Giuseppe Conte went to the press room at the end of the Canadian summit visibly happy with how Charlevoix's two days went. The Prime Minister has drawn an "overall positive balance", claiming the agreement reached with the American President Donald Trump and affirming his autonomy from the leaders of M5s and Lega Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini. Creating an axis with Trump was the priority intent of the Italian delegation and the goal, for Conte, has been achieved. It was a relationship, he explained, "immediately very cordial, with a great openness towards me, reciprocated" and "great attention to this government experience". Palazzo Chigi will work immediately to set up a meeting at the White House. The premier is well aware that the approach to the American leader has created some concern in European partners, but he tries to dampen the tensions. "There is no need to worry", he explained, because "Italy's relations with the US are traditionally strategic" and thinking that they can create a "conflict with European partners" is a hypothesis that "we absolutely must set aside". And for Conte there is not even, on the part of international institutions, apprehension about the line that the yellow-green government will take. Even from the interview with the director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, he said he was certain, "no cause for concern" emerged. Overall the feeling given in his first press conference is that of a premier who, after the first domestic and international releases, feels strengthened, so as to fully claim his prerogatives. “They are - he noted - the expression of a majority that has signed a contract, which is a strengthening of the autonomy of the Prime Minister. I have full personal harmony with Di Maio and Salvini and I do not renounce to exercise the prerogatives of the President of the Council. I take full responsibility for leading this government and directing its policy ”. On the first steps of the government in economic matters, however, it does not become unbalanced, misleading a couple of times by journalists' questions about citizenship income and flat tax. "On Tuesday in a meeting with the ministers of the economic and European area - he explained - we will address the most urgent issues and I reserve the right to first review the issues and then elaborate a proposal as soon as possible". On the other priority issue for the majority, that of migrants, he reconfirmed the Italian line, but also tried to limit the effect of the bright tones of the statements by the Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, defending the role of NGOs. “The government - he assured - is not angry with NGOs, it does not believe they are the problem. The management of migratory flows with this articulated approach is working but this cannot be the solution because at any moment it could not work and there could be a crisis ”. This is why Italy will go to Brussels and “for once, we who are always under observation, will evaluate the others. We expect true solidarity, we no longer want money but that the management of flows and repatriations is a shared and managed problem at European level ”.
