Tension Rises in the League: Bossi Speaks Out Against Salvini

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
GEMONIO (Varese) — “No, I haven’t heard from Salvini.” Umberto Bossi seems to have finished. Then he continues: «I expected him to appear without saying anything…». And who knows if it’s true. Even possible, given that in recent days Salvini himself had publicly regretted not hearing from Bossi for some time: “It’s one of my faults…”.

But even if the founder hasn’t heard from the current secretary, his ears are probably ringing loudly. As the agencies broadcast the attacks from Gemonio, Matteo Salvini becomes increasingly angry. He utters a note of good manners (“Seeing him healthy is the best gift for this party”), but his people don’t even pretend to hide their anger: “What’s the point – says a high-level supporter – of beating this drum right in the the League’s birthday? Just on the eve of the party in Varese…». Today, in fact, the League will celebrate its forty years with a “risotto” where everything was born. In Varese, at the foot of the “Garibaldino”, under the windows of the historic section of the Lombard League, Salvini will also be there. It is likely that there will be almost none of those who were in Gemonio yesterday. Of course, not the Senatùr, who had already decided: “I won’t be there. I can’t.” Perhaps, just the former parliamentarian and president of the province of Varese Dario Galli. But the others, all wearing historic League t-shirts, certainly not: not Luca Leoni Orsenigo, the man who waved a noose in the Chamber in 1993, not Greta who walks around with a “Salvini traitor” sign, not the militant who is asked directly: «Me there? I’m a member of the Northern League!».

Many dismiss Bossia’s outbursts and those of other anti-Salvin supporters with condescension. But the truth is that fear is really starting to circulate among many. Milan is literally overflowing with posters and images of Giorgia Meloni: “You can’t turn one way when you see her”, snorts a deputy. Furthermore, several historic Northern League members who are probably well rooted in the area have chosen other paths. For example, the former Northern League group leader Marco Reguzzoni, who as an independent will be on the lists of an aggressive “Forza Lega”, a patrol of former Northern League members brought into Forza Italia by Flavio Tosi and Alessandro Sorte. Or Roberto Castelli, the former ultra Bossian justice minister who united his People’s Party from the North to Cateno De Luca’s South Calls North. And also Roberto Bernardelli, who yesterday in Gemonio exhibited the first number of “Nuovo vento del Nord” in the company of other Po Valley people such as the former Northern League president Angelo Alessandri. And then, there are those who simply left: not only those that Paolo Grimoldi lists daily on his social networks, but also the many obscure militants who for decades had represented a formidable transmission belt in the area.

Moreover, even if the matter does not have the slightest representative value, let alone statistical value, the Bossians present yesterday in remote Gemonio were quite a bit more numerous than those who took to the streets on Friday, in the center of Milan, for the “flash mob” organized by the official League. Even before those employees of the Lombardy Region who showed their support.

Of course, Salvini’s supporters have never been comparable to those of Bossi. Certain, not since the “night of the brooms” of 2012 which marked the end of Bossi’s epic: Salvini was one of the most active organizers. Yet, even if Salvinians downplay the impact of the founder’s views on the League and the 2024 electorate, the thrill is circulating. Also close to Salvini.