Put “the trump cards” to the government, bring in “the best possible energy from all parties”. Matteo Salvini evokes for the first time a government reshuffle after the election of the new President of the Republic. With the entry of the leaders. “Everyone, from the first to the last.” Salvini included? “It is not customary to withdraw from my responsibilities,” replies the secretary of the League. In the afternoon he has a brief exchange of words in the Senate with Mario Draghi then on TV, to a question about the government, he answers by shuffling the cards, with an impact also on the game for the Quirinale, even if the Northern League reiterates the hope that Palazzo Chigi will remain Draghi, for the “concern” that its release will create “confusion”. “It is clear to everyone that the government pact must find new energy” says Enrico Letta, who invokes a high profile at Colle and evokes Sergio Mattarella, because “it would be the best”.
The Colle-new executive joint
The joint with the executive is the real knot of a possible election of Draghi to the Quirinale. With the passing of the days, even those who support this hypothesis would have been convinced of the impossibility of continuing with another technical premier, while ‘political’ hypotheses would be probed, perhaps with the leaders in the team. Salvini, holding back from the League, has only said that in the last year of the legislature, with crucial challenges for the country, the leaders must be even more involved and empowered. But the tones seem less final than those with which on January 10 Silvio Berlusconi announced the exit of Fi from the majority in the event of the election of the premier at the Colle. The words of the Northern League leader give a glimpse of the arguments already underway, under trace, among the parties precisely on the government.
Letta: we need a new pact to get to 2023
“Even if we find an agreement on a candidate” al Colle “who gets a broad consensus, it is clear to everyone that the government pact must find new energy. It is clear to everyone that in recent weeks we have been struggling. I believe that the legislature must expire naturally, then there is a need for a new government pact, in any condition “, says Pd Secretary Enrico Letta, who therefore seems to open up to a possible agreement with the Northern League leader Matteo Salvini
Salvini raises a table with all the leaders on the Quirinale
Salvini on the other hand knows that a vote for the Colle with a majority other than the one that supports the government risks overwhelming Draghi himself. And he raises the table with all the leaders, asking his opponents to “remove vetoes on center-right candidates”, knowing full well that the veto already exists on Berlusconi. Meanwhile, the PD management on the Quirinale slides to Saturday (for David Sassoli’s funeral home, official sources explain) and, in ricasco, the center-right summit could postpone to next week, even if the leader of the League talks about a meeting with Meloni and Berlusconi “during the week”.
The “squirrel” operation
Il Cavaliere arrives in Rome to hold the ranks of the campaign for his candidacy, renamed ‘squirrel operation’: in the evening from Villa Grande, where he receives the group leaders of Fi to make a point, optimism about the possibility of reaching the goal of an absolute majority transpires . On the sidelines of the sessions of the Chamber and Senate, however, the skepticism of the center-right parliamentarians about the chances of electing the Knight filters out. A SWG poll is noted according to which Draghi would be the most welcome among right-wing voters themselves (58%, against Berlusconi’s 39% and Elisabetta Casellati’s 37%). There are those who tell the perplexities of the moderate area of Fi, from which the advice would come to retire and be the kingmaker of the election of another candidate. But more than one center-left parliamentarian says he has been called in recent weeks by Cavaliere or by one of his own, in a round of consultations. And Letta himself says: “I have news of parliamentarians from the Democratic Party who have received a phone call from Berlusconi.” “I am waiting for Berlusconi to dissolve his reservations,” says Salvini. And Meloni says: “We have the golden share, we have to play it until the end”. “The center-right does not have the ball, you need a broad agreement” objects Letta. The PD secretariat, updated after a reminder from Sassoli, reiterates that the Democratic Party works for a president with a large majority and for the continuation of the legislature, without early elections. Giuseppe Conte, who saw Letta on 10 January and should return to meet him with Speranza, calls the M5s parliamentary groups for 12 January, which continue to invoke the Mattarella bis.