She has great ambitions and now has to deal with the Ukraine crisis and the national debt. But the first big challenge for Giorgia Meloni is: what to do with the ailing Lega boss?
Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini before the closing event of the right-wing electoral alliance in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
Only Giorgia Meloni actually won. Practically all other parties lost in the parliamentary elections on Sunday in Italy – including those who will enter the government alongside Melonis Fratelli d’Italia and will for the time being bask in the splendor of the big winner: Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Forza Italia by Silvio Berlusconi.
Salvini’s crash is particularly noteworthy. His party has fallen from 34 percent in the 2019 European elections to just under 9 percent. And even if you compare the last national elections in 2018 (17 percent), the Lega’s share of the vote has almost halved. “Il caso Salvini”, the Salvini case, was the headline «Repubblica» on the second day after the election. And Massimo Gramellini, the front page columnist of the Corriere della Sera, asked: «Where do we put it?»
Keep an eye on the Home Office
From 12 percent it would be tight for Salvini at the top of the party, the augurs said in the run-up to the elections in view of his poor poll numbers, and with a figure below 10 percent he would probably have to vacate the presidency. Now this is exactly the case, but Salvini makes no move to make his post available. Rather, he speaks of the success of the legal alliance and of itthat he had never felt so much determination and desire to work. That means: to hold an important ministerial post in the new government.
It is clear which ministry Salvini is thinking of: the «Viminale», the interior ministry, whose seat is on one of the seven famous hills of Rome. Salvini was the head of the house there before, between June 2018 and September 2019, when, as a member of Giuseppe Conte’s government, he took a firm hand against the flow of refugees and ordered the closure of Italian ports to ships from aid organizations.
His election campaign was originally geared towards this goal. The Lega boss wanted to prove once again that he was the right man to guarantee the protection of the borders and the security of the Italians. He chose the island of Lampedusa, the hotspot of the refugee crisis that repeatedly made headlines, as the place for his first major appearance as a campaigner.
But Salvini had not considered one thing: the fact that Giorgia Meloni also left no doubts on this issue and, for her part, pleaded for toughness against migrants. The supposed unique selling point of Salvini – it was not able to convince. Meloni had bought the guts from him.
In addition, other topics determined the agenda: inflation, high energy prices, the Ukraine war – dossiers on which the tireless Salvini had a lot to say, but on which he also offered plenty of scope for attack. His opponents didn’t forget to happily remind him of his appearances as a fanboy in a Putin T-shirt on Red Square or of his completely unsuccessful trip to the Ukrainian-Polish border as a bringer of peace. Salvini, the dynamic fighter from Milan: suddenly he looked pretty pathetic.
Increasingly confused
As if he no longer knew where he was headed, the “Capitano”, as his followers called him, became increasingly entangled in the nets of politics. In his last appearance before the election, he talked confusedly about animal welfare, child welfare, medical training.
It was the final event of the legal alliance on the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, the scene of large political demonstrations. Salvini was allowed to speak after Berlusconi and before Meloni. The two men looked like the opening act at a Rolling Stones concert. Good enough to provide some entertainment but too pale to be remembered.
And now these 9 percent. Will Salvini survive this crash? Gradually, there is resistance in the Lega. The first person to openly plead for a fresh start at the top was Roberto Maroni, Salvini’s predecessor on the Lega presidency, on Tuesday. An extraordinary party congress is now needed said Maroni and added: «I already know who I would choose as the new party leader. But I’m not naming any names yet.”
In addition to Maroni, there are active party exponents who grumble audibly. There is dissatisfaction above all in the “governisti” camp, those Lega politicians who hold office and are concerned about the miserable values of their party. Even in their homeland in northern Italy, the Fratelli have overtaken the Lega. Regional presidents like Luca Zaia (Veneto) or Massimiliano Fedriga (Friuli/Venezia Giulia) can’t be indifferent to that. They demand a discussion and analysis of the election results. The bad atmosphere in the party should not be underestimated, said Zaia.
Salvini’s successes – and his “Papeete”
But they also know that they, like the Lega, as a party, owe a lot to Matteo Salvini. It was he who turned the Party of the North into a powerful national organization that sped from success to success from the Alps to the toe of the boot and became the dominant force in the Italian legal camp.
When he was elected “Capitano” in 2013, the Lega was nationally at 4 percent, six years later they triumphed in the European elections – the victory that got into Salvini’s head so much that he thought the whole country was now in the to govern alone. “Pieni poteri”, powers of attorney, he demanded from the Italians at the time. It was the summer of 2019 when he let photographers snap his shirtless shirt and mojito in hand at Papeete Beach bar on the Adriatic Sea. “Papeete” has since become an integral part of the Italian vocabulary when talking about politicians drunk on success.
Salvini seems less able to deal with defeats. He, who played a key role in the fall of Mario Draghi, now hopes to be able to govern with the legal alliance for five years, preferably in a decisive position. It is possible that he is speculating that his party will be able to recover and get back on its feet during this time.
As the media write, Giorgia Meloni has put Salvini in his place. Apparently she wants to deny him key positions in her government. And she certainly doesn’t seem to see him in the Ministry of the Interior. She could get help from the unloved sea rescuers, of all people. They brought Salvini before a court in Palermo because of the port blockade he had imposed at the time. The process is still ongoing, and as long as this is the case, there is a likelihood that President Sergio Mattarella will refrain from giving his blessing to a new term for Salvini in the Interior Ministry.
So a good excuse would be there to keep him out of that position. But Meloni knows that she is dependent on the Lega (and also on the Berlusconi party) if she wants to maintain her majority in parliament over time. So she can’t push the two gentlemen to the sidelines. But what to do with them?
Massimo Gramellini, the cunning columnist, has a suggestion. He recommends for Salvini “an Undersecretariat of Leisure with the power to craft endless lists and bombastic proclamations, a solution that would further showcase his undoubted talents. The ideal location for this important post would be Papeete.”