Tajani and Salvini’s matches with Meloni
Challenges, ambitions and scenarios for Meloni, Salvini and Tajani. Paola Sacchi's note
The surprise move to invite Marine Le Pen to Pontida next Sunday, who will speak from the stage of the traditional Northern League party, the one that dictates the political agenda every year, has effectively put Matteo Salvini back at the center of the centre-right or right-centre debate. Much more than what emerges from the same area newspapers now belonging to the Angelucci group, with the exception of Verità . And although it was Il Giornale that interviewed the leader of the League, deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure and Transport with Stefano Zurlo, who gave the scoop announcement on the presence of the leader of the Rassemblement national.
But, beyond the media representation, in the governing coalition Salvini has in fact opened a debate which, in addition to future European structures, inevitably has an entirely internal political reflection. Which will see the three forces of the majority in a physiological relationship of collaboration in government and competition in the European elections, where we run on proportional representation. And this is certainly not because Salvini wants to call into question the government majority which he always ensures and not tactically, but by his real will, which will last five years and even beyond. But evidently because it is his legitimate interest to rebalance the internal balance of power. Which at the moment see an absolute political and media centrality of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Fdi, conferred by the electoral numbers of the Policies of 25 September.
Naturally, Salvini's desire is first and foremost to ensure that the united center-right (including the French Le Pen and the German AfD) win in Europe against the policies deemed fundamentalist regarding green, electric cars, etc., but at the same time the legitimate desire to relaunch his League, bring it back to at least double figures, fresh as it is from 34 percent of the last European Championships, from 17 percent of the 2018 elections, where it made the sensational overtaking of Forza Italia.
If the leader of FI, Antonio Tajani, deputy prime minister and foreign minister, with the same problem of relaunching his party, in the first real electoral test after the death of Silvio Berlusconi, on the centre-right front, reiterates his clear no to alliances with Le Pen and Afd, together with Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP, of which the blue leader is deputy, Salvini relaunches. However, Tajani, as we know, certainly did not say no to an alliance with Salvini, his government partner in Italy, as well as in Europe.
Marco Campomenosi, head of the League delegation in Europe, and Marco Zanni, president of the Identity and Democracy group, where the League stands with Le Pen and Afd, also come out hard to defend the choice of the Northern League leader. They attack the EPP deemed guilty of having voted for "a good part" of the green measures with the PSE. And Salvini replies to Tajani that he has never vetoed the alliances of the other parties in the coalition and therefore he does not accept any more now for the League.
But, beyond the official narrative, Salvini's message objectively also sounds aimed at Fdi of which the prime minister is also president. The choice to occupy those spaces on the right left uncovered by FdI for the institutional role it is called upon to play, from the moment it expresses the prime minister, emerges clearly. And at the same time for FI, undermined by Matteo Renzi, spaces could be opened up in the centre. It is no coincidence that Tajani's strategy is to also attract reformists disappointed by the radicalization of Elly Schlein's Democratic Party.
But Tajani and Salvini, although divided on EU alliances, have the common problem of emerging, beyond the important task they carry out within their respective competences, from a role on a purely political level which is objectively "ancillary" assigned to them by the raw and incontrovertible electoral numbers of Policies. And this lies in the physiology of the political dialectics of majorities and coalitions in general. The narrative according to which there is only "a quarrel" between the two deputy prime ministers, described from time to time as closer or further away than the prime minister, does not stand up to the test of facts. It is true, as the old saying goes, that between two litigants the third one enjoys. But here the challenge objectively is between all three. And if Fdi gives more and more signs of wanting, in turn legitimately, to become the central party not only of the centre-right but of the entire national structure, a bit like that party of the Nation that Renzi wanted to create in the wake of the 40% cent of the European elections, it appears equally clear that if the balance of power within the governing coalition becomes increasingly electorally unbalanced in favor of FdI, to the detriment of its allies, tensions within the majority could inevitably become stronger.
It will obviously be up to the ability of Lega and Fi to get back on top by regaining the double figures even by breaking through in the world of abstention. A world also made up of a middle class who are not interested in the discussions on General Vannacci 's book at all, but are interested in concrete signals from the prime minister and the government, starting with the reduction of taxes. Obviously compatibly with the objective economic budget difficulties.
To return to the alliances in Europe, it is a fact that for now Fdi and Meloni have decided to stand by and watch: today the party will hold the national assembly. While, yesterday, for example, Alessandro Cattaneo, head of the blue departments, former group leader of Fi in the Chamber, although clearly attested to the line of the leader Tajani of no to Le Pen and Afd, did not exclude that objective convergences could be made on concrete measures even with those who are "not welcome". But this does not seem to fit into a certain somewhat stale narrative on the internal blue areas, physiological areas in the parties. Then in the Democratic Party, champion in this, real currents. But the center-right cannot eternally "live on", especially on the disorientation of the opposition. And between the two "arguments" it is not certain that the third always enjoys politics. Perhaps a more collegial attitude from the first party would be needed. Meanwhile, the League announces its usual mega organization for Pontida with 50 gazebos, a 50 meter stage, giant screens and also the presence of the foreign press, given the arrival of Marine Le Pen.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/sfide-tajani-salvini-meloni/ on Tue, 12 Sep 2023 05:57:17 +0000.