Francesco Saverio Garofani “is secretary of the Supreme Defense Council, which should handle national defense. I think it might be better to leave that role to someone else”. Senate President Ignazio La Russa coldly responded again to the Garofani case, which has thrown institutional relations into chaos in recent days. Tensions soon rose again because La Russa was not only the authoritative exponent of the party with a relative majority, the Fratelli d’Italia, but also the state’s second largest official. An exit that caused surprise in the Quirinale especially after yesterday’s relaxed words spoken by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Johannesburg at the end of the G20.
I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm the good relationship I have always had with President Mattarella. I don’t think it’s appropriate – he explained – to return to this issue.”
Instead, it was the Senate president himself who returned, giving many the impression that the case was not over at all and that there was indeed a strategy to push for the resignation of the presidential adviser. That the tensions had suddenly risen again was indirectly confirmed by a spontaneous clarification from La Russa who shortly afterwards restated: “It is unfortunate that answering the question about Councilor Garofani could lead to the idea of reopening a case which, like Giorgia Meloni, I also consider closed and for which I have personally expressed full solidarity with President Mattarella from the first minutes. Of course, I said, perhaps too sincerely, that Garofani would be embarrassed to assume such a role not as Councilor but as Secretary of the Supreme Ministerial Committee of Defense. It is not within my authority to ask for his resignation nor have I done so.”
La Russa “reopened the case and closed it again”, commented the head of the Forzista senatorial group in the Senate Maurizio Gasparri. More or less the same comments were noted in Colle where we just highlighted how La Russa actually reopened it and La Russa closed it back down. However, it is not an idea circulating in various circles that the repeated attacks on Garofani have convinced many that these small targets are aimed at weakening the big targets.
For example, the newspaper considered close to the center-right that launched this case, Truth, has not stopped firing at the president’s advisers. Today, for example, the deputy director of the newspaper directed by Belpietro, Massimo De Manzoni, goes even further: “Garofani is not limited to consideration as an observer but moves behind the scenes to promote alternatives to what is happening. He is still in his place and will remain there. Therefore, one might think that those thoughts – he explained to Sky – are those circulating in Colle. For us, the case is not yet closed”. A sentiment shared by the opposition where, Angelo Bonelli of the Avs clearly explains, a growing belief that the poison is not over: La Russa’s words “represent an attack and undue pressure on Quirinale and confirm that the right’s goal is the delegitimization of the President of the Republic.”
Reproduction protected by law © Copyright ANSA
