Salvini beats the retreat and aims for 7 percent: “Vannacci? I think about it. We have different ideas about gays.”

Roma. Matteo Salvini’s retreat has begun. He spreads doubts about General Vannacci, who risks not entering the Northern League lists for the European Championships. He extends his hand to Umberto Bossi and to internal dissidents, whom he now admits to having neglected. He renounces the pact with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia (even if he does not announce that he has canceled it). He even sends signs of peace to Giorgia Meloni, after weeks of conflict, revealing that the prime minister “every now and then in the evening he plays burraco with my girlfriend Francesca, we are building a friendship outside of politics”. These are the conditions of a political surrender, which the leader tries to exchange for his own survival at the top of the League. A strategy dictated by a specter, or rather by a number that is circulating at the top of the Northern League at the moment. It is the bar that will determine the future of the deputy prime minister: 7%. If Salvini were to remain below that threshold at the next European elections, then the colonels will intervene: asking him to take a step back and imposing a transition secretary who should ferry the party until the autumn congress.

By lining up the failures of the boss, we understand the significance of the turning point. Made even more necessary by the parliamentary calendar: between today and tomorrow the Chamber will vote on the motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister presented by the opposition – at the instigation of Calendian Matteo Richetti – after the declarations of the secretary of the Northern League following the death of the Russian dissident Navalny. Palazzo Chigi has already given the order to defend Salvini (who among other things today, barring surprises, will desert the Chamber), but has obtained the public excommunication of the “equal and confidential partnership” signed on 6 March 2017 between Via Bellerio and Russia Unita . “As already reiterated – the Northern League puts it in black and white in a note – the purely political collaboration intentions of 2017 between the League and United Russia are no longer valid after the invasion of Ukraine. Moreover. Even in previous years there had been no joint initiatives. The League’s line is confirmed by the votes in Parliament.” In reality, that pact – as Repubblica reported already in 2022 – provides for a tacit renewal in the absence of explicit communication from the parties. «The agreement – ​​confirms Richetti – contains an automatic clause». There is no official news of a cancellation of the protocol, which would therefore have been renewed on 6 March 2022, when Putin had already invaded Ukraine.

But it’s not enough. Salvini’s retreat is even more radical. The leader goes back to talking about Bossi, «I haven’t heard from him in too long – he tells Belve – and this is one of my faults». A signal addressed to the founder of the League, who today leads the dissidents of the Northern Committee. The coordinator of that committee is among the signatories of a letter – signed by former parliamentarians, current leaders and historic Northern League members – in which the secretary’s line and the choice to ally himself with extremist forces such as the German neo-Nazis of the AfD and with who “does not have our natural revulsion towards fascisms and swastikas”. The promoters of the appeal, mostly from Lombardy, also contest the choice to nominate “characters with a strong nationalist mark, totally foreign to our movement” such as General Roberto Vannacci as candidates for the European elections.

And on this point too, upon closer inspection, the deputy prime minister hints at a potential U-turn. Francesca Fagnani asks him about the option of fielding Vannacci and he replies: “We’re thinking about it.” «Would you – the interviewer insists – ever say that homosexual people are not normal? “No, in fact I said that I share your battles on freedom of thought, but for me someone can be homosexual, heterosexual, transsexual, bisexual, polysexual.” And in short, Salvini’s attempt seems obvious: to retreat, tactically, to save the secretariat. It might not be enough if he were to fall below the 7% mark. At that point, the colonels would ask him to step back, entrusting the transition to the governor of Friuli Venezia Giulia Max Fedriga. Officially, however, the deputy prime minister vows to resist the leadership of the party: «I think I still have a lot to give. Then there are smart people, but I’ll let them wait a moment.”

Who is also waiting to know her fate is the Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè. For her too, as for Salvini, a motion of no confidence is scheduled. In theory, two night sessions are scheduled between today and tomorrow, so there would be time to vote. The problem is that the investigation into false accounting in the management of Visibilia could also be closed quickly. Palazzo Chigi risks ensuring the minister’s trust and then finding himself a few days later with this new, potential tile.