Renzi’s film forum in the Senate: he attacks Meloni by comparing her to Gigi Proietti and the Blues Brothers

Matteo Renzi’s response to the Prime Minister in the Senate today was akin to a brief film forum. On the subject of Europe, Giorgia Meloni has ‘the vision of Gigi Proietti: if something works, Proietti’s lawyer takes credit for the results. Otherwise, Giorgia-Proietti-Meloni blames others. This is Meloni’s view of Europe. But in four years she has failed in her attempt to change Europe and has been helped during the most critical moments,” said the leader of Italia Viva during his explanation of vote on the resolutions concerning the European Council, following the Prime Minister’s reply. The cinematic reference is to a well-known sketch performed by the Roman actor in Le barzellette, a 2004 comedy directed by Carlo Vanzina.  “Prime Minister Meloni’s speech today would have gone down very well at Atreju 2022 but not today”, because “if Europe is not the disaster that the Prime Minister describes, then over the past four years she has been going to Brussels for lots of breakfasts and informal meetings: there’s a German, a Dane, a Belgian – it sounds like a joke, but it’s not funny”, said Renzi.

Shortly afterwards, here is another quote. “On the Ilva issue, Mr President, I saw you in Blues Brothers mode – all you were missing were the dark glasses. You started off with the old chestnut, saying it’s Monti’s fault, Renzi’s fault… we’re always shifting the blame; I’m surprised we haven’t yet pinned it on De Pretis and Crispi, who are clearly responsible,” he quipped. This time, the reference is to an iconic scene from the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis. In the scene Renzi was referring to, the character played by John Belushi begs an old flame to spare his life, quickly coming up with a series of excuses, each more absurd than the last. 

“There is a clear responsibility in this country’s history; it’s always the fault of those who came before, and not the fact that you’ve been in power for the last four years,” Renzi continued. “In any case, regarding Ilva, there have been 12 decrees – 8 direct and 4 related – and a series of measures that you have taken concerning Ilva, but there is a symbolic fact: on 4 September 2026, whilst the Meloni government was celebrating its record-breaking tenure in Bari, at the very same time, 100 kilometres away, in Taranto, 2,495 redundancy notices were sent out to Ilva workers. These were signed not by Agostino De Pretis or Mario Monti, but by the incompetence of a government which has Urso at the Ministry of Economic Development, failing to tackle the main problem of the company’s crisis. It is your fault that Ilva is in this state,” he concluded.