In 2019 Matteo Salvini was the man of fashion in Italy. He amassed 38% of the votes in the polls while making life impossible for humanitarian ships and swaying to the rhythm of the Italian national anthem with a mojito in hand in a famous beach bar in Milano Marittima. Three years later, he is being prosecuted by his own party after a woman, Giorgia Meloni, advanced him even in the historic fiefdoms of the Northern League.
Even in Pontida, the mythological capital of the imaginary Padania, the Brothers of Italy received more votes than the League in Sunday's elections. The far-right party obtained 34% of the votes in the European elections in 2019. Now, it has not even reached 9%. The consequences are painful for the League's identity: the party's founder, Umberto Bossi, has been left out of Parliament for the first time.
The rebellion in the old guard has not been long in coming. Roberto Maroni, Salvini's predecessor, was the first to strike. “There is talk of an extraordinary congress of the League. Necessary. I would know who to choose as the new secretary, but I do not give names, ”he wrote.
A few hours later, Salvini holed up for more than three hours at the League headquarters in Milan with the regional barons, the powerful governors who run Italy's industrial locomotive: Attilio Fontana (Lombardy), Luca Zaia (Veneto), Massimiliano Fedriga (Friuli-Venezia-Julia) and Maurizio Fugatti (Trento). There was also the Minister of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, a discreet man who represents the governmental soul of the old League and who was the one who convinced him to enter Mario Draghi's Executive.
All of them had already anticipated that the blow would be important and warned him that it was imperative that the League once again go exclusively to the north of the country. The candidate did not listen and kept talking about removing sanctions on Moscow. Although after the meeting they made an effort to emphasize that his charge is not under discussion, the reality is that they see him as the only person responsible for his outbursts and his media hyperactivity.
Taking him away won't be that easy. In the end, it was he who picked up a formation in pieces in 2013 – when it was at 4% of the vote – and converted it into a populist product of national scope. His intuition did not fail him: he knew that the immigration issue or Euroscepticism would be a hotbed of votes. Then the northern governors had no choice but to keep quiet, because he was winning. But now that he doesn't do it anymore, they're not going to stand still. It is possible that the fall will not be immediate, but that they will wait for some new scandal to appear – perhaps related to Russia – to give it the final stab.
In Rome, after resting with the family and "reducing tensions" in the gym, Meloni has begun discreet negotiations to decide the composition of the next Italian government, the most right-wing since the Second World War. She already feels like prime minister and doesn't want to waste a minute for the executive to get going. It will not be something immediate. First, the Chambers must meet (October 13), elect their presidents and begin consultations with President Sergio Mattarella. Her intention is to be sworn in before November and for the transition to be smooth.
The first thing Meloni must do is solve the Salvini problem, which could call into question his new institutional facet. She is determined to prevent him from becoming Interior Minister again, as he wanted, so as not to give him a media platform that would cause him problems with Brussels. In addition, Mattarella – who has veto power over the ministers – could have qualms about the fact that the leaguer is being prosecuted for having blocked the Open Arms. Meloni wants to avoid any tension with the head of state, whom she, her entourage assures, she wants to include in the portfolio selection process. The Italian journalistic chronicles speak of a call with Mario Draghi in which he would have asked him to convince Fabio Panetta, a member of the executive council of the European Central Bank, to agree to be his economy minister. If he did, it would be a way to calm down Brussels. Draghi would not go away entirely.
