In a letter to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni downplayed the results of the annual report on the rule of law in the EU, published in recent days. And whose content seemed critical of various aspects of the action of the centre-right executive, from the prime minister's constitutional reform to that of Carlo Nordio's justice system. “The final recommendations addressed to Italy do not differ particularly from those of previous years, but for the first time the content of this document has been distorted for political purposes by some in order to attack the Italian government,” writes the Italian Prime Minister, stressing that these were “clumsy and specious attacks that could only have taken root in the depressing context of the recurrent recourse to fake news that increasingly pollutes the debate in Europe.” The Prime Minister claims that the report has been distorted to the advantage of the opposition to criticise the government and therefore decides to write to von der Leyen to respond to these criticisms, which she identifies in three points.
Meloni writes to Ursula, the governance of Rai
Meloni responds to the accusation of a threat to the right to information in our country due to the political use of public television. “The current government and the parliamentary majority that supports it have not yet used the current legislation for the renewal of the company's management.” And he adds: “The current members of the Rai board of directors were appointed in the last legislature by a majority of which Fratelli d'Italia was not part, so it is not clear how an alleged political interference in the governance of Rai can be attributed to this government.” The Prime Minister emphasizes that “the Rai reform, which designed the current governance system of the company, was designed and implemented in 2015 by the party that then had a relative majority (the Democratic Party) during the government led by Matteo Renzi, with the opposition of the party that I led.” (Brothers of Italy)”. If there was a governance problem, he says, it has existed for at least ten years and he has seen his party suffer the consequences at least until 2022. “The current governance was also determined by the previous government, the Draghi government, with Fratelli d'Italia being the only opposition party that was then considered excluded even from the Rai board of directors, creating, this time, an unprecedented anomaly in Italy and in violation of any principle of pluralism of the public service”, he writes again, stressing that the government appointed only the current CEO after the resignation of the previous one.
Meloni's letter to Ursula: journalists and presenters fleeing Rai
The second point that Meloni intends to address is that of the Rai flight. In recent months, after many years at Rai, many personalities and journalists from public television have moved to the competition, sometimes more than 20. According to Meloni, this is only due to the “normal dynamics of the market”. He writes to von der Leyen: to those who claim that “the change in RAI's editorial line would have led to the resignation of several journalists and presenters”, it is worth remembering “that this is a dynamic that cannot in any way be attributed to the current government. On the merits, several experts in the field claim that the working relationships were interrupted due to the normal dynamics of the market. Some of these presenters left Rai before the arrival of the new CEO and others decided to pursue new professional or editorial experiences, although the company has confirmed their presence spaces in the schedules”.
Melons to von der Leyen on an equal footing
Finally, Meloni responds to criticism of the alleged violation of the rules on equal conditions during the electoral campaign for the European elections in June. “The Rai Parliamentary Control Commission, in the exercise of its prerogatives, has adopted a resolution that provides for the exclusion from the rules of equal conditions of representatives of the institutions who address issues inherent to their institutional functions,” the letter reads. “This is not new,” he adds, “always, in every past electoral competition, all the governments in place have legitimately been able to continue to inform citizens about their activities, without institutional information being included in the count of part-time conditions, as required by current law. One wonders why this principle, which has always been considered valid in the past, should not apply to the current government.” In conclusion, Meloni then attacks his political opponents, calling for the battle for “free information, the fight against fake news and the pluralism of public radio and television service after decades of shameless political subdivision.”
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