(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 15 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday hailed the stability of her government, saying it was a break with past Italian administrations, as she addressed the Atreju festival organized by her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in Rome.
    "This government's stability, stemming from the solidity of ruling coalition, is the greatest element of discontinuity and the greatest element of strength in the current framework," Meloni said.
    "Stability guarantees international credibility and the authoritativeness that it is not possible to produce prosperity without" Italy first woman premier also thanked her government allies, saying she was confident of working with them "for years to come".
    She also spared a thought for her former ally, late ex-premier and Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi.
    "In two years we have created almost one million more jobs," Meloni said.
    "Silvio Berlusconi, who has made a million jobs a flagship pledge, would be proud to know that the government he helped create did this in two years".
    Meloni also pledged that her government's controversial agreement with Tirana to process migrants in Italian-run centres in Albania will be a success despite the legal setbacks that have held up the scheme.
    "The centres for migrants in Albania will work, even if I have to spend every night there from now until the end of the (term of the) Italian government," Meloni said. "Because I want to fight the mafia and I ask the whole Italian State and decent people to help me fight the mafia.
    "I am not the enemy, I am a decent person," added the premier, raising her voice to applause from the crowd.
    Italian judges nixed the detention of the first two batches of Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants taken to the Albanian centres.
    Meloni also announced that she was stepping down as the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group that her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party belongs to.
    "When I was asked to extend my term until the (EU) elections (in June), I agreed," Meloni told the festival.
    "Now that the elections have taken place, I think I have fulfilled my duty and I want to announce that I am going to resign as president of the European Conservatives". She said the group "deserves to have a president who can deal with it full time". Meloni added that she expected former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the Law and Justice (PiS) party to run and would back him if he did.
    Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini said Sunday that he was ready to govern with Meloni for the rest of the current parliamentary term and the whole of the next one.
    "It's an honour to work with her," Salvini said via video link to the Atreju festival. "When political closeness, affection and friendship are combined with work, no one can come close.
    "Let's continue until 2027 and, health permitting, make a reservation until 2032. "Over the last two years and two months (in government) we have worked very well together.
    "We have developed a working relationship that is also one of friendship, in spite of the ill wishers and journalists who look for problems even when there aren't any." (ANSA).