Roberto Vannacci and Matteo Salvini
The strategy behind the general’s candidacy is very precise in the secretary’s mind and it is not a simple vote-catching operation
The candidacy of Vannacci in the ranks of the League, even if as an independent, which is sparking controversy and discontent especially within the Northern League party itself, it was certainly an open secret, and the fact of announcing it, precisely on the day of the Liberation Day, was only a small coup of theater of those in which until a few years ago, Salvini has always been a master. The fact that the general who had just been “enlisted” for the European competition indulged in statements that were at times truly disconcerting, such as that on disabled people (even if later retracted in part and certainly extrapolated from a context), is the plastic representation of the fact that the operation Vannacci had been studied for some time and is probably part of a strategy that goes beyond the single European electoral competition and the winning of a few thousand more votes.
The strategy behind the general’s candidacy is very precise in the secretary’s mind and it is not a simple operation vote catcher, like that of Avs against Salis, just to give an example from the other side of the barricade. Of course it is clear that there is that too, God forbid, the general’s name has had such media exposure in recent months that it can only lead to a desirable good result in terms of votes. But there is also something else and it is the same strategy that the Northern League secretary pulled out of the hat in 2013 when he became, somewhat surprisingly, the new Northern League leader, ironically, just as he was a simple MEP.
Someone will remember what happened when the young Matteo Salvini took the reins of the League. Called to revive a party, overwhelmed by the Belsito scandal and which had reached historic lows in the February elections, both at a national level and in its traditional local and regional bastions, Salvini will bring about a historic turning point in the Lega, reorienting its political direction towards the European nationalist right. Well Salvini made a real 360 degree turnaround compared to what had been the party founded and led up to that point by Umberto Bossi.
At the beginning of 2014 Salvini formed an alliance in view of the European elections with Marine Le Pen’s Front National, a historic French nationalist party, on the issues of Euroscepticism, immigration and sovereignty. During the year Salvini also entered into a collaboration with the far-right movement Casapound (thanks to which he managed to re-elect the historic Northern League militant and leader Mario Borghezio to the European Parliament) and initiated a series of talks with Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia to design a new right-wing subject on sovereignist issues. The old idea of a regionalist and federalist party that looked to the autonomous north had now been buried under a new project of a party with a greater national-popular identity. There is no point now in reviewing the incredible rise of the Lega which achieved its exploits at the last European elections, when it came within a whisker of 35% of the votes. Now the scenario is totally different.
Salvini and the party are once again at a crossroads and a shock is needed, like the one carried out in 2013 when he defeated the leader Bossi, even there under the discontent of the old Northern Guard. Salvini is like that, he gets excited when he hears the rattling of sabers, and gives his best when it seems like he’s cornered. Of course now the path is really very narrow, considering that even loyalists like Centinaio and Romeo have expressed some legitimate doubts about the general’s candidacy, but Matteo Salvini he certainly isn’t the one who lets anyone dictate his agenda, not even his loyalists. His intent is to reshuffle the cards for the umpteenth time, perhaps the last time, sometimes it went well, sometimes decidedly badly.
In the same way, Meloni’s attempt to move even further to the right should be understood (even if at the last meeting organized in Rome, it was preferred to do without the AfD extremists, some say at the suggestion of Le Pen herself). He must get out of the corner, in which the five-star government first and above all the one with Draghi, had imprisoned him. The choice to listen to the moderates of the party, with in the lead Giorgettiand support Draghi, has proven to be a terrible choice from an electoral point of view. And that’s why he now tries to do a 360° somersault almost from the chosen one. Vannacci is the perfect symbol of this turnaround, the emblem, the totem that represents what many citizens may not say, but internally share, about homosexuals, immigration and civil rights in general. But that’s how he is, extravagant, restless, passionate, a political animal even if perhaps with some minor ailments after eleven uninterrupted years of leading the party.
But what is certain is that with the bulky figure of Vannacci, as well as with his alliances with the far right in Europe, Salvini is perhaps really playing his last cards. It would also be very premature to think that he is already finished or in any case on the verge of sunset, because within the party, he is still strong, despite the criticisms and distinctions and above all also because we can’t really see who could replace him on the horizon. However, in the event of a result well below expectations, a process will inevitably open within the party and this is also why he probably did not want to get involved. It’s too risky to link his name (which he has honestly always done with great courage) to a modest result. Vannacci instead he could be a valid stand-in for him, but what is certain is that any defeat could only overwhelm him too. The problem, however, in that case will be finding who could replace him. Because it is one thing to be the president of the Region, or the minister or the group leader, it is quite another to be the leader of a party.