League's Fontana elected Lower House Speaker

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 14 - The League's Lorenzo Fontana, one of the deputies to party leader Matteo Salvini, was elected Speaker of the Lower House on Friday.
    The 42-year-old former family and disabilities minister and ex-EU affairs minister prevailed in the fourth round of voting, when the threshold of MPs' votes needed went down from two-thirds to a simple majority.
    He got 222 votes, comfortably over the 197 needed.
    "I thank those who voted and those who did not," Fontana said.
    "It will be my honour to preside over parliament".
    He dedicated his first comments as Senate Speaker to Pope Francis, describing him as a "spiritual point of reference for the majority of Italian citizens.
    "The pope is carrying out an unequaled diplomatic effort for peace," he added.
    A conservative Catholic, critics have accused Fontana of being against LGBT+ rights and abortion, and of being sympathetic to Russia.
    He has lent his support to a controversial pro-life Family Day in Italy.
    During the voting on Friday, Rachele Scarpa and Alessandro Zan, lawmakers for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), held up a large banner that read: "No to a homophobic, pro-Putin Speaker".
    In his speech, however, Fontana stressed the value of diversity.
    "The House represents the diverse choices of the citizens," he said.
    "Our nation is a many-sided one, with different historic and regional realities that formed it and made it great.
    "Italy's greatness is diversity".
    Friday's vote lacked the drama of Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa's election on Thursday.
    La Russa, the co-founder of likely next premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, prevailed even though FdI's centre-right allies in Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) did not vote for him.
    Berlusconi said this move was linked to "unease" about vetoes imposed in the negotiations for the formation of the new government, but La Russa was elected anyway thanks to votes from some members of opposition parties.
    "We are moving forward at pace," said Meloni after the House Speaker's election.
    "I'm happy and I congratulate Fontana". (ANSA).