mass arrests and the imposition of the death penalty against those protesting his dictatorial rule. A mere middle-ranking cleric in the 1980s, few expected Khamenei to succeed Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader, and he took the top job in hurried, constitutionally dubious circumstances in 1989. 

    A pipe-smoker and player of the tar, a traditional stringed instrument, he was president during the attritional Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and survived a bomb attack against him in 1981 that crippled his arm.

    Thankfully for Khamenei, he doesn’t have the stress of facing elections to wear him down. 

    Robert Mugabe

    President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe | Michael Nagle/Getty Images

    You’ve heard the saying “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” — well, here’s a classic case study. 

    Robert Mugabe’s political career reached soaring heights before crashing to depressing lows, during his nearly four decades ruling over Zimbabwe. He came to power as a champion of the anti-colonial struggle, but his rule descended into authoritarianism — while he oversaw the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy and society. 

    Though Mugabe’s final election win was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and intimidation, the longtime leader chalked up a thumping, landslide victory in 2013, aged 89.  

    He was finally, permanently, removed as leader well into his nineties, during a coup d’etat in 2017. He died two years later. 

    Giorgio Napolitano

    Italian President Giorgio Napolitano | Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

    The former Italian president took his largely symbolic role to new heights when, aged 86, he successfully steered the country through a perilous transition of power in 2011 — closing that particular chapter of Silvio Berlusconi’s story. 

    Operating mostly behind the scenes, Napolitano saw five PMs come and go during his eight-and-a-half years in office, at a time when Italian politics were rife with instability (but hey, what’s new?).

    Reelected against his will in 2013 at 87 — he had wanted to step down, but gave in after a visit from party leaders desperate to put Italy’s political landscape back on an even keel — Napolitano won the nickname “Re Giorgio” (King George) for his statesmanship.

    When he resigned two years later, he said: “Here [in the presidential palace], it’s all very beautiful, but it’s a bit like jail. At home, I’ll be ok, I can go out for a walk.”

    Mahmoud Abbas

    Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    “It has been a very good day,” Javier Solana, the then European Union foreign policy chief, exclaimed when Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

    As a tireless advocate of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas has enjoyed strong backing from the international community.

    But three EU policy chiefs later and with lasting peace no closer, Abbas is still in power, despite most polls showing that Palestinians want him to step aside. 

    His solution for political survival: No presidential elections have been held in the Palestinian Territories since that historic ballot in 2005, with the Palestinian leadership blaming either Israel or the prospect of rising Hamas influence for the postponement of elections.

    While Abbas seems to have found a solution for political survival, the physical survival of the 87-year-old chain smoker is now being called into question.

    William Gladstone

    William Ewart Gladstone | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    Queen Victoria reportedly described Gladstone as a “half-mad firebrand” — and you’d have to be to chase a fourth term as prime minister aged 82. 

    At that point Gladstone had already outlived Britain’s life expectancy at the time by decades. 

    During his career, Gladstone expanded the vote for men — but failed to pass a system of home rule in Ireland, and he was slammed for alleged inaction to help British soldiers who were slaughtered in the Siege of Khartoum. 

    Gladstone was Britain’s oldest-ever prime minister when he eventually stepped down at 84 — and no one has beaten that record since. Similarly, no one has served more than his four (nonconsecutive) terms. 

    But should the Tories remain addicted to chaos, who’d bet against Boris Johnson starting his fifth stint as PM in 2049? 

    Ali Walker and Christian Oliver contributed reporting.

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  • Zelenskyy: Macron is ‘wasting his time’ with Putin

    Zelenskyy: Macron is ‘wasting his time’ with Putin

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    French President Emmanuel Macron is wasting his time talking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

    “It’s a useless dialogue. In truth, Macron is wasting his time,” Zelenskyy said during an interview with several Italian newspapers.

    “I have come to the conclusion that we are unable to change the Russian attitude,” Zelenskyy added. “It is up to them to choose whether to cooperate with the international community.”

    Macron has been criticized by Zelenskyy in the past for his attempts to keep lines of communication open with Moscow since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    In remarks made over the weekend during the Munich Security Conference, Macron said that he had not spoken to Putin since last September, adding that “now [was] not the time for dialogue.”

    But, a day later, Macron added that although he wished for the Kremlin to lose, the war would end not on the battlefield but with peace talks — and that France would “never” support “crushing Russia.”

    In the same interview with Italian media, Zelenskyy also reacted ironically to the recent statements from former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who triggered an internal revolt among European conservatives last week after he said the Ukrainian president was responsible for the war.

    Berlusconi, who has described himself as a close friend of Putin, was heard boasting about receiving bottles of vodka from Putin for his birthday in audio tapes leaked to the press.

    “He likes vodka? If that’s the case, we have some of the finest quality in Ukraine — we can offer him some,” Zelenskyy said.

    The Ukrainian president also commented on recent reports from the U.S. that China was ready to send weapons to Russia, saying he hoped Beijing would keep a “pragmatic approach,” to avoid a “Third World War.”

    Elena Giordano contributed reporting.

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  • Soccer player injured in knife attack calls himself ‘lucky’

    Soccer player injured in knife attack calls himself ‘lucky’

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    MILAN — Pablo Marí, the Spanish soccer player who was wounded in a knife attack at an Italian shopping center, called himself “lucky” to survive and was being treated Friday following injuries to his back and mouth.

    Five people were stabbed Thursday and one was killed after a man grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf, authorities said.

    Police arrested a 46-year-old Italian man suspected in the attack at a shopping center in Assago, a suburb of Milan, carabinieri said.

    The 29-year-old Marí, who plays for Serie A club Monza on loan from Arsenal, does not have life-threating injuries but was still receiving medical attention at the Niguarda hospital in Milan.

    “He told me he had ‘suerte’ (luck), because, ‘today I saw someone else die,’” Monza CEO Adriano Galliani said after visiting Marí at the hospital late Thursday.

    “He had his child in a cart and his wife next to him. … He was probably saved by his height,” Galliani said of the 1.93-meter (6-foot-4) Marí. “He was hit in the back and then he saw this delinquent stab someone in the throat.”

    Massimo Tarantino, a former soccer player for Napoli and Inter Milan, was involved in stopping the assailant.

    “He was just screaming,” Tarantino told reporters. “I didn’t do anything. I’m not a hero.”

    Galliani said Marí also had injuries to his mouth, possibly from gritting his teeth during the attack.

    “He had two stitches applied to his lip and injuries to his back, which fortunately did not affect any organs,” Galliani said, adding that Marí was “lucid.”

    Marí’s wife was questioned by police as a witness to the attack, Galliani said.

    Marí, a center back, has played in eight of Monza’s 11 Italian league games this season and scored the second goal in a 2-0 win over Spezia this month. He spent the second half of last season on loan with Udinese, another Italian club.

    Monza, which is owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, hosts Bologna on Monday in its next match. The team is playing its debut season in the top division.

    “Pablo is a great kid,” Galliani said. “He had the strength to joke around, telling me that Monday he’ll be on the field. I brought him well wishes from president Berlusconi and all of his teammates.”

    A supermarket employee died en route to the hospital, according to the news agency ANSA, which said three other victims were in serious condition. Another person was treated for shock but not hospitalized, police said.

    Monza coach Raffaele Palladino also visited with Marí, and Monza issued a statement on Twitter on Friday mourning the victim in the attack.

    “All of AC Monza shares deeply in the family’s pain for the loss of Luis Fernando Ruggieri, victim of the madness that took place last night in Assago,” the club said. “Thoughts also go in these hours to the other people injured and their families.”

    The motive for the attacks was unknown, but police said the man showed signs of being psychologically unstable. There were no elements to suggest terrorism.

    The attack occurred near the Assago Forum, an arena that is slated to host figure skating and short-track speedskating for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

    ———

    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni sworn in as Italian premier

    Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni sworn in as Italian premier

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    ROME — Giorgia Meloni, whose political party with neo-fascist roots emerged victorious in recent elections, was sworn in on Saturday as Italy’s first far-right premier since the end of World War II. She is also the first woman to be premier.

    Meloni, 45, recited the oath of office before President Sergio Mattarella, who formally asked her to form a government a day earlier.

    Her Brothers of Italy party, which she co-founded in 2012, will rule in coalition with the right-wing League of Matteo Salvini and the conservative Forza Italia party headed by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Those two parties’ popularity has sagged with voters in recent years.

    Meloni recited the ritual oath of office, pledging to be faithful to Italy’s post-war republic and to act “in the exclusive interests of the nation.” The pledge was signed by her and counter-signed by Mattarella, who, in his role as head of state, serves as guarantor of the Constitution, drafted in the years immediately after the end of war, which saw the demise of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

    Meloni’s 24 ministers followed, similarly swearing in. Five of the ministers are technocrats, not representing any party. Six of them are women.

    In her campaign for the Sept. 25 election, Meloni insisted that national interests prevail over European Union policies should there be conflict. She often railed against EU bureaucracy.

    Salvini’s right-wing League party has at times leaned euroskeptic. An admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Salvini has also questioned the wisdom of EU sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, arguing that they hurt Italian business interests more than Russian ones.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sounded an upbeat note in her congratulations tweet to Meloni right after she was sworn in and noted that the Italian was the first woman to hold the premiership.

    “I count on and look forward to constructive cooperation with the new government on the challenges we face together,” the EU chief said.

    One immediate challenge for Meloni will be ensuring that her country stays solidly aligned with other major nations in the West in helping that country fight off the Russian invaders.

    In the days before she became premier, Meloni resorted to giving an an ultimatum to her other main coalition partner, Berlusconi, over his professed sympathy for Putin.

    Berlusconi in remarks to his center-right Forza Italia party lawmakers, delivered what was tantamount to justification for the Russian invasion in February to install what he called a “decent” government in the Ukrainian capital.

    After making clear she’d rather not govern than lead a coalition with any partner wavering over continued Italian support for Ukraine, aligned with Europe and NATO — “Italy with us in government will never be the weak link of the West” — Meloni tapped as her foreign minister a longtime Berlusconi stalwart with solid pro-Europe credentials. Antonio Tajani formerly was president of the European Parliament.

    With potential wavering in Parliament by her Russian-sympathizing allies, as well as from former Premier Giuseppe Conte, a populist opposition leader, over continued arms supplies to Ukraine, Meloni appointed one of her party co-founders, Guido Crosetto, as defense minister.

    While Meloni has pitched herself as crucial to combating leftist ideology, Crosetto sounded a more conciliatory note.

    “Whoever governs represents the entire nation, sheds partisan attire and takes on that of collective responsibility,” the new defense minister told reporters.

    Europe’s political right, eager to dominate on the continent, exulted in Meloni’s coming to power.

    French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, referring to Meloni and Salvini, wrote on Twitter: “Throughout Europe, patriots are coming to power and with them, this Europe of nations.”

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also hailed the birth of her new government as a “big day for the European Right.”

    Meloni will lay out her priorities when she pitches for support in Parliament ahead of confidence votes required of new governments. Voting is expected within a few days.

    While her government holds a comfortable majority in the legislature, the vote could indicate any cracks in her coalition if any of her partners’ lawmakers, perhaps disgruntled by not getting ministries they wanted for their parties, don’t rally behind her.

    Meloni’s government replaces that led by Mario Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief who was appointed by Mattarella in 2021 to lead a pandemic national unity coalition. Meloni was the only major party leader to refuse to join that coalition, insisting governments must be decided by the voters.

    In any unusual touch for a country used to male-dominated politics and power, attending the swearing-in ceremony in a sumptuous room of the Quirinal Palace was Meloni’s companion, who is a journalist in Berlusconi’s media empire, and their 6-year-old daughter, Ginevra.

    While Meloni didn’t campaign openly to be Italy’s first woman premier, she has said there would be no doubt that her victory would be clearly breaking through the “glass ceiling” that discourages women’s progress.

    ————

    Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

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  • Giorgia Meloni is set to be sworn in as Italy’s prime minister. Some fear the hard-right turn she’s promised to take | CNN

    Giorgia Meloni is set to be sworn in as Italy’s prime minister. Some fear the hard-right turn she’s promised to take | CNN

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    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Giorgia Meloni, the hard-right leader who is due to be sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister, won the election on a campaign built around a promise to block migrant ships and support for traditional “family values” and anti-LGBTQ themes.

    She heads an alliance of far-right and center-right parties, her own Brothers of Italy chief among them, and is set to form the most right-wing government Italy has seen in decades.

    Meloni’s win in parliamentary elections last month suggests the allure of nationalism remains undimmed in Italy – but her vow to take the country on a hard-right turn still leaves many uncertain what will happen next.

    The new government is made up of a coalition with two other right-wing leaders. One is Matteo Salvini, a former interior minister who became the darling of the hard-right in 2018 when he shifted his party, the League, once a northern secessionist party, into a nationalist force.

    The other is Silvio Berlusconi, the center-right former Italian prime minister widely remembered for his “bunga bunga” sex scandals with young women. Both men have previously publicly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has prompted questions over what the coalition’s approach to Russia will be.

    And just this week – days before consultations on forming the government were set to begin – secretly recorded audio was circulated in which Berlusconi appeared to lay the blame for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine at Kyiv’s door, and boasted of having reestablished relations with the Russian leader.

    “I reconnected a little bit with President Putin, quite a bit, in the sense that for my birthday he gave me 20 bottles of Vodka and a very sweet letter, and I responded with giving him bottles of Lambrusco,” said Berlusconi in the clip, released by Italian news agency LaPresse on Tuesday. The 86-year-old billionaire and media magnate was speaking with Forza Italia party members at the time.

    A party spokesperson denied Berlusconi was in touch with Putin, saying he had been telling parliamentarians “an old story referring to an episode many years ago.” Berlusconi defended his comments in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Thursday, saying they had been taken out of context.

    Amid backlash over the comments, Meloni, who has been a strong supporter of Ukraine as it battles Moscow’s invasion, sought to clarify where she and and the coalition would stand once in power.

    “I have and always will be clear, I intend to lead a government with a foreign policy that is clear and unequivocal. Italy is fully part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance. Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone will not be able to be part of the government, at the cost of not being a government. With us governing, Italy will never be the weak link of the West,” she said.

    Nonetheless, liberals within Italy and the European Union are fearful of what the promised rightward turn may mean for the country and its future – while conservative constituents feel only a strong-arm politician, like Meloni, can lead the country out of crisis amid soaring energy costs and high youth unemployment.

    “Meloni is not expressing the vote choices of radical right-wing voters, because we have data that shows that she has been voted for by mostly the center-right,” political science professor Lorenzo De Sio of the Luiss Guido Carli University told CNN.

    “I would say that the motto for Meloni is to be a sort of new conservative – that is to say, conservativism for the 21st century. She might bear some far-back connection to the post-fascist legacy, but clearly that’s not the core of her political platform now.”

    Meloni grew up in the working-class Roman neighborhood of Garbatella, a historically left-wing part of southern Rome that was built during Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. She got her political start in the movement Youth Front, a political organization with fascist roots.

    She went on to create her own political party, Brothers of Italy, which in just four years went from taking 4% of the vote to winning 26% in last month’s election. While that doesn’t represent the majority of Italians, thanks to her partnership with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Salvini’s League, the coalition has enough seats in parliament to govern the country.

    Back in the Garbatella neighborhood, among the fruit and vegetable stands that Meloni would go to with her mother, some locals remember her as a child, long before she embraced politics. Opinions on what she will be like as a leader vary widely.

    “I know her very well. I knew her since she was little,” said Aldo, a fruit and vegetable vendor from Garbatella who has run his market stand for decades. “Her mother would come shop here. She always had a book in her hand to study. If she goes forward like she did when she was little, she’ll be strong.”

    He added: “You have to have a strong fist. Period. You understand? That’s how you move forward. Otherwise Italy, kapoof, it goes away!”

    Gloria, a lifelong Garbatella resident, said she is worried about her children's future freedoms after Giorgia Meloni's victory.

    Just across the market, Gloria, who was born and raised in Garbatella and helps her son at his Roman food stand, has very different views.

    “What she has said until now terrifies me,” she told CNN.

    “There are many people that connect with these kinds of conservative ideals because they are racist, because they are not progressive. I have three children and I wonder, will my daughter have the freedom to have an abortion if she wants, to be a lesbian?”

    Meloni has sought in recent times to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. Her policy proposals have also evolved over time, including walking back some of her more anti-EU ideas.

    Back in 2014, she said, “Italy has to leave the euro!” and called for Congress to revoke sanctions on Russia. Now, according to her proposed plan for government and latest comments, she wants Italy to be a “protagonist within Europe.”

    Emiliano, a local who was shopping at the Garbatella market, said he didn’t bother to vote in the latest election. “Neither the left nor the right deserve a vote. Before, politicians ate but we ate also. Now only they eat,” he said.

    With the skyrocketing cost of energy, the risk for Italian businesses and households is high. The agricultural sector, which represents 1.96% of Italy’s GDP, is facing a shortage of everything from fertilizers, to diesel, to electricity and glass, causing prices to rise rapidly with a devastating impact on farm budgets, according to Coldiretti, the largest association for agricultural assistance in Italy.

    According to a recent report by Coldiretti, rising production costs have forced many small agricultural businesses to shut down for the season because they can’t cope.

    Sabina Petrucci manages her family’s olive oil company, Olio Petrucci, and is also a member of Coldiretti’s European council for young agricultural workers. She feels hopeful and believes the only way to fix the present issues is through strong political leadership.

    “We need a very concrete government who helps us with energy costs and also to achieve the financial aid and financial help we may need in the future,” said Petrucci. “Many of the producers in the area are stopping their production, they really are frightened about the increasing costs.”

    She describes rising energy costs as “the major threat for us,” adding: “We have opened our mill, but the production costs have risen throughout the summer.”

    Sabina Petrucci, the manager of her family's olive oil company Petrucci Oil, said many in her industry are alarmed by rising energy and production costs.

    Italy has the third oldest population in the world, but Meloni and her party have been working to connect with Italy’s youth, the next generation of voters. She herself became involved in politics at 15, after registering with Youth Front, the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a party established by Giorgio Almirante, who was a minister in the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s government.

    Francesco Todde is a leader of the National Youth movement, a political movement put in place by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party in 2014 to connect with a younger generation of politically interested Italians who have been frustrated with the political status quo.

    Francesco Todde, Elisa Segnini Bocchia and Simone D'Alpa are members of the Brothers of Italy's youth movement.

    “Giorgia Meloni comes from a political youth path, so she always paid a lot of attention to the youth and made reforms for the youth. At the start of her political career she was minister of youth,” he told CNN.

    Elisa Segnini Bocchia, another committed member of the National Youth movement, responds to why some are quick to associate this movement with fascism, saying: “Our past isn’t our future. So, we don’t look at the past. We look for the new future.”

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  • Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni named as Italy’s first female prime minister | CNN

    Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni named as Italy’s first female prime minister | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Populist firebrand Giorgia Meloni has been named as Italy’s first female prime minister, becoming the country’s most far-right leader since Benito Mussolini.

    She received the mandate to form a government from Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella on Friday afternoon after two days of official consultations, and is set to be sworn in at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) on Saturday.

    Last month’s general election resulted in an alliance of far-right and center-right parties, led by her ultraconservative Brothers of Italy, winning enough seats in Italy’s parliament to form a government.

    Meloni announced her government picks in Rome’s Quirinal Palace, making the leader of Italy’s far right League party, Matteo Salvini, infrastructure minister.

    Giancarlo Giorgetti, also of the League party, was made economy minister. Antonio Tajani from the Forza Italia party was given the position of minister of foreign affairs while the role of defense minister went to Guido Crosetto, one of the founders of the Brothers of Italy party.

    The new government will be made up of a coalition of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, Salvini’s League party and the Forza Italia party, led by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Brothers of Italy received nine ministries whereas Forza Italia and the League each received five ministries.

    Meloni will be sworn into office during a ceremony at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) on Saturday morning.

    Pulling together her new cabinet has exposed tensions. This week, the controversial former leader Berlusconi made headlines when audio released by Italian news agency LaPresse revealed the 86-year-old speaking about his “reestablished” relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Berlusconi’s office confirmed to CNN on Thursday that the clips were authentic – having apparently been secretly recorded during a meeting of his Forza Italia party in the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday.

    In the audio, the billionaire and media magnate says he has “reestablished relations with President Putin” and goes on to boast that the Russian leader called him “the first of his five true friends.”

    His comments raised eyebrows, as diplomatic relations between Russia and Western leaders remain strained amid the Kremlin’s grueling military assault on Ukraine.

    Berlusconi has been the subject of multiple corruption and bribery trials during his tumultuous political career.

    Meloni has been a strong supporter of Ukraine as it battles Moscow’s invasion. Amid backlash for her coalition over Berlusconi’s leaked comments, she restated her foreign policy line.

    “With us governing, Italy will never be the weak link of the West. The nation of spaghetti and mandolini that is so dear to many of our detractors will relaunch its credibility and defend its interests,” Meloni said late Wednesday on her Instagram account.

    Speaking earlier Friday after a meeting with Mattarella and her coalition partners, Meloni said it was necessary to form the new government “as soon as possible.”

    “We are ready to govern Italy,” Meloni’s official Facebook page stated. “We will be able to face the urgencies and challenges of our time with awareness and competence.”

    Silvio Berlusconi (left) and Matteo Salvini (right) are expected to be part of Meloni's Cabinet, which will see one of Italy's most far-right governments in recent history.

    Meloni entered Italy’s crowded political scene in 2006 and in 2012 co-founded the Brothers of Italy, a party whose agenda is rooted in Euroskepticism and anti-immigration policies.

    The group’s popularity soared ahead of September’s election, as Italian voters once again rejected mainstream politics and opted for a fringe figure.

    She first made her name as vice-president of the National Alliance, an unapologetically neo-fascist group formed by supporters of Benito Mussolini. Meloni herself openly admired the dictator as a youth, but later distanced herself from his brand of fascism – despite keeping the tricolor flame symbolizing the eternal fire on his tomb in the logo for the Brothers of Italy.

    She has pursued a staunchly Conservative agenda throughout her time in politics, frequently questioning LGBT rights, abortion rights and immigration policies.

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  • Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female prime minister

    Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female prime minister

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    ROME — Giorgia Meloni has been named Italy’s first female prime minister at the head of a right-wing government, after holding talks with the country’s president.

    After a week of infighting which overshadowed the negotiations, Meloni’s warring coalition put forward a united front, backing Meloni to lead the country during formal talks with President Sergio Mattarella, on Friday.

    Later on Friday Mattarella asked Meloni to form a government. 

    Meloni, after arriving for talks in a Fiat 500, accepted unconditionally, a spokesman for the president’s office said. The right-wing coalition emerged triumphant from the election, with 44 percent of the vote, led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which took 26 percent.

    But even before a government could be cobbled together, rivalry emerged inside the coalition, with allies arguing over Meloni’s unwillingness to accommodate Silvio Berlusconi’s preferred nominations in her cabinet.

    At the opening of the new parliament, Berlusconi, leader of the Forza Italia party, said in a note left in public view that he found Meloni “overbearing … domineering … arrogant … offensive.”

    No sooner were peacetalks concluded than Berlusconi was recorded asserting that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and affirming his friendship with Vladimir Putin.

    Meloni replied saying that anyone who did not agree with her pro-Europe, pro-NATO orientation “cannot be part of the government, even if that means not forming the government.”

    Despite the clashes, the right-wingers made up in order to take over as Italy’s new government. Meloni met with the President on Friday alongside her fellow leaders in the right wing bloc, Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, and Berlusconi.

    Meloni is set to name her team on Friday with the new cabinet sworn in on Saturday and a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday.

    Her team must immediately roll up their sleeves, working to deadlines including the Budget, which has to be sent to Europe for approval by the end of the month, and the Recovery Plan, the EU’s post pandemic economic aid program. Some 55 targets and milestones have to be met by the year’s end to unlock almost 20 billion euros in funding for Italy under the program.

    The new government’s priority will be to tackle a cost of living crisis exacerbated by sky-high energy prices and rising interest rates, which weigh on Italy’s heavy public debt.

    Caretaker prime minister Mario Draghi, who was ousted in July, has attempted to smooth the transition, pushing for a cap on energy prices in Europe and setting out the narrow margins for manoeuvre in the budget.

    Draghi, in his last news conference as the head of the Italian government, said: “Italy must be at the centre of the European project with the credibility, authoritativeness and determination fitting of a great country like ours.”

    But Meloni’s new team is likely to struggle to reconcile the expensive electoral promises they made on pensions and tax cuts with the economic reality. A recession is forecast for next year.

    European leaders indicated they were ready to work with Meloni’s government.

    At the end of the European Council in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “We are all together as European nations within the EU and it is essential that we democracies cooperate a great deal.”

    “Every time that there is a change of government because of elections, as [happens] in a democracy, it cannot change the good relations that we have with the other member states or, for example, that we have between Germany and Italy … We will continue to work with very good cooperation between the countries and within the sphere of the European Union.”

    French President Emmanuel Macron said: “I am ready to work with Meloni.” Macron is visiting Rome on Sunday and Monday to meet President Mattarella and Pope Francis, and said he could meet Meloni then, too. “We will see on Monday according to institutional developments, in compliance with protocol,” he said.

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    Hannah Roberts

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  • Italy’s far-right leader formally asks for mandate to govern

    Italy’s far-right leader formally asks for mandate to govern

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    ROME — Italian politician Giorgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, said Friday that she and her allies have asked the nation’s president to give her the mandate to form what would be Italy‘s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.

    Meloni and her campaign allies met for about 10 minutes with President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal presidential palace. She emerged to tell reporters that the coalition had unanimously indicated to Mattarella that she deserved the mandate to govern.

    The palace later announced that Mattarella had summoned Meloni back, by herself, to meet with the president late Friday afternoon.

    At that meeting, the president could decide Meloni has assembled a viable government and invite her and her ministers to swear in the next day. He could also give her the mandate to try to form a government and some time to report back to him on her progress.

    If Meloni, 45, succeeds, she would be the first woman to become Italian premier.

    Obtaining the premiership would cap a remarkably quick rise for the Brothers of Italy party that Meloni co-founded in December 2012 and which in its first years was considered a fringe movement on the right.

    “We have indicated myself as the person who should be mandated to form the new government,” Meloni said, flanked by her two main, sometimes troublesome, right-wing allies — Matteo Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi. “We are ready and we want to move forward in the shortest possible time.”

    She cited urgent problems “at both national and international level,” apparent references to soaring energy prices afflicting households and businesses and the war in Ukraine, which has seen European Union members divided over strategy amid worries about gas supplies during the approaching winter.

    Berlusconi and Salvini stayed silent during Meloni’s brief remarks to reporters. But at one point Berlusconi raised his eyebrows and looked behind her head at Salvini as Meloni spoke.

    Both men are longtime admirers of Russian leader Vladimir Putin; Meloni staunchly backs Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. Those differences could make coalition rule challenging.

    Berlusconi, a three-time premier, has been chafing over the election victory by Meloni’s party. The Brothers of Italy took 26%, while Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the anti-migrant League of Salvini, snagged just over 8% apiece in an election on Sept. 25 that saw record low turnout.

    In 2018, in the previous election for Parliament, Meloni’s party took just over 4%.

    Still, while her forces are Parliament’s largest, Meloni needs her two allies in order to command a solid majority in the legislature.

    Berlusconi, who fancies himself a rare leader on the world stage, recently derided her as “arrogant” in written comments, apparently after Meloni refused to make a lawmaker who is one of the media mogul’s closest advisers a minister.

    Earlier this week in a meeting with his lawmakers he expressed sympathy for Putin’s motivation for invading Ukraine. In that conversation, which was recorded and leaked to Italian news agency LaPresse, he also bragged that Putin had sent him bottles of vodka for his 86th birthday last month and he gave the Russian bottles of wine while the two exchanged sweetly worded notes.

    In response to Berlusconi’s comments that were also derogatory about Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, Meloni insisted that anyone joining her government must be solidly in sync with the West in opposing Putin’s war. If that meant her government couldn’t be formed, Meloni said, she’d take that risk.

    Salvini has at times also questioned the wisdom of tough Western sanctions against Russia. A fellow lawmaker in Salvini’s League party who was recently elected president of the lower Chamber of Deputies has publicly expressed doubts about continuing the measures.

    Outgoing Premier Mario Draghi’s national pandemic unity coalition collapsed in July, after Salvini, Berlusconi and populist 5-Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte refused to back his government in a confidence vote. That prompted Mattarella to dissolve parliament and pave the way for elections some six months early.

    While final efforts to form the new government were underway, Draghi was in Brussels, attending the final day of a European Council summit, grappling with ways to deal with higher energy prices.

    On Thursday, Mattarella received opposition leaders, who raised concerns that Meloni, who campaigned with a “God, homeland, family” agenda, would seek to erode abortion rights and roll back rights such as same-sex civil unions.

    ———

    Giada Zampano contributed reporting.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of Italian politics: https://apnews.com/hub/giorgia-meloni

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  • Why Meloni’s win in Italy not sitting well with Berlusconi

    Why Meloni’s win in Italy not sitting well with Berlusconi

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    ROME — The honeymoon is finished even before any marriage of political convenience in Italy could be formalized.

    The resounding victory by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in the Sept. 25 general election isn’t sitting well with 86-year-old Silvio Berlusconi, the former three-time conservative premier who, four decades her senior, fancies himself the elder statesman of Italy’s political right.

    Meloni is expected to be asked next week by Italy’s president to try to create a governing coalition with campaign allies Berlusconi and right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and become premier. Behind-the-scenes divvying up of ministries in what would be Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II started after her Brothers of Italy party took 26% of the ballots cast, more than those won by the forces of Salvini and Berlusconi combined.

    The knives carving out those Cabinet posts are proving particularly sharp.

    Salvini on Saturday issued a sort of call for a truce between Meloni and Berlusconi so that three allies’ bid to rule Italy isn’t derailed.

    “I am sure that even between Giorgia and Silvio that harmony, which will be fundamental to government, well and together, for the next five years, will return,” Salvini said in a statement released by his anti-migrant League party about the escalating post-election tensions.

    A spat between Berlusconi and Meloni turned ugly when the former premier and a media mogul scrawled a list of derogatory adjectives about her on stationery emblazoned with the name of his villa near Milan. He positioned it in the Senate in plain view for photographers covering the election on Thursday of the upper parliamentary chamber’s president.

    “Giorgia Meloni,” wrote Berlusconi, jotting down that her ways are “presumptuous, bossy, arrogant, offensive.” A fifth adjective, “ridiculous,” appeared to have been scribbled over, said Italian media, who magnified the image.

    As much as political differences — Berlusconi bills himself a staunch champion of the European Union, while Meloni has said national interests should prevail over any conflicting EU priorities — their spat seemed patriarchal.

    “In Berlusconi’s etiquette, the woman is courted and maybe even venerated, but a true male cannot take orders from her, let alone accept that she says ‘no,’” wrote Massimo Gramellini in the daily Corriere della Serra, in his front-page fixture that takes aim at political foibles.

    By all accounts, Meloni had vetoed a ministry for a close political aide of Berlusconi who is one of his several female political proteges.

    With his self-described weakness for young women, Berlusconi has launched the political careers of female lawmakers from Forza Italia, the center-right party he created three decades ago.

    Reflecting Berlusconi’s pique, nearly all of his senators refused to vote for Meloni’s pick for Senate president, Ignazio La Russa, a long-time fascist nostalgist who helped Meloni, now 45, establish Brothers of Italy in 2012 as she forged her far-right political ascent.

    The Forza Italia boycott delivered a stiff rebuke to her. Meloni, known for her spunk and sharp tongue, wasn’t blinking.

    “It seems like a point was missing among those listed by Berlusconi — that I can’t be blackmailed,” Meloni told private Italian TV La7.

    Meloni already stood her ground during the election campaign. When opinion surveys indicated that she was by far the front-runner over Berlusconi and Salvini, those two unsuccessfully tried to wiggle out of long-standing pact that the top-getter in campaign coalitions would become premier should their forces prove victorious.

    Together, the leaders’ three parties command a comfortable majority in the newly seated Parliament.

    Still, Meloni needs the forces of Berlusconi and Salvini for any viable coalition.

    Salvini chafed for days when it appeared Meloni wouldn’t let him become interior minister, a post he held in 2018-2019 and used to crack down on migrants arriving by the tens of thousands on smugglers boats or rescue ships. On Friday, Meloni’s forces backed the election to the presidency of the lower Chamber of Deputies of a League lawmaker, Lorenzo Fontana, an ultraconservative who, like Salvini, has openly admired Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Late Friday, the five-pointed star symbol of the Red Brigades, the extreme left group which terrorized Italy in the 1970s while extreme-right militants were also launching attacks, was scrawled along with La Russa’s name on a Brothers of Italy neighborhood office. It is the very office where Meloni cut her political teeth as a teenager in the youth wing of a neo-fascist predecessor of her own party.

    Meloni on Saturday retweeted her party’s description of the vandalism as “clear reference to the dramatic years that we don’t want to live through again and vowed in a tweet to “unite the Nation, not divide it as someone is trying to do.”

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