The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloniand his deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, met last Tuesday on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers held in Rome. The meeting, however, did not have the best of preambles, nor did it have a particularly positive outcome. Both leaders, both the head of Brothers of Italy like that of the League, inseparable partners of the current right-wing Executive that governs in Italy, have been fighting for days over internal rivalries to his coalition. Therefore, the meeting had to serve to iron out differences. It didn’t work. “Black smoke,” observers have summarized.
The relationship between Salvini and Meloni has shown its delicate balance from the beginning. But now the central issue of the fray is the electoral appointments of this year, which are approaching. Not only to elect the future members of the European Parliament, which are held in June, but also the regional elections that are to be carried out in Italy. Both forces compete for an electorate that they partly share and there are five Italian regions where elections are scheduled to be held in 2024: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Piedmont, Umbria and Sardinia.
The main, and most visible, confrontation has been, precisely, over this Italian island. Immediately, the League expressed its support for the current regional president, Christian Solinas. On the other hand, Brothers of Italy, source of fall in the polls of the party of Salvini, announced his support for Paolo Truzzu, who belongs to Meloni’s party and is the current mayor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari. Problem: not presenting itself as a coalition would outstrip rivals from both.
train crash
In weeks of negotiations, Brothers of Italy did not give the arm to twist. “Solinas has not governed badly, but we think that our candidate can do better,” explained Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, brother-in-law of Meloni and one of the visible faces of the ongoing negotiation with the League. Along the same lines, the League was also firm in defending its strategy, until the solution finally came for an unexpected way. On Wednesday night, the court reported that Solinas is being investigated for corruptionwhich has greatly reduced the chances of him continuing to be the League’s candidate.
However, various experts have also spoken of the fire friend between the League and Brothers of Italy, pointing out that it is likely that this situation will last at least throughout this year. The reason is above all that the roles of the two parties have now been reversed; while The League has lost steam, the popularity of Meloni has grown enormously. An example is the European elections five years ago. At that time, Salvini’s party garnered 34% of the consensus – compared to 6.4% for the Brothers of Italy -, about 25 points more than what the polls currently give it.
Meloni’s weight
“He will try to make yourself as visible as possible to snatch her votes“, said Giovanni Orsina, professor of Political Science at the Luiss University of Rome, in recent statements to the press. “What I hope is that [Salvini] be more and more annoying [en sus reclamos a Meloni]”, has added. Melonifor its part, also seeks strengthen your leadership as head of the party that is currently the strongest in the coalition, other experts have noted.
Another is the case of Veneto, where it is also not clear if the right-wing coalition will present a single candidate. A matter that represents another problem for Salvini because the outgoing regional president is the veteran Luca Zaia, belonging to a rival current of the League leader within his own party. As if that were not enough, Veneto is not just any region. It is one of the richest in the country and is at the center of one of the League’s main political battles to obtain greater autonomous powers.
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Separate topic are the European. There “the smiles and the hugs between Meloni and (the president of the European Commission, Ursula) von der Leyen “They are losing sleep for the head of the League,” said Arturo Celetti, in the pages of Avvenire. The reference is to the fact that the European political family of the European leader is the European People’s Party (EPP), a coalition with the that Meloni has been flirting in recent months. This despite the fact that the Italian is president of another group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, which could also give life to some kind of alliance informality in future European institutions.
The prime minister herself has recently stated that she does not rule out running in the European elections, a step that some have interpreted as a way of getting her rivals and political partners to reveal their cards. Likewise, the coalition’s junior partner, Forza Italiahas implied that not willing to market in the regions where it has political weight to resolve the diatribe between Meloni and Salvini. A circumstance that leaves the door open to more sparks throughout this year.