Those anti-Meloni messages from allies Le Pen and Ventura. So Salvini is looking for a relaunch

He doesn’t say it himself, he makes his traveling companions in Europe say it. Matteo Salvini leave to Marine Le Pen and to the Portuguese leader of Chega, Andre Venturathe direct attacks, unpredictable in their bluntness, on the prime minister Giorgia Meloni. At the Roman convention of Identity and Democracy, the leading exponents of the French right of Rassemblement national are not present, but a video message from their leader is enough to galvanize the audience: «The real question» that Le Pen asks from the big screen, with verve emphasized by the bright red dress, «it is not for the Italians but for the Prime Minister» who calls “Giorgia” and then almost distances herself from her: «I met her in the past. Madame Prime Minister, will you – asks Le Pen – support a second mandate or not Ursula von der Leyen? I believe so and in this way you will contribute to worsening the policies from which the people of Europe suffer so much. The only candidate who will oppose von der Leyen – he concludes – is Matteo Salvini.”

A message that a little later, this time live, will be reiterated by Ventura, head of a movement that got 20 percent in the last elections in Portugal: «The journalists asked me if we will support Giorgia Meloni. But why should we do this? The only politician who defends all the nations of Europe is Salvini.” These are the key moments of a gathering that passes quickly, two hours of an early Saturday afternoon. In the studios on Tiburtina, in a sunny and otherwise busy Rome, a small delegation of the international far right arrives. Flemings, Austrians, Portuguese, American Republicans. The Germans of AfD, among the major shareholders of Id, are missing, and it is no coincidence: this time the League did not invite the most embarrassing foreign allies so as not to preclude the path of a possible entry into a majority in the European Parliament with the EPP and the Conservatives. It is yet another turn by Salvini, who is also criticized from within his movement due to his feeling with the ultra-right. In the front row, at the event, there are the ministers (e Giancarlo Giorgetti he underlines in his speech that he was there because he was “invited to talk about economics”), but not a slew of big names are seen – as expected: Zaia, Fedriga, Fontana, Marco Centinaio, Romeo. The leader of the House Riccardo Molinari he arrives late and finally leaves in a hurry. More than half of the parliamentarians are busy elsewhere. But Salvini takes it out on “the left-wing newspapers” and proudly points to the 1,500 militants who still crowd the room, yesterday camel soldiers who at the end of the event swarm towards the buses with a pocket lunch offered by the organization. While the secretary consoles himself with a tweet from Elon Muskwhich defines his trials for stopping NGO ships as “scandalous”.

The attack on the European Union which for the Belgian president of Id Gerolf Annemans “he has a communist mentality” is the leitmotif that links all the interventions, an arsenal of themes that ranges from the defense of Christian values ​​to the fight against illegal immigrants and which has as its only novelty the denunciation of a gag that unspecified rivals want to expose right: «They are trying to take control of social media, after the traditional media and the universities: we are the only guardians of freedom of expression», says Ventura.

The essence of the question is extracted, with a preacher’s tone, by the former candidate in the Republican Primaries Vivek Ramaswamy: «God exists and there are two sexes, the fossil is useful, racism is also the opposite, an open border is not a border, national pride is not something to be ashamed of. And say in public what you say in private.” So, all in one breath. Even Salvini slows down: “If we said everything, you know how many government crises there would be.” But Trump is the real point of reference: «He brings a hope of peace and prosperity: with the Republicans in power I don’t remember wars», ventures the Northern League secretary, glossing over the Gulf crises, Somalia, Iraq and other conflicts not far away in time. The French president is in the crosshairs Emmanuel Macron: «A warmonger, a danger for our continent», Salvini again in an electoral rodeo that distances him even further from Meloni who officially remains «a friend». Side note: no one talked about Putin.