If there is only a little coldness with Brussels, the conditions for remaining at the Mef are there and it will continue. But…
Shy and cryptic, as he has always been in his now long political career, Giancarlo Giorgetti he replied to reporters “I decide” on the resignation requested by all the oppositions after the Chamber’s no to the ratification of the ESM. And obviously those words “as Minister of Economy and Finance I would have approved it” open a case in the majority of Centre-right. No official reaction either from Matteo Salvini or from Palazzo Chigi. Northern League sources continue to assure that “there is no possibility” that the owner of the Mef will leave and underline how he himself also stated that “there was no air” (to ratify the ESM) and that “Europe is not always right” .
Saying and not saying. Leave all interpretations free, play on the ambiguity of words. Those who have known Giorgetti for many years know perfectly well that he is like that. The opposite of Salvini. Never bombastic declarations or dramatic gestures, preferably remaining behind the scenes. In fact, on many occasions after Umberto Bossi’s illness he could have become secretary of the League, but he always said “No thank you“. He hates the media limelight and has a sort of idiosyncrasy for insistent questions from journalists. That’s why in Conte I he chose the role of undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, precisely to operate away from the media spotlight and the arena of political conflict.
But what will happen now? Everything depends on how relations with the European Union and in particular with Germany and France, which in fact wrote the reform of the Stability Pact, will go. It is true that there are European elections at the end of spring and that the balance could change (hardly) but in the meantime the Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen continues with her work. Giorgetti is not a man of battles. Absolutely not. If with Bruxelles there will just be a bit of coldness, the conditions for staying at the Mef are there and it will continue. But if Meloni and Salvini, even from an electoral perspective, were to open a sort of war with the EU, raising the level of conflict at that point Giorgetti he could really step aside and leave the leadership of the Via XX Settembre department.
On the other hand, many call him the Christian Democrat of the League and being in the middle of the Rome-Brussels dispute on economic-financial issues is not for him. Here’s what’s behind that “I decide” about resignation. The last point to underline is the concern of the Quirinale, which at the moment he has terrible relations with Palazzo Chigi. President Sergio Mattarella he sees in Giorgetti an important, fundamental barrier to stop the sovereignist push of part of the League and Brothers of Italy.
And, sources explain, Colle is playing the card of moral suasion to persuade Giorgetti to stay at the Mef. We will see what will happen in January and how the debate between the government and the EU institutions will develop, given that for example on Pnrr everything goes smoothly. Doubts and unknowns. Shy and cryptic. Giorgetti is like that. A serious person, a hard worker, but who doesn’t like being the center of attention, especially in the event of a harsh and bitter Rome-Brussels conflict precisely over his dossiers and his ministry. For nothing.
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