Bel ami in via XX Settembre: the irresistible rise of Francesco Soro to the top of the Ministry of Economy

Tana. We didn't even have time to run down our cell phone battery from all the calls and messages that we were immediately discovered. Thursday: as evening fell, with Pope Leo XIV already elected, we arrived from another white smoke. It's that of Francesco Soro's chimney. He's full of friends from all walks of life, damn it. Everywhere: politicians, journalists, in the ministries, in the casemates of power. And then Rai, institutions, boards of directors. A friendly source warns us: "Be careful, he knows you're working on him." Caught with a rat in your mouth. It's understandable. Rome, after all, is also, and above all, this: a pissi pissi that bounces from journalism to politics, passing through the best clubs on the banks of the Tiber (and not only) and returns to the Montecitoriale city of restaurants until it swoops down, on Sunday, in the Monte Mario (or Tiber in this case) grandstand of the Olimpico: come on, can you get me a ticket for the match? Superior.

Vast program: to tell the crazy rise of this handsome and capable son of North Rome to the top of via XX Settembre, where the purse strings are, where before there were academic rituals of great professors, with courts and disciples, intended for a reassuring self-preservation for the common people. This appointment is controversial: perhaps it breaks the balance, as it was for that of Daria Perrotta, the first woman to head the State Accounting Office. But even more. Voices from the technostructure of via XX Settembre with the calculator between their teeth: "We won't let him touch a ball, we're waiting for him". In the Palaces that count, they talk about nothing else. There is a piece of deep state and managers of finance and economy a little perplexed: "Soro? Of course I know him, who doesn't? We'll see, I've had many aperitifs with him in these years, yes, affable, but ...". There is also a section of politics, even former ministers of Economy, who confess to us: "Easy with the preventive criticisms, this is the way things are now. The problem, if anything, is the disappearance of economic planning that ended up in Palazzo Chigi, therefore the ministry's own conception, at the service of politics and no longer regulated by a technical counterweight".

The common thread and proposed title: a big gene at the Mef. The phenomenology of a masterful and rampant race in the shadow of the Dome that climbs any position with a smile, with its way of doing things. Tartina and leggina, relationships and kisses, with a phone book that would make the Batteria del Viminale but also Lucio Presta envious. Bel Ami? Maybe yes, but who isn't? This is the thread to weave with three historical periods to keep in mind to focus on one of the most important Italian managers in the year of our Lord 2025: the Rutellian daisy phase, then the epic Malagonian one at Coni and finally, after a sensational break worthy of the finale of Succesion with the number one of Italian sport, the passage under the protective wing of Giancarlo Giorgetti, the most romanized member of the Northern League of all. Who, with a notable move, proposed him on April 30 in the Council of Ministers as head of the economics department of the ministry he leads: he will deal with public companies. Of Tim, of Mps, of Poste, for example. A chair on the first floor with a view of via Pastrengo, in the quadrilateral of the Italian economy, enough to make the knees of those who sit on it tremble.

A chair that was half - we will explain why half - of people like Mario Draghi, Alessandro Rivera, Vittorio Grilli, Domenico Siniscalco, without necessarily reaching the first: the lawyer Teodoro De Rossi (1853-1859). In short: best wishes.

Soro replaces Marcello Sala, who resigned to take up the position of president of Nexi, a leading company in the Italian digital payments market and owned by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, without certain annoying public salary caps. A man of banks and finance, with a great CV in the private sector made in Monza, will therefore be replaced by this 55-year-old lawyer, who graduated with honors from La Sapienza with a thesis on banking law: “Participation in the capital of the bank: Siamese brotherhood between bank and industry”.

Unprejudiced and a workaholic, a charmer and empathetic (in Roman dialect: paraculo), very blond in his youth and still with a haircut, a shirt unbuttoned after eight in the evening, two little hearts tattooed on his wrist in memory of a friend lost too soon, a fair amount of photos on Dagospia that certify his relevance in the Urbe that pleases people who please in the right places. “He's a friend”. He was also the historic ex-boyfriend for six years of Ilaria D'Amico (now Mrs. Buffon) but for over ten years he has been married to Lucia Segni (daughter of Mariotto and granddaughter of Antonio, former head of state). Soro comes from a family of ambassadors (his grandfather, Diego Soro, a diplomat in Mexico, Thailand, Kuwait; his great-uncle, Vincenzo, a manager at the Farnesina and in Warsaw at the time of the ghetto roundups with many Jews saved on his CV: Soro's List). He has two sons: Santiago and Diego. Ponte Milvio as a way of being, easy to find at the Jarro bar. Instagram without photos, also followed by the leaders of the Biancoceleste fans. Tall and short, holy and damned Rome, a humble character but very, very bold. Good. The thoughtful Giorgetti has him in his heart.

Here he is: out and about on an old Honda SH scooter, Corso Trieste-Parioli style, a Vanzina film but also super Rutelli mayor of Rome, with which to ride around in the power of the cobblestones, toasts in living rooms like Myrta Merlino's, lots of sport. Toasts, handshakes, do you need a hand? Enterprising without ever setting limits on his ability, a dear person, everyone says about him. Quick, capable, smiling. A good boy (in Rome you are a boy until you are seventy). Except for one person: Giovanni Malagò, the father who feels betrayed, who does not forgive him, who raised him, between Palazzo H, the villa in Sabaudia and boat trips, big evenings, was his best man at his wedding. The two no longer speak to each other. She introduced him to Ilaria D'Amico, blessed his wedding with Lucia Segni, Clementina Montezemolo's "Siamese twin". In short: pure Malagò clan, Megalò clan (quote by Susanna Agnelli).

Soro is a true Lazio fan. A fanatic, with an iconic framed photo of Giorgione Chinaglia with his index finger pointing upwards that he always carries with him in all the rooms he manages. He will become one of the two general directors of the Economy (he comes from the State Printing Office and Mint, on Giorgetti's input, where the numbers and balance sheets prove him right: it seems he revitalized and brought into modernity an elephant cemetery famous to most because it minted money).

At the Ministry of Economy and Finance, it was said, there have been two general managers since last year when the Meloni government decided to split the departments: Riccardo Barbieri Hermitte is at the Treasury, while he will be at the Economy, Fra', the friend of the manager's son Nicola Maccanico, but also of Federico Palmaroli, known to all as the carefree Osho, the futurist Vauro of Fratelli d'Italia. But also Raffaele Avanzini, CEO of Newton Compton Editori, and Roberto Rao. Those who know Soro say that he doesn't have a great ear for music - even though he invented the coins of Italian songs at the Mint, like Vasco's "Albachiara" or Renato Zero's "Il cielo" - on the contrary, he has a nose for power: he knows where to be and when to be ready. Azzarita scientific high school in Parioli, sports and friends at the foreign club, for obvious family reasons, later replaced by Aniene.

He approaches Rutelli's world at a very young age, which in Rome is a hotbed of talent and relationships. After graduation, he gains experience at the ministry with Linda Lanzillotta in the legislative office, then at Corecom, the regional committee for communications in Lazio. Rutelli, Lusetti, Losacco, the young Luciano Nobili, the Catholic Franceschini (Soro instead took communion as an adult, at 50, in Medjugorje). The next super manager of via XX Settembre will not follow Rutelli in the experience of the Api and will stop at coordinating the civic list of the second electoral campaign for the Campidoglio, won however by Gianni Alemanno. Also because he has an uncle who heads the D'Elia law firm. That's how he meets Malagò. Also through Rutelli and his uncle's world linked to entertainment: he begins to frequent Ilaria D'Amico and Monica Bellucci, a great friend of the president of Coni. Who, today, refuses to talk about his former protégé. "No comment". There's nothing to be done. From the Coni of the wounded Giovannino they say with Roman cynical malice: he was a lawyer for road accidents, became a consultant for Coni services, chief of staff of Coni and hired by Coni services at the highest salary, commissioner of shooting, coordinator of sports justice, president of tennis television. The two have formed an inseparable couple: they are separated by eleven years of age, their football faith - Malagò is a soaking Roma fan - and the management of the magic quiff: one has a middle parting, the other on the side. Soro is the only one who also manages to make Virginia Raggi think about the Olympics denied to Rome, he tries, he gets close, but in the end nothing. Other Games, golds, parties, football, tennis: Sabaudia, families that cross paths and expand in the open sea. Same look, similar way of doing things, which hypnotizes. The breakup occurs when the yellow-green government, Giorgetti's idea, decides to attack Malagò's Coni and creates Sport e Salute, moving half a billion euros, that is, the coffers of Italian sport. Soro works on the law that effectively weakens his former mentor. Who doesn't take it very well, let's say. Could this be the reason for the fight? Who knows. The breakup is the talk of the towns and salons. There are conflicting versions, obviously. The result doesn't change, however. After Sport e Salute - from which he is on leave - Soro follows Giorgetti to the Ministry of Economic Development, dealing with telecommunications. Then also with Rai: reports upon reports, the capital whispers, the lawyer from Rome North has made a choice. With the Meloni government, here he is at the Zecca dello Stato where he closes budgets with profits and important operations. He manages to make this mammozzone take a leap into modernity and digital, he calls a signature of the old Republic like Marco Mensurati to take care of his communications. He is not a member of the Northern League, even if he knows Matteo Salvini. And it is certainly not from Fratelli d'Italia, even if he greets Francesco Lollobrigida affectionately at the stadium.

It is an emanation of Giorgetti who in the industrious silence, Opus Dei style, has managed to dismantle consolidated mechanisms in via XX Settembre. The general director Rivera leaves, two general directorates are created. Sala goes to one, who then leaves, and here comes Soro. The appointment will become effective by early June, it seems. The new head of the Economics department does not speak, even if he has made a den there. The skeptics describe him as the coach of the “Pezzana” soccer tournament, a fundamental challenge for soccer lovers in North Rome, on the fields near Tor di Quinto. Those who love him speak of someone whose motto is: friends and humility preserve you from the sirens of power. Both voices should be taken with sushi chopsticks. Let's not talk about Malagò Soro, let alone. In circles he says he has nothing against the president of Coni, who has always limited himself to advising, even when he was wrong. Water under the bridge, like that of the Tiber and the Aniene. Malagò's extension is impossible, Soro's rise is a fact. Giorgetti laughs and enjoys it: better than a goal in the ninetieth minute of his Southampton. Even those around Meloni are happy about the heterogenesis of ends: if certain matches at the Mef were to run aground, everything will fall on Palazzo Chigi, increasingly central. Greetings from via XX Settembre, new breach of Porta Pia. But on the contrary: instead of the Piedmontese, here are the Romans.

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