The Quirinal Treaty between Italy and France is better than the sovereign pact with Budapest. From Paris with Macron Mattarella sends a message to our own sovereignists: as long as Colle and Draghi hold up, the anti-EU ruling will not prevail. And Salvini should learn from the Le Pen flop. Angelo Panebianco speaks
Take selfies with i Yellow vest to the Quirinale Treaty. It seems like an era and instead it’s been two years: with the visit to Paris the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella find in Emmanuel Macron a strategic ally for Italy of Mario Draghi, from Tripoli to Brussels. A confirmation of the role of guarantee for Italian foreign policy historically played by Colle. But also an indirect response to the sovereign manifesto signed with great fanfare by the Italian right, he explains Angelo Panebianco, political scientist, columnist of the Corriere della Sera, professor of Political Science at the University of Bologna.
Is Mattarella the guarantor of Italian foreign policy?
He no longer needs it, with Draghi there is harmony. Diplomatic tensions with France and the EU are long gone, now the substitution is over. There remains a knot to untie.
Which?
Libya. In recent years, Italy and France have been on opposite sides, one with Tripoli, the other with Benghazi, the rivalry on the field has damaged both. Now they must realistically acknowledge that others are setting the rules.
Relations will have improved, but there are still those in the government who supported the Yellow Vests.
True, but the Draghi government gives a guarantee to foreign chancelleries, because in foreign policy the parties do not touch the ball, only Grillo’s pro-Chinese shots remain. The premier and the head of state have signed the Europeanism of this executive. And in Europe there is a situation that helps.
Or?
On the one hand, Angela Merkel is now at the end of her political experience. On the other a Macron weakened and worried about the upcoming elections. At this juncture, Draghi’s prestige and European caliber are transformed into political levers.
Is Mattarella’s visit also a response to the manifesto of European sovereignists?
There is no direct relationship, but certainly a signal emerges: the Quirinale and Palazzo Chigi go in the opposite direction of that pact.
Can’t the Italian right do without the Eurosceptic prejudice?
Here we have to make a distinction. The position of the Brothers of Italy, like it or not, is absolutely consistent with its history and its political position. The Lega case is more complicated. The electorate in the North does not feel its hostility to the EU, and it is no coincidence that the exit from the euro, which until recently was a Northern League workhorse, is now a taboo.
But the League has changed a lot over the years.
A half-won bet. The design of a national movement, in the wake of the lepenists in France, is now clashing with the resistance of Fdi in the South. The transition from federalism to sovereignty has remained unfinished, thanks to the resistance of the voters in the North. Even with respect to an openly Atlanticist and pro-European government, Fdi’s opposition is more coherent than the somewhat schizophrenic support of the Northern League.
The recent elections in France have opened a debate in Italy. The lepenist right did not break through, it is true, but, as Giorgia Meloni wrote to Corriere, the united rights exceed 40% in the country.
Meloni overlooks one detail: the Gaullists’ success is an alternative to Le Pen, it cannot be added together. These elections instead signal the failure of the most extreme movements.
How can this be explained?
In part, Donald Trump’s downward trend played a role, the European sovereign world has not yet digested the bitter morsel. And the trend is evident not only in France: in Germany the Afd right has stopped in front of the CDU. In place of Macron, more than Le Pen, I would be afraid of the Gaullists, because they are really an alternative. The Italian right, especially the Lega, would do well to take notes to reposition themselves within the Draghi government. Provided the government lasts long enough.