No, let’s not call it a reshuffle. A pit stop, if anything, a coupon, a registration, a tuning of the battered and scarred government car. A minister leaves, one enters, one moves: a whirlwind of substitutions after the referendum and the regional, before the second half of the Giallorossi match. «I believe – says Andrea Orlando – that, regardless of the constitutional reform, it is not a question of changing this or that, but of opening a new phase. We find ourselves in the situation of spending 209 billion in a country that has been making cuts for some time and there is difficulty in implementing planning ”.
Here is the point, the delay of Palazzo Chigi in preparing the development plans to be presented in Brussels to access the Recovery Fund. A slowness, which added to the discomfort of the Democratic Party in having to support a policy that is not his, as a water carrier, to the possible inconveniences for the reopening of schools and the probable defeat in various Regions, can cause the dem revolt against Giuseppe Conte to explode. And since a deep debacle could also blow up Nicola Zingaretti, it is up to the deputy secretary Orlando to break the delay: this is not the way to go ahead, this is the meaning of his speech.
So, change. Above all, the Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina is in the balance, but the position of Justice Alfonso Bonafede also risks the place, after the accusations of the PM Di Matteo on pressures from the Mafia, that of the Infrastructures Paola De Micheli, for the chaos on the Ligurian motorways, and that of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese for the mess of the Lampedusa hot spot and, more generally, of immigration management. For some time there has also been talk of flanking Conte with two deputy premieres, two watchdogs to force him to exercise more collegial power. However, everything has been suspended for months pending the verdict of the polls. The premier obviously resists.
But Orlando seems to be in a hurry and gives voice to the turmoil of his party. Or perhaps by exposing himself he just wants to stop Stefano Bonaccini’s race for the Pd secretariat in the bud. “With whom to change – explains to Radio 24 – Conte will decide, however it is a question of having the team in a different set-up and a need that derives from this phase”. For Matteo Orfini “reshuffling is not a priority, let’s change the agenda before names”. Should the Nazarene have more space? Orlando glosses over. “We need a service. It is not a question of giving weight to this or that party, but of concentrating on the strands that Europe considers central ”.
Yeah, which ones? The Democratic Party pushes on the Mes: while waiting for the recovery procedures to be finalized, let’s take the 36 billion from the Save States fund for health care. Even the premier did not rule out the possibility. The grillini, however, make it a battle of principle and do not want to give up. Luigi Di Maio argues that so much insistence is suspect: “It’s an expedient, they try to put us in difficulty, to create tensions in the majority.” Will the Five Stars be able to keep the point after the vote? According to Minister Speranza, Leu, “every euro dedicated to the national health service must be spent”. And Maria Elena Boschi: “Go as it goes to the Regionals, the next day we will have to take stock of the internal balance of the coalition”.
And here we go back to the reshuffle. Conte brakes, he does not want to be a police station, but the situation could require a restyling. The Quirinale observes perplexed and warns: no crisis in the dark, because when you start to touch the government team you never know when and how it will end.
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