After Tuesday’s speech in the Senate, the Prime Minister intervenes in the Chamber on Italy’s position in the forthcoming European Council on 23 and 24 March. Yesterday, the distinctions on the government line expressed by the leader of the League, the Salvinian Romeo, made noise.
«The League absent from the government benches. Yesterday’s speech in the Senate by the group leader against Meloni’s line on Ukraine. This executive is already in crisis. For the wrong reasons.”: the leader of Action, Carlo Calenda, tweeted it
At the moment there are no League ministers sitting on the benches of the government in the Chamber of Deputies during the debate on the communications of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the next EU Council. The government benches are full, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani took a seat next to the Prime Minister.
The prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has arrived in the Chamber where the debate on the communications of the prime minister will begin shortly in view of the next European Council
(Gianluca Mercuri) Meloni who attacks Conte but suffers an obvious jab from the allies. The Schleinian Pd that is fighting over the counter with the Grillin-Contians, potential allies but also natural competitors.
Point by point:
•Meloni against Conte
The sibling premier chose the yellow-green-red ex premier as a polemical target in her communications to the Senate on the war: she was referring to him in rejecting «the childish reconstructions of those who say that by sending weapons we take away resources for citizens, saying that alternatively taxes could be reduced or pensions raised: this is a lie, and we must call it by its name, given that the aid we send is largely resources that our country already possesses”. Apart from the news that Meloni said country and not nation, the attack on the 5 Stars continued: «We know that in this Chamber there are parties who hope for an agreement with China or a surrender of Ukraine. We are not of this opinion. I welcome the concerns that have emerged about our military arsenals: after all the Conte government also increased military spending».
• Meloni left alone by the League
In every sense: no Northern League minister at his side. And then, the speech of the parent company Romeo with tones of grillina opposition on the «strong concern about how things are going. The objective of the cessation of hostilities seems more like a statement of principle. On the contrary, we constantly hear talk of the offensive. The problem is not military support, but an increasingly powerful arms race with the risk of an accident from which there is no turning back.
• Because it is important
Because Romeo is the man to whom Salvini entrusts the most strategic sabotage actions. It was he, in July, who gave Draghi the sack with a speech of impressive modesty but with extraordinary consequences (the early elections). The head of the League has been silent for a while but he is not inert: the impression is that his (and Berlusconi’s) pro-Putinism will explode again sooner or later and it will not be a good time for the government.
• Meanwhile Schlein’s Pd
Meanwhile, Schlein’s Pd chooses Ukraine as the only theme in relative continuity with the Pd of the “caciques” (Elly dixit). For the rest, Massimo Franco’s analysis is surgical as usual:
«Schlein continues to follow a radical line destined to meet and surpass that of the grillini; in fact, to slowly drain the tank of their consents. In a few weeks, he restored citizenship to the Democratic Party in the squares. He snatched flags from Conte such as the minimum wage and civil rights. In the last few hours you reiterated your yes to the legalization of soft drugs and went so far as to defend the ecologists who soil monuments. In fact, you are monopolizing the opposition with a deft blend of traditional leftism, grillism and maximalism; albeit without renouncing NATO membership and European alliances, using only more “pacifist” tones. But the way in which you decline the role of minorities prefigures a march that tends to incorporate every residual, extreme, movementist position ».
For now it seems to work, but in the long run…: «It is not clear where the pursuit of every impulse that fills the squares leads; and to what extent the traditional Democratic Party, “sick” with power but also with institutional culture, will indulge its leader. The fear that enthusiasm is destined to cool down, despite the favorable polls, could soon appear».
• And with you?
Your reply to Meloni is expected today and it will be quite important. For the leader of the 5 Stars, it is a unique opportunity to mix the institutional pose of a former prime minister with that of aspiring opposition leader. For this he will not give up agitating the only ultra-left thing that Schlein has left him: the war. Yesterday there was the appetizer: «Since the beginning, the position of the Democratic Party has always been one of great conviction with regards to this military strategy which is pursuing an escalation. At the beginning they told us that they only sent bulletproof vests, then weapons, ammunition, tanks, missile batteries, finally what are we going to send, the troops?». In short, a nice derby. Handsome?
(This analysis was published in PrimaOra, the Corriere newsletter: to receive it you need to subscribe to Il Punto, and you can do it here)