When the Giallorossi government was born between the 5-star Movement and the Democratic Party, decided in a conclave with Beppe Grillo in front of the sea of Bibbona – which now looks like prehistory – Luigi Di Maio had the dark face of someone who thinks: we’re doing everything wrong. At the door, the M5S supervisor put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I know, you’ll never be convinced, but that’s the way it is.” And he accepted, but very soon resumed contacts with those in the League who had not betrayed him: and that is with Giancarlo Giorgetti, who visited him at the Farnesina more than once even when the party led by Matteo Salvini was in opposition.
In reality, the Foreign Minister was happy with the government with the demos. Better than he thought, he has told more than once. However, the right-most exponent of the Movement remains, without ever bothering to deny it. Convinced that the political force reborn from the ashes with Giuseppe Conte must be “moderate and liberal”, that conservative positions on immigration must never be abandoned. And now, that in order to elect the new President of the Republic, the 5 stars must abandon the privileged axis with Massimo D’Alema and Goffredo Bettini and look – rather – to the right. Or rather, as he told a minister in the last few hours, “we need to strengthen a transversal axis that goes from right to left”. Translated: it is necessary to convince the center-right to abandon the Berlusconian obsession and converge on another name, with two privileged scenarios: the first is the Mattarella bis, which would make the parliamentarians happy and would have the advantage of freezing the picture, without leaving losers on the ground . The second and most probable, however, is the arrival at the Quirinale of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, with whom yesterday the head of the Farnesina flew back from Strasbourg to Rome after the commemoration of David Sassoli in the European Parliament.
The reassurance that Di Maio is giving to all the parliamentarians with whom he speaks, and there are many, even among the former M5S who joined the mixed group, is this: «We must remain calm, be lucid, look at the method even before the name. In the end, the Movement will make the wisest choice on the Hill and above all, however it goes, the legislature will go on ». Therefore, there will be no danger of early elections – assures the Foreign Minister – a new government and for this reason it is essential to speak with the center-right which, in order to have the numbers, must be a full part of this pact.
Peering at the agenda of the last few weeks, among events marked in red, green and blue, are the center-right exponents the most consulted by the head of the Farnesina. They are persistently looking for him, like the mayor of Venice and co-founder of Coraggio Italia Luigi Brugnaro (31 major voters), who after a meeting with him seems to have shifted the axis from Berlusconi to Draghi. They invite him to dinner, like the President of the Senate Maria Elisabetta Casellati, who knows she is not loved by the 5 stars and wants to probe how much – instead – her candidacy, perhaps pulled out of the hat of a retreating Berlusconi, has a chance. They see him continuously, like Giancarlo Giorgetti, with whom the pizza-based evenings have been more than one. As well as, since he has been at the Farnesina, there have been frequent and cordial contacts with Gianni Letta. And in these days, also with the president of Mediaset Fedele Confalonieri.
And of course, there was also the picture delivered for Christmas by the leader of Forza Italia to the former political leader M5S, which Berlusconi has always seemed to like, so much so that he wished to have someone like him in the ranks of Forza Italia. But on this, those close to Di Maio said: “As soon as he understood that it was a painting he did not even open it to the messenger: he sent it directly to the Farnesina, he had it placed in a room among the institutional gifts and not it. he didn’t even want to see. ‘
The foreign minister denied having spoken directly with Berlusconi, but at Christmas – after writing in his autobiography that he is “one of the most false people ever met” – he had a cordial phone call with Matteo Salvini. Showing a pragmatism that has never been lacking in him and beginning to weave a new web, for which all the leaders around Conte – as well as the former prime minister himself – look at him with suspicion within the Movement. So much so as to think that yesterday Riccardo Fraccaro, who found himself in the same building in via della Scrofa with Matteo Salvini, was sent as an explorer by Di Maio himself (thesis not confirmed by those directly involved who speak of “coincidence”).
The parliamentarians who refer to him, however, are convinced that the former leader would have no interest in betraying them. It is certainly not he who can dream of early elections, given the important role he now plays in the government and which he may never have again. And he has no interest in letting the legislature fall, given that the new Statute provides that the next lists will be in Conte’s hands without anything having been said yet on the limit of the double mandate. That’s the reason deputies and senators might believe him when he says to them: “Let’s go to Draghi.” Unless the M5S president decides to beat him on time, with completely different projects in mind.