ROME (Reuters) -A senior member of Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist Brothers of Italy party was elected speaker of the upper house Senate on Thursday, despite a revolt within the right-wing coalition that won last month’s general election.
Ignazio La Russa clinched the necessary majority in the Senate vote, even though many members of Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia party boycotted the ballot to protest over the cabinet seats they have been offered in the forthcoming government.
In theory, La Russa should not have been able to win without the support of Forza Italia senators, but in the end he got 116 votes, lifting him well above the required 104-vote majority.
It was not immediately clear which opposition politicians had backed him in the secret ballot.
The right-wing alliance, which includes Brothers of Italy, Forza Italia and the League, easily won the Sept. 25 election and have promised to bring political stability to the country after years of short-lived governments.
However efforts to form a cabinet have proved more difficult than predicted and political sources say Berlusconi is furious with Meloni, who is widely expected to be named prime minister, for refusing some of his demands for the new ministerial team.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Writing by Crispian Balmer, editing by Gavin Jones)
