If the president of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte – the only one to connect remotely in the expected “high noon” among the leaders of the main parties broadcast in Cernobbio – leaves the audience of economic and financial operators cold with a very anti-hydragian (the much-evoked Draghi method is “the negation of confrontation and political dialectic”, says Conte, claiming the rightness of the two measures of his governments most criticized by the current prime minister, namely the cashback and the 110% building superbonus), the applausometer undoubtedly rewards the leader of the so-called Third Pole (Action-Italia Viva) Carlo Calenda. That, on the other side of the barricade of the former large field of progressives transformed into a battlefield after the fall of the Draghi government by Conte (followed by Lega and Forza Italia), he is so much an admirer of the current premier that he wants to Palazzo Chigi also for the next 5 years.
Pro-Draghi Calenda wins the applause competition
«The most illustrious Italian in the world has been disheartened for sinister electoral interests – is the j’accuse di Calenda -. And if you think about it he fell because in his last speech before his resignation he wanted to tell the truth. The Draghi method is just that: saying yes and no is the method of things that must be done. Yes to the regasifiers, yes to the modification of citizenship income, stop the superbonus. This is why Draghi fell ». In the midst of Conte and Calenda, in the center of that wide field which has been ruinously shattered, is the Pd of Enrico Letta. He too much applauded by the audience of Cernobbio, the secretary dem softly recalls that his party was “the most linear towards the Draghi government, up to the last” and that the authors of the draghicide have a name and surname: precisely Conte, and then Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi. «At stake is the future of Italy and its international position – Letta insists -. We are those of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance, we are for an idea of shared sovereignty. Our Europe is that of the photo of Kiev with Draghi, Macron and Scholz. That of our opponents is the Europe of Orban’s Hungary ».
Salvini relaunches against sanctions on Russia: “We protect the Italians”
What left the audience of Cernobbio perplexed during the speeches of the center-right leaders is precisely the question of credibility raised by Letta and Calenda. On public accounts as well as on international relations. The leader of the Salvini League, as if to confirm the prejudices of the financial elite gathered for the Ambrosetti Forum, does not renounce the role of opposing bastian and relaunches the uncomfortable theme of sanctions against Russia: “The position of Italy at the international level does not change, to regardless of the vote. We are rooted in free, democratic and western countries… I just wonder if sanctions are meant to harm those we would like to harm. It does not mean that we will surrender to Putin tomorrow, but I ask myself as a European, and I ask Europe, if this is the way. We must protect Italian businesses and citizens ».
The aut aut of Meloni: “We do not parade on sanctions, credibility is at stake”
While Salvini says these words, ally Giorgia Meloni, sitting next to him, lowers her head and puts her hands in her hair. A little while earlier she had been extremely clear on this point. «I hear talk of sanctions against Russia and arms against Ukraine – are the words of the leader of the Brothers of Italy -. At stake are not so much the sanctions, but the credibility of Italy. If tomorrow our country withdraws from its allies and turns to the other side, the sanctions will be the same but we would have lost credibility ». And again: “If Ukraine falls and the West perishes, the great winner of tomorrow will be not only Putin’s Russia, but Xi Jinping’s China”. The third ally of the center-right, the coordinator of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, prefers to gloss over Russia and international relations to focus on the future reform of the PA and justice, but slips into a duet with Calenda, letting it slip away that the blame for the fall of Draghi is none other than the Democratic Party.
The bet of the “Third pole”: the Meloni-Salvini government will not hold up
In short, the internal accounts of the coalition given as winner by the polls will be made the day after the elections, and Meloni is sure to be able to dictate the top line of the percentage of the first party. But if the gap with the League were to be too wide, it is the bet of many, all Salvinian tensions will be discharged on the possible center-right government, putting the effectiveness of the action and its duration at risk. Certainly this is Calenda’s bet: “In a few months time and there will be a need for a serious government with a broad coalition, perhaps with a league no longer led by Salvini,” she ventures away from the cameras.