Center-right, there is also a stalemate in Liguria: candidate Rixi remains suspended, Cavo in pole position, Lega-FdI chess game

Not dessert but a new (yet another) hand of poker, concluded the majority lunch among the leaders looking for a compromise, on the maneuver and not only. The game on the candidacy of the center-right for the presidency of the Liguria Region, in the early vote at the end of October after the judicial earthquake that overwhelmed the now ex-governor, is still all to play for. John Toti. And so the white smoke expected yesterday from the five-party summit called by Giorgia Meloni, which became “gray, almost black” at the end of the meeting – some call it FdI quota – leaves no real answer on the table, but the usual names and a fundamental paradox. With the candidate considered the most authoritative, the deputy minister of the Northern League Edward Rixiformally not even on the table of discussion between allies.

The deputy mayor of Genoa has now left the stock exchange of potential candidates Peter Piciocchiat least technically the strongest name formally in the field remains that of the Totian deputy Ilaria Cavo: former regional councilor, sponsored by former president Toti and the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi still at the top yesterday, his name is sailing with the wind in its sails even in the latest polls, such as the one signed by Tecné-Primocanale published yesterday evening.

But if a possible investiture is still missing, and “the discussion continues, more hours have been taken to examine other solutions and explore new possibilities”, – as most explained yesterday, after lunch in Rome – the reasons for the stalemate are due to the ongoing game between two parties in particular, Lega and Fdi, precisely on the name of the other possible candidate, Rixi. Regional secretary of the party, former assessor with Toti, already twice deputy minister, natural candidate of the coalition that everyone would like but no one wants to claim. And that the Carroccio itself, in fact, has not yet officially put at the center of the discussion.

It is in fact also on the “heading” of the candidacy in Liguria, which could change a lot in the future balance of the center-right. This is why the Lega quota does not formally advance the Rixi option, more than for the personal doubts of the person directly concerned about the opportunity to leave his job at the MIT to keep away from the dangers hidden behind the candidacy: the risk of finding himself shouldering more responsibility than others in the event of defeat, and of lending precious credit to FdI in the tug of war already underway on the choices of the future, first of all that on the post Zaia in Veneto.

“If Giorgia Meloni asks me, I will run, the decision must be made by FdI: but if I do so, I will be the candidate of the coalition, not of the League”, Rixi himself makes it clear more than explicitly. “It’s fine that we are generous, but let’s not exaggerate to the point of naming ourselves the candidate of the League”, was the remote response yesterday from via della Scrofa, the national headquarters of FdI. A game of cards, the most anticipated even covered, still underway less than 50 days from the vote, with all the consequences that this entails. Yesterday’s polls see the candidate of the center-left Andrea Orlando already ahead of the candidate of the center-right, whoever he will be, whoever wins.