In her maiden confidence speech to
parliament Tuesday Italy's first female Premier Giorgia Meloni
paid tribute to the many illustrious women who had preceded her
including educational reformer Maria Montessori, Parliamentary
Speakers Nilde Iotti, Tina Anselmi and Elisabetta Casellati,
physicist Rita Levi Montalcini, astronaut Samantha
Cristoforetti, outgoing justice minister Marta Cartabia, and
others who had paved the way for her to break "this ultimate
glass ceiling and become prime minister".
Among those cited were:
19th century Italian reunifiication campaigner Cristina
Trivulzio di Belgioioso, "an elegant organizer of salons and
barricades," noblewoman, patriot and protagonist of the
Risorgimento and the fight for Italian unity.
Rosalie Montmasson, "so stubborn as to leave with Garibaldi's
Thousand who made Italy".
Alfonsina Strada, a pioneer of Italian women's cycling, who
"pedalled hard against the wind of prejudice".
Montessori and teacher and Nobel prize winning writer Grazia
Deledda, who both "with their example opened wide the gates of
education to all the country's girls".
And also: journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci; investigative
journalist Ilaria Alpi, slain along with her cameraman Miran
Hovratin while probing arms trafficking in Somalia; journalist
Mariagrazia Cutuli, slain in Afghanistan; particle physicist and
CERN chief Fabiola Giannotti,; and Catholic woman Chiara
Corbella Petrillo, who died of cancer after refusing treatment
so her son could be born after her first two children had died
after their births.
"Thank you," Meloni told the Lower House in her confidence
speech, "thanks you for showing the value of Italian women, as I
hope to do so too".
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