Time.news – Appointment tomorrow at 3 pm Matteo Salvini has called the federal council of the League for tomorrow to announce the green light for the “new phase” of the center-right. Just 48 hours have passed since the election of Sergio Mattarella, the conclusion of a battle that marked a resounding defeat for the coalition, and the Northern League secretary holds the keyboard to write a letter to the ‘Giornale’ in which he relaunches the federation of forces project of center-right who support the government of Mario Draghi, already presented without great success last summer.
“Only a new political container of the center-right forces, starting with those that support the Draghi government, can act incisively. Our model can be that of the American Republican Party”, he announces.
In the Milanese afternoon, Salvini then sings to Arcore, where Silvio Berlusconi is, discharged at lunchtime from the San Raffaele hospital. The Knight – it is reported – has not at all liked in recent days the names that Salvini brought to the negotiating table with Giuseppe Conte, from Franco Frattini to Giulio Tremonti, from Elisabetta Belloni to Paola Severino, up to Sabino Cassese.
For this reason, Berlusconi had relaunched Pierferdinando Casini’s candidacy, also foreshadowing his return to the field. But the relations between the former premier and the Northern League ‘captain’, although they received a halt between Thursday and Saturday, are still affectionate, “of human and political closeness”, as both Lega and Forza Italia sources report.
A political closeness that does not translate into an automatic ‘yes’ of the Cav to the idea of the federation on the model of the American Republican Party, launched by the party secretary in via Bellerio. At the moment the Cavaliere’s attitude remains cautious, even if the visit of the former Minister of the Interior to Villa San Martino is certainly a sign of a thaw after the fibrillations of the last few days. But, as underlined by several Italian exponents, starting with Undersecretary Giorgio Mulè, Berlusconi has always been in favor of the idea as long as the federation has a very specific logic. In any case, the times will be long, and not only because a part of the blue party no longer recognizes the leadership of the ‘captain’. But also for operations ‘in the center’.
The meeting between the Azzurri leaders, Maurizio Lupi, Giovanni Toti and Lorenzo Cesa on Friday evening kicked off a joint move to weigh in on the Quirinale match. But Berlusconi has never been a supporter of the proportional electoral law, has always remained anchored to the majority, has always believed that Italy needs governability, two sides, one liberal and the other center-left, in comparison.
In short, it will be necessary to wait to see the positions of the Lega and FI reconnect. Because one thing, explains a Berlusconian, is a project of equal dignity, another is a takeover bid on the party.
The idea of federation is also greeted with caution by the coalition centrists, who in any case do not reject it. But at present they no longer seem to recognize the leadership of the Lega after the management, considered as confusing, of the Colle game. So much so that Giovanni Toti, when asked, does not close but asks that it be managed with “transparency” and that it be accompanied by the primary tools to choose the leader of the coalition.
The project of the Italian ‘Republicans’ is welcomed with skepticism, however, even within the League, where, despite the ‘battery’ communications in support of the proposal, there are several executives who harbor doubts. With the microphones turned off, some remember the project that never took off launched by the former Bossiano Marco Reguzzoni and Nunzia Di Girolamo, in 2015.
Others do not understand the need and underline the unenthusiastic reception by the so-called base on social networks. Now it remains to be seen whether these doubts will be expressed at the meeting of the federal council. The secretary is convinced that he has done everything in the negotiations on the Hill and, if anything, he has sinned with too much loyalty and generosity in the face of too many vetoes from the left. However, it is a fact that the Quirinale game is weakened.
The risk of losing the centrists if there were a green light for a proportional reform is high. The center-right came out of the game in pieces. “The Republicans? It’s an idea that doesn’t exist, it’s funny”, a manager of the Brothers of Italy cut short. “It is only an attempt to find a topic on which to divert the discourse on the responsibilities of how Salvini conducted the Colle negotiation”.
It is no longer soft Giorgia Meloni who clearly defines Salvini’s behavior in the last few days as “crazy” and goes so far as to evoke the possibility of not going along with the 2023 Politics. In any case, Salvini will illustrate the stages of the project tomorrow at the federal council. In the belief that the plan will aggregate those Azzurri who do not intend to look to the center and will be able to isolate the Brothers of Italy.
Tomorrow will also be an opportunity for the League to try to reunite the party. Always divided, secretly, between the ‘governist’ wing that refers to the presidents of the Region and the ministers of the Draghi government and those who, on the other hand, marry ‘no ifs and buts’ the line of the secretary. The offensive articles of recent days have done wrong, for which Salvini has sued, and the council will also be an opportunity for the secretary to ask for unity from his followers, recalling that after the Quirinale match, in addition to the opponents on the left, the also confronted with FdI which will now target the governing League.
Because the intention of the party secretary of via Bellerio is not to abandon the dragon ship but to make himself heard, especially on the measures linked to the pandemic and energy crisis.