Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan to sell gifts received while in office fell apart before the first gavel strike, after the chosen auction house was snared in a criminal investigation. Bertolami Fine Art, selected to handle the sale, is under investigation as part of a long-running probe into the alleged illegal trafficking of archaeological artifacts. The company’s founder and owner has been placed under a suspension order, according to Italian media reports, in connection with the case. Prosecutors allege that a network of traffickers stole archaeological objects and funneled them through auction houses, including Bertolami, to launder the items and reintroduce them into the legal art market. Bertolami has denied wrongdoing in the past. Meloni’s office said it was not aware of the investigation at the time of the appointment, noting that the inquiry was subject to judicial confidentiality. Palazzo Chigi said it severed ties with the auction house immediately after details of the case were reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano. Under Italian law, the prime minister cannot personally keep gifts valued at more than €300 received from foreign leaders. As a result, most such items are stored in a secure room at Palazzo Chigi and are not publicly displayed. There is no official inventory. Some gifts received by Meloni have nevertheless drawn public attention, including an action figurine presented by chainsaw-wielding Argentine President Javier Milei and a diamond, gold and citrine quartz necklace given during a state visit to Uzbekistan in January 2023 by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The now-canceled auction was expected to raise around €800,000, with the bulk of the proceeds earmarked for charitable organizations. A smaller portion was intended to cover the auction house’s fees.

Europe’s far-right firebrands are rushing to hitch their fortunes to Washington’s new crusade against Brussels. Senior U.S. government officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have launched a raft of criticism against what they call EU “censorship” and an “attack” of U.S. tech companies following a €120 million fine from the European Commission on social media platform X. The fine is for breaching EU transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s content moderation rule book. “The Commission’s attack on X says it all,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on X on Saturday. “When the Brusselian overlords cannot win the debate, they reach for the fines. Europe needs free speech, not unelected bureaucrats deciding what we can read or say,” he said. “Hats off to Elon Musk for holding the line,” Orbán added. Tech mogul Musk said his response to the penalty would target the EU officials who imposed it.  “The European Commission appreciates censorship & chat control of its citizens. They want to silence critical voices by restricting freedom of speech,” echoed far-right Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel. Three right-wing to far-right parties in the EU are pushing to stop and backtrack the integration process of European countries — the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe, and the Europe of Sovereign Nations. Together they hold 191 out of 720 seats in the European Parliament. The parties’ lawmakers are calling for a range of proposals — from shifting competences from the European to the national level, to dismantling the EU altogether. They defend the primacy of national interests over common European cooperation. Since Donald Trump’s reelection, they have portrayed themselves as the key transatlantic link, mirroring the U.S. president’s political campaigning in Europe, such as pushing for a “Make Europe Great Again” movement. The fresh U.S. criticism of EU institutions has come in handy to amplify their political agendas. “Patriots for Europe will fight to dismantle this censorship regime,” the party said on X. The ECR group — political home to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — issued a statement questioning the enforcement of the DSA following the U.S. criticism. “A digital law that lacks legal certainty risks becoming an instrument of political discretion,” ECR co-chairman Nicola Procaccini said on Saturday after the U.S. backlash. The group supported the DSA when it passed through the Parliament, having said in the past the law would “protect freedom of expression, increase trust in online services and contribute to an open digital economy in Europe.”

VENICE, Italy — Luca Zaia, a towering force in northern Italian politics, is plotting his next move and that’s turning into a headache for his party, the far-right League, led by firebrand Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. As regional president of Veneto, the wealthy region of 5 million people around Venice, Zaia is one of the League’s superstars, but his mandate comes to an end after an election this weekend. That is sparking intense speculation about his ambitions — not least because his political vision is so different from Salvini’s. While Salvini is steering the League away from its separatist roots — no longer seeking to rip the rich industrialized north away from poorer southern Italy — Zaia remains a vocal advocate for northern autonomy from Rome. He is also more moderate on immigration, climate and LGBTQ+ rights than his right-wing populist party chief. One of the big questions looming over Italian politics is whether these two rival visions can survive within the League, a party at the heart of Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government. Zaia himself suggests the League could split into two allied factions along the lines of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union on Germany’s center right.   MEET THE DOGE Nicknamed the “Doge of Venice,” Zaia, a former Italian agriculture minister, has spent 15 of his 57 years running Veneto from an office lined with emerald silk in a 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal. He won eight out of 10 votes cast in 2020, the highest approval rating of any regional chief, but is barred from running again because of a two-term limit. In an interview with POLITICO, he joked about the whirl of theories about his next steps. “I am in the running for everything: [energy giant] ENI, Venice, parliament, minister.” But when pressed on what he will do, he gave nothing away, only that his focus is squarely on the north. “I gave up a safe seat in Brussels a year ago to stay here,” he said, only adding he would work until the last day of his mandate. “Then I’ll see.” Amid internal power struggles in the League, Zaia is increasingly seen as an alternative leadership figure by those unhappy with its trajectory.  Zaia has clashed with Salvini’s deputy leader Gen. Roberto Vannacci over his revisionist views of the fascist era under Benito Mussolini, but has held back from criticizing Salvini openly. Zaia, right, at the closing event of the center-right coalition’s campaign for the Veneto regional elections in support of Alberto Stefani, left, Nov. 18. | Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty Images When asked whether Salvini made strategic mistakes as party leader, he stayed cryptically diplomatic. “We all make mistakes,” he replied. A CHANGING LEAGUE When Zaia joined what was then the Northern League in the 1990s it was a separatist movement, opposed to tax redistribution from the wealthy north to the south, perceived as corrupt and inefficient. But under Salvini’s leadership, the rebranded League became a nationwide party, with a strand increasingly courting the extreme right. This approach has alienated both mainstream voters, and more moderate and north-focused activists, for whom Zaia is a political lodestar. One major bugbear is Salvini’s drive to build a €14 billion bridge between Calabria and Sicily, seen by separatists as a wasteful southern project sucking in northern tax revenue. In a sign of the shifting tectonic plates, one faction, supported by the Northern League’s founder Umberto Bossi, and that has in recent years unsuccessfully tried to oust Salvini, last week launched a new party, the Pact for the North. Its leader, former MP Paolo Grimoldi, expelled from the League after 34 years, told POLITICO his group would welcome Zaia “with open arms.”  Zaia and other northern governors “just have to find the courage to say publicly what they have been saying privately for some time, that Salvini has completely betrayed the battles of the League.” Zaia himself is recommending a new-look League modeled on the German CDU-CSU, with sister League parties catering to Italy’s north and south. He aired the idea in a new book by journalist Bruno Vespa, pointing out the CSU had a separate Bavarian identity within the German Christian Democrat family. “We could do the same here,” he said. Most political insiders and observers think it unlikely that Zaia would seek a national leadership role — being too associated with Veneto — but he would be an obvious choice to lead the northern wing of a divided party. For Salvini, this internal schism is an obvious challenge. He has said he’s intrigued by the CDU-CSU idea, but few believe him. He needs to find something to prevent Zaia from turning into a nuisance, and has proposed him for a vacant parliamentary seat in Rome and as mayor of Venice. “It’s up to him to decide if he stays in Veneto or brings Veneto to Rome,” Salvini said at an event in Padua last weekend. MAYOR OF VENICE? Which way will Zaia jump? A return to Rome seems unappetizing. “When he was minister, he didn’t like Rome”, said a political colleague. “Rome’s values are not the values of Veneto.  In Veneto, we value meritocracy, work, effort, seriousness in politics. In Rome it’s all compromise.” Which makes Venice the more likely option, if he does decide to avoid a head-on clash with Salvini. Zaia would be very well set to run for mayor of Venice next May, according to the MP and two friends of Zaia’s from Veneto. He has a manifesto ready: Autonomy for Venice. Venice should become a city-state with special powers to address its unique problems of depopulation, overtourism and climate change, he said in the interview. Zaia’s popularity in Veneto, according to the locals, derives from his down-to-earth persona. He’s better known for speaking in regional dialect and attending traditional events, rather than being snapped at glamorous galas or on the fleet of speedboats at his disposal, rocking gently at his Grand Canal doorstep.   He was also lauded for his handling of the Covid pandemic, readying Veneto for the Winter Olympics next year and even helping boost exports of Prosecco sparkling wine. Local lore holds that half of Veneto’s 5 million residents have his phone number. “Maybe even more,” he quipped. “I have never changed my number, people know they can call me if they have a serious problem.” DISCO DOGE Raised in a small village near Treviso, just 30 kilometers from Venice, he was an unusually independent and motivated teenager, passionate about horses and teaching himself Latin on Sundays, according to one classmate. At university, where he graduated in animal husbandry, he supported himself by running club nights in local discos. It was a useful training for politics, Zaia said. “Clubs are a great school of life. You meet humanity in all its forms: rich, poor, good, bad, violent, peaceful.” One of the big questions looming over Italian politics is whether these two rival visions can survive within the League, a party at the heart of Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government. | Ivan Romano/Getty Images Indeed, it seems he took the role ultraseriously. “I never saw Luca dance. For him it was work,” said the same former classmate. He entered politics in the aftermath of the 1990s Clean Hands scandal, a nationwide corruption investigation, which took down a generation of politicians, and became a rising star in the region. As well as being the youngest provincial president in Italy, adorning Treviso with numerous surprisingly popular roundabouts, he was minister of agriculture in Silvio Berlusconi’s government. He is sufficiently self-assured to diverge from central League dogma when he sees fit. He tried to bring in a law this year to regulate doctor-assisted suicide in contrast to national League policy. He also supports sex education in schools, something the League opposes. “When it’s an ethical matter … I  have my own ideas, regardless of what the party says,” he said. But he is clearly smarting about the party’s deal with Meloni to keep the Zaia brand out of the campaign for this weekend’s Veneto election. The original plan, which would have given him significant ongoing influence in the region, was for him to choose a list of regional councilors to go on the ballot and for the League logo to feature his name, he told journalists on the sidelines of a Venice Commission event in October. “If they see me as a problem, I’ll become a real problem,” he threatened. (He will still appear on the ballot as a candidate for regional councilor, giving him yet another option — stay on to assist his successor.) If he does decide to chart his own political path as mayor of Venice next year, at least he won’t have far to go. The doge needs only to step into one of his speedboats to whizz off to the mayor’s equally opulent palazzo along the Grand Canal.

Libyan warlord Osama Al-Masri Njeem, controversially released from jail by Italian authorities in January, was arrested Wednesday in Tripoli on charges of torture and violence against prisoners. “As sufficient evidence was established to support the charges, the Public Prosecutor has referred the accused to trial, while he remains in pre-trial detention pending judgment,” the Attorney General Office of the State of Libya said in a statement. It added that investigations into Al-Masri uncovered “violations of the rights of inmates at the main Tripoli Reform and Rehabilitation Institution,” including the torture of at least 10 detainees and “the death of one inmate as a result of torture.” Al-Masri, long known as a key figure at Libya’s Mitiga prison, was previously arrested in Turin on Jan. 19 after attending a Juventus football match, following an International Criminal Court arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes, torture, murder and sexual violence. Despite those charges, Italy released him after 48 hours, a move that sparked outrage in Rome and prompted the Court of Ministers to open an investigation into Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano over allegations they facilitated Al-Masri’s return to Libya. The inquiry was ultimately dismissed by Italy’s lower house of parliament, where the government holds a majority, in early October. Government critics accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration of returning Al-Masri to Libya to protect Italian energy interests and prevent potential retaliation, including threats to curb cooperation on migration control. The Italian government, for its part, defended the decision as a matter of legal procedure and national security. On Nov. 2, Rome and Tripoli renewed for three more years the controversial Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding, a deal in which the Libyan coastguard would block the departure of migrants from the African continent. Hannah Roberts contributed to this report.

ROME — Safety rules on Italy’s construction sites must be improved, politicians and unions said, following the death of a Romanian worker who was trapped under rubble for 11 hours in Rome after the partial collapse of a medieval tower. Octav Stroici, 66, was working on an EU-funded project to restore the Torre dei Conti, the former home of a noble papal family in the Roman Forum, when it partially collapsed twice on Monday. He was eventually removed from the rubble but suffered cardiac arrest and died in hospital. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared her “deep pain” and sent her condolences to the family for their “unspeakable suffering.” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said: “We mourn Octav Stroici. His heart stopped beating despite the valiant efforts of the fire brigade, who got him out of the rubble alive.” Workplace safety has become a hot-button topic in Italy, with strikes and a national protest held earlier in the year. In the first nine months of 2025, there were 777 reported deaths at work in Italy, around three a day, according to the National Institute for Insurance against Workplace Accidents, or INAIL. Construction workers, over-65s and foreign workers are considered particularly at risk, according to INAIL. Among the major incidents last year, five workers died at a supermarket construction site near Florence, five maintenance workers were killed in Sicily after inhaling poisonous fumes at a sewage treatment plant and seven workers died in an explosion at a hydroelectric plant outside Bologna. Francesco Boccia, of the opposition Democratic Party, said the death of Stroici “is a tragedy that affects us all and drives us to never lower our guard when it comes to safety in the workplace.” He added: “I renew my appeal for workplace safety to be placed at the top of every political agenda and for the necessary resources to be allocated so that every worker can return home at the end of the working day.” Another opposition party, the 5Star Movement, has called for the creation of a dedicated prosecutor’s office for safety at work. The government last week approved measures worth €900 million to improve workplace safety, including incentives for responsible employers as well as more training, inspections and fines. But unions said the measures won’t reduce the number of accidents caused by hiring inexperienced temporary workers, subcontracting tenders and cutting costs. Natale Di Cola, the leader in Rome of CGIL, Italy’s largest union, on Tuesday called for an official day of mourning, writing on social media: “Today is a day of pain and anger … Work is humanity, brotherhood and solidarity, that work must protect life and not endanger it.” He added: “In a healthy country, Octav, at 66, would not have found himself on a construction site doing heavy, intense and dangerous work to earn a living. All this must change.” Di Cola said safety standards at the Torre dei Conti should have been higher considering it was a public project, funded by the EU. Four other people died in workplace accidents in Italy on Monday, he said, adding: “For Octav and for all of them, we will continue to fight so that work is no longer a cause of pain and suffering.”

ROME — A medieval tower in the center of Rome undergoing EU-funded restoration work partially collapsed on Monday, injuring a worker and leaving another trapped inside. The Torre dei Conti, close to the Roman Forum, collapsed for the first time late Monday morning. As emergency services worked to secure the site, there was a second collapse. The imposing fortress was built in the 13th century as the residence of the family of then-Pope Innocent III. It was undergoing restoration as part of the Caput Mundi–Next Generation EU project, funded by the EU’s post-Covid economic reconstruction program. The prefect of Rome, Lamberto Giannini, said one person remained trapped inside. The second collapse “had rendered the operation very long and complex,” he said. “We hope for a good result but it’s not simple.” The accident came days after the government approved legislation to improve safety in the workplace, after a series of fatal accidents. The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, and Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli rushed to the scene Monday.    Luke, who didn’t want to give his surname, a 33-year-old security guard from Manchester, who is on vacation in Rome, told POLITICO: “We went to the Colosseum and as we left we heard lots of sirens coming this way. When we came round the corner, we could see the dust. The fire brigade took three people out of the window. They were all covered in dust. One was bleeding.” He added: “Not long afterward we were walking through the Roman Forum when we saw the dust from the second collapse.” The holidaymaker said it was “crazy” that a building in the center of Rome could collapse. “We had seen it last night and said maybe we could come back in a few years and visit it. You would think that with them restoring it, it would be safe. Obviously that’s not the case and there was a mistake in the planning.”

Italy’s Senate on Thursday approved Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s flagship justice reform, marking significant progress for the right-wing plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. With 112 votes in favor, 59 against and nine abstentions, the Senate passed the constitutional amendment in what officials described as the fourth and final reading. The judicial reform is one of the Meloni government’s key initiatives, alongside plans to strengthen the prime minister’s powers, redefining the balance between Italy’s branches of government. It seeks to create separate career paths for judges and prosecutors, ending the possibility of moving between the two roles, and to create distinct governing councils, one for judges and one for prosecutors, responsible for appointments, promotions, transfers and disciplinary procedures within their respective branches. The Italian government says the changes will improve accountability and efficiency within the judicial system, but critics — including opposition parties and judicial associations — warn they could weaken prosecutorial independence and politicize the judiciary. Meloni has long been at odds with the country’s judiciary, accusing magistrates of blocking her government’s priorities and framing the reform as part of a broader institutional reset. Thursday’s stage was crucial: Under the Italian constitution, amendments require multiple votes, and Senate approval marks the final parliamentary step. The reform now moves to a confirmatory referendum, where Italians will decide its fate. If approved, the changes will enter into force. Meloni described the vote as a “historic milestone,” affirming that both the government and parliament had “done their part” before leaving the final decision to Italian citizens. Opposition senators from the Democratic Party, 5Star Movement and other parties staged protests in the chamber, warning against granting what they called “full powers” to the executive. The reform, long championed by late Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was celebrated by his Forza Italia party as the fulfillment of a historic ambition. After the vote, party members took to the streets in Rome in celebration, carrying large portraits of Berlusconi and chanting slogans in his honor. Forza Italia Senator and former MEP Licia Ronzulli invoked Berlusconi’s legacy, declaring: “Our president up there must be very happy; the magistrates have even brought down governments!” Giulia Poloni contributed to this report.

Veteran Italian politician Carlo Calenda went viral over the weekend after a fiery televised clash over Russia and Ukraine with American economist Jeffrey Sachs on a talk show. Sachs, a Columbia University professor known for his criticism of Western policy toward Russia, accuses the U.S. of orchestrating the 2014 Kyiv revolution and ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych — and provoking the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. Calenda’s forceful pushback — in which he bluntly accused Sachs of lying about American involvement in the Euromaidan revolution — garnered widespread attention over the weekend and attracted praise from EU heavyweights including Martin Selmayr, once the European Commission’s most powerful official. In the clip, Sachs was visibly taken aback by the intensity of Calenda’s rebuttal. In an interview with POLITICO on Monday, Calenda — who previously worked as Italy’s minister of economic development, Rome’s ambassador to the EU and as a member of the European Parliament — reflected on the confrontation, the reaction it sparked across Europe and what it reveals about the West’s struggle to confront disinformation and define its geopolitical voice. Given an opportunity to respond, Sachs did not reply to POLITICO’s requests for comment in time for publication. This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. POLITICO: Were you surprised by the reaction and the kind of attention your remarks have received over the past few days? Carlo Calenda: Very, very surprised, and also very honored that people such as Anne Applebaum … as well as many professors and journalists would repost it. Fundamentally, people are tired of hearing in the Western media individuals who clearly distort facts, lie and spread pro-Putin propaganda, without journalists often telling them, “What you’re saying is factually untrue.” There is a deep fatigue among those who defend liberal democracy at seeing people go to Moscow, attend events with figures like [Russian ultraconservative philosopher and ideologue Alexander] Dugin, then return here and are given airtime to carry Putin’s propaganda. That is unacceptable. For once, Professor Sachs faced a counterpoint. POLITICO: So, in your view, is it a mistake to give space in the public debate to this type of argument? Calenda: No, I’m a liberal, I believe all viewpoints should be allowed, but they must be put into context. For example, if I were introducing Sachs as a journalist, I would say: “A journalist who has over time taken positions close to Russia, and who a few months ago took part in the Forum of the Future 2050, organized by Alexander Dugin, the ideologue who believes the West is degenerate and that Russia must restore imperial values.” Viewers deserve to know this. Just as when someone claims that Euromaidan [the large-scale 2013-14 protests in Ukraine demanding closer ties with Europe and an end to government corruption] was funded by the CIA, there are two reasons why that’s false: First, you’d have to explain how millions of people could have been paid; and second, Sachs himself in 2014 said the opposite and condemned Russian imperialism. There are factual things that cannot be tolerated. And in Italy, unfortunately, TV channels and newspapers go as far as giving airtime even to [Vladimir] Solovyov, who openly calls for nuclear strikes on Europe as if that were normal. It is not. Jeffrey Sachs was visibly taken aback by the intensity of Carlo Calenda’s rebuttal. | Abdülhamid Hoba/Getty Images POLITICO: Do you think that in certain academic or media circles there is more naivete or more political calculation when narratives close to Kremlin propaganda are promoted? Calenda: It’s a political calculation; it gets audience attention. And above all, there’s a carelessness in never letting informed people speak. I think it’s time we bring clarity, because democracies are built on opinions, but not on the idea that you can say whatever you want without anyone challenging the truth of it. And that, first and foremost, is the job of journalists. POLITICO: When you agreed to appear on the show last Thursday, were you aware that Sachs would be there, and did you expect to have to debate him on these issues? Calenda: Yes, I expected it, in fact it was an opportunity to put him to the test. I didn’t even call him a liar outright. I said, “That’s not true,” and he asked, “Are you calling me a liar?” I said, “Yes,” because it simply isn’t true. You can’t claim millions of Euromaidan protesters were paid by the CIA. That’s outrageous. And I was struck that the journalist who had previously covered Euromaidan said, “All opinions are legitimate.” Opinions are legitimate, yes, but truth is not optional. POLITICO: After that moment on live television, did the debate continue off camera? Calenda: He was offended, so I let him be offended, I couldn’t care less. I never make it personal. POLITICO: During the debate with Sachs, you said that one of the great mistakes of your life was having taken part in business agreements after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. In your view, what should Italy and Europe have done at that time instead? Calenda: We should have understood that Putin’s move wasn’t isolated. Behind it was an imperial logic, a strategy of reclaiming a sphere of influence in line with the Brezhnev Doctrine, neighboring countries must have compliant governments. That was a mistake comparable to Munich with the Sudetenland. Yes, we imposed three rounds of sanctions, which were useless, but we kept doing business as usual. I was the first to make that mistake myself. But it should serve as a lesson: You can’t keep feeding the crocodile hoping it will eat you last; in the end, it eats you anyway. POLITICO: Is there any room today for a realistic peace negotiation with Moscow? Calenda: Unfortunately, no. Moscow knows that since the U.S. stopped supplying weapons directly and with Trump’s wavering, Russia’s situation today is stronger. There’s no real possibility of peace, at most a ceasefire, which Russia seems unwilling to accept. The outcome of this discussion is probably that I won’t be invited back to that TV show. POLITICO: Is there a lack of awareness about the geopolitical risks we face in Italy and Europe? Calenda: Absolutely. We [Azione, Calenda’s liberal-centrist party] proposed a bill called the Democratic Shield, which requires intelligence services to produce a detailed report on Russian infiltration and financing in the media through newspaper subscriptions, company sponsorships or political funding. We need evidence, because democracy is freedom, but also responsibility. The election in Romania has shown that today there is a situation where, you can invest millions of euros in social media to manipulate or subvert democracy. We must prevent this … Today, almost no country has mechanisms for that. POLITICO: How does your proposed law address this issue? Carlo Calenda: “I’m a liberal, I believe all viewpoints should be allowed.” | Massimo Di Vita/Getty Images Calenda: It requires a joint report from Agcom [Italy’s national regulatory authority for the communications industries] on social media trends, and from intelligence services, on anomalous funding by companies linked to Moscow. This was also a proposal we voted on in the European Parliament. Today, there’s a clear need for legislation against foreign interference, particularly from Russia and China. POLITICO: We’ve talked about the level of debate on Italian TV, but in your view is this a trend that’s also happening in other European countries? Calenda: Of course. My intervention got attention because many are tired of hearing the same lies. Statements distorted by the Kremlin, like the claim that the U.S. helped Ukraine to overthrow its government, are repeated across European media without journalists ever saying, “This is a lie; it has been disproven.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denounced an attack on investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci after an explosive device detonated under his car outside his home late Thursday. No one was injured in the blast, which damaged a second family vehicle and a neighboring house in Pomezia, a municipality south of Rome. Anti-mafia prosecutors have opened an investigation, ANSA reported. “I express my full solidarity with the journalist Sigfrido Ranucci and the strongest condemnation for the serious act of intimidation he has suffered,” Meloni said in a statement. “The freedom and independence of information are non-negotiable values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend.” Ranucci and the Meloni government have a tense relationship. Report, the show he hosts, has repeatedly investigated government figures, including a probe into the alleged role of officials in the attempted takeover of Mediobanca by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which led Meloni’s Head of Cabinet Gaetano Caputi to pursue leagal action in July against the program. In recent years, Ranucci has faced multiple lawsuits from members of Meloni’s government, the Senate President Ignazio La Russa, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and prominent political families, including the Berlusconis. Other members of Meloni’s government also expressed solidarity with Ranucci. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the attack “extremely serious, cowardly and unacceptable,” while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi pledged full police support to identify the perpetrators and strengthen the journalist’s protection. Ranucci has lived under police guard for years after he and his newsroom received threats due to their reporting on politicians, business leaders and other public figures but also mafia networks and corruption cases tied to organized crime. Earlier this week, he was acquitted in a defamation case stemming from one of Report’s investigations. Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has faced criticism for actions perceived as undermining press freedom, including legal threats against journalists and censorship attempts, raising concerns among watchdog organizations and European institutions about the state of media independence in Italy.

Italy’s lower house of parliament on Thursday blocked efforts to prosecute three senior ministers over the controversial release of a Libyan general wanted for war crimes. The vote, which saw lawmakers reject the request by more than 2-to-1, reflects the firm control held by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing majority and shields her top allies from potential criminal proceedings in the so-called Al-Masri affair. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano were accused of aiding and abetting the escape of Osama Al-Masri Njeem, a Libyan general accused of crimes against humanity including torture, rape and murder by the International Criminal Court during his tenure as head of Libya’s judicial police. The Rome Tribunal of Ministers, the judicial body responsible for overseeing charges against ministers for acts committed in office, had petitioned parliament in August to lift the trio’s immunity and allow prosecutors to move forward with charges over Al-Masri’s release in January — but the bid was rejected Thursday. The plenary result — 251, 256 and 252 votes in favor of denying the tribunal’s request for Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano, respectively — confirmed expectations that the governing coalition would close ranks. The secret ballot, however, and a handful of votes from opposition deputies meant the final totals slightly exceeded the government’s formal majority. Meloni was also in the chamber during the decision. “I’m satisfied, because the result went even beyond what the governing majority had expected numerically: This means that even within parts of the opposition there is some reluctance to hand over to public prosecutors responsibilities that should be purely political,” Nordio said after the vote. Al-Masri was arrested at a Turin hotel on Jan. 19 on an ICC warrant but was released two days later after a Rome appeals court cited a procedural lapse as Nordio’s ministry had not responded to the court’s request to confirm the arrest. Italian authorities subsequently arranged for Al-Masri’s repatriation to Tripoli aboard a state aircraft. Prosecutors alleged that the three officials authorized the transfer out of concern that extraditing Al-Masri to The Hague could trigger reprisals against Italian citizens or commercial interests in Libya. Nordio also faced an additional charge of failure to perform official duties. The investigation into Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano began in late January following a complaint by lawyer Luigi Li Gotti, who also named Meloni in his complaint. However, the prime minister was formally cleared in August. Meloni denounced the proceedings against her ministers as “absurd,” arguing that the government acts collectively. “Every choice, especially so important, is agreed. It is therefore absurd to ask that Piantedosi, Nordio and Mantovano, and not me, go to trial before them,” she said. Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party has maintained that the ministers acted appropriately to safeguard national security. Piantedosi said earlier this year that Al-Masri’s expulsion was “necessary” because the Libyan “posed a serious threat.”