Senate President La Russa predicts Meloni will become Italy's next president after Mattarella, urges caution on electoral law

Meloni at the Quirinale

Ignazio La Russa, President of the Italian Senate, predicted on 26 July that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will become President of the Republic, though not immediately after Sergio Mattarella's term. Speaking at the "L'estate del Principe" festival in Viareggio, interviewed by Il Giornale columnist Augusto Minzolini, La Russa said: "According to me, she will become it not this time but the next. My wish and recognition of her abilities." The remarks came a month after Meloni herself had called for the right to break the "Quirinale taboo."

It would be a great fortune for Italy, after Mattarella. For me it would be a good thing, a great good, because she is a woman, capable, and because starting from positions of difficulty, she succeeded.

La Russa stressed that his forecast should not be seen as a provocation. "There is no reason why this should sound like an alarm," he said, adding that it would not alarm either centre-right or centre-left Italians. He personally ruled himself out for the role, describing the presidency as "a bit stiff, a bit closed."

Electoral law and preference votes

The Senate President then addressed the contentious electoral reform, urging the ruling majority to reflect on the constitutionality of a bill that eliminates preference voting. He noted that Meloni had pledged to defend Italians' right to choose their representatives, and that the amendment under discussion was a mediation between those wary of preferences and those who consider them essential. "It is a mediation norm that aims to bring together both those who have reservations about preferences and those who think it is right," he said.

Preferences are like democracy: maybe not perfect, but it's the best system we have.

La Russa observed that the compromise might even find favour on the left. He warned that if the text returns to the Chamber of Deputies, a non-secret vote would reveal who truly supports or opposes it. "Rejecting a whole law is not like rejecting an amendment," he cautioned. He recalled that the Senate is one of two chambers and it is unthinkable that a law arrives without any amendments; usually the first approved text is reconfirmed, but in this case the first confirmed text passed with what he called "serious inattention from the majority." He also commented on Roberto Vannacci's Futuro Nazionale party, which voted with the centre-right on this issue, the only time it has done so, while often siding with the left on other key votes. La Russa said he respected Vannacci but disagreed with his political positions.

No Tav violence and cover

On the recent clashes in Val di Susa involving No Tav activists, La Russa rejected suggestions that the violence amounted to terrorism. He argued that Italy had defeated terrorism in the past, but violence persists because it enjoys cover.

Violence feeds on cover. If extremist fringes think they are not isolated but can do things that some might welcome, like putting the government in difficulty or creating a climate of dissatisfaction, then they do it. If they have no cover, they don't.

He called for vigilance in identifying both overt and covert forms of support, warning that without such cover, the violent groups would not act.