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Giorgia Meloni will present her program to Parliament this morning

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Eva Deschamps / October 25, 2022

Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivers her policy speech to parliament on Tuesday morning, one month to the day after her post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party’s historic legislative victory.

 

Mrs. Meloni “is putting the finishing touches to the speech she will give to the Chamber of Deputies (…) Her intention is to define a programmatic framework (…) with the aim of implementing the commitments made to Italians during the election campaign,” government sources said Monday evening.

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Probably focused on the energy crisis and inflation affecting households and businesses, the speech of Ms. Meloni, the first female head of government in Italian history who took office on Sunday, will be followed by a vote of confidence on Tuesday evening in the Chamber of Deputies and Wednesday in the Senate.

 

Mario Draghi’s successor is certain to win both votes, since her coalition with Matteo Salvini’s anti-migrant League and Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative party, has an absolute majority in both chambers.

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Paradoxically, while her party had been in frontal opposition to Mario Draghi’s government, her program should be in line with that of the former head of the European Central Bank (ECB), at least in the economic field.

 

Indeed, she has entrusted the crucial portfolio of Economy to a former minister of Mr. Draghi, Giancarlo Giorgetti, representing the moderate wing of the League.

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It has also taken on as an advisor in the Chigi Palace, the seat of government, the former Minister for Ecological Transition of Mr. Draghi, Roberto Cingolani, who followed energy issues both in Rome and in Brussels.

 

“On economic policy, there is general popular support in Italy for what Draghi was doing,” Gilles Moëc, chief economist of the Axa group, observed for AFP.

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These appointments are intended to reassure the markets as well as Brussels and the European partners of the third largest economy in the euro zone, whose growth depends on nearly 200 billion euros in grants and loans from the European Union as part of its post-pandemic recovery fund.

 

These funds depend on a series of reforms, from justice to the digitization of public administration, to be implemented by 2026. Meloni’s coalition has promised to revise the plan, but has not yet said how, and since some of the funds have already been disbursed, Brussels is unlikely to allow major changes.

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Any strategy of tension with the european Commission would be a real temptation to the devil in a very unpromising financial environment,” said Gilles Moëc.

 

This manna is indeed indispensable for a country whose debt reaches 150% of GDP, the highest ratio in the euro zone after Greece, and which is expected to enter a recession in 2023, according to the forecasts of the International Monetary Fund.

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The many challenges facing his government are therefore essentially economic, starting with inflation and public debt.

 

Inflation rose by 8.9% year-on-year in September, fuelled by rising food (+11.4%) and energy (+44.5%) prices, penalizing households and businesses.

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Italy has been particularly affected by the energy crisis due to its dependence on Russian gas imports.

 

Among other topics likely to be addressed in his speech is the abolition of the “citizenship income”, a minimum income for the poorest that had been introduced in 2019 at the instigation of the 5 Star Movement (ex-anti-system).

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On the other hand, Giorgia Meloni, an ultra-conservative whose motto is “God, country, family”, promised not to touch the law allowing abortion.

Chris TDL Organizations is a Multinational parent managing company or multiple marketing and brand management entities.

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Trump promises Zelensky to “end the war” in Ukraine in phone call

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Trump promises Zelensky to “end the war” in Ukraine in phone call, Magnate Daily
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
 
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
 
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
 
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
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Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”

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Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”, Magnate Daily
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024

In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt. 
 
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives. 
 
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday. 
 
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days. 
 
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either. 
 
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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China: at least six dead in Zigong shopping mall fire

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China: at least six dead in Zigong shopping mall fire, Magnate Daily
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024

 

At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
 
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
 
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
 
At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
 
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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