Italy should soon be governed by a very right-wing woman, Giorgia Meloni. But a man, also very right, Matteo Salvini, is in the hot seat. In the Italian legislative elections, the leader of the League, the far-right party, has divided its electoral score by four since the last general elections, the European ones of 2019, to not even reach 9% against more than 34% it three years ago. And the north of Italy, above all, is directly angry with him. They are not very numerous to speak in “on” but the slingshot is indeed there. Umberto Bossi, the founder of the Northern League re-elected deputy at 81, even came out of his silence. He creates a Committee of the North so that the League returns to its true values.
These “northerners” have an explanation for the defeat and their desire to change course. According to them, Matteo Salvini has forgotten the North. It was he who changed the name of the Northern League to “League for Salvini Prime Minister”. The autonomy of the northern regions – the very basis for the creation of the League – was no longer at the heart of the program. Salvini nationalized and centralized his party, which in the end was no longer distinguishable from that of Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia. Salvini has even lost the confidence of entrepreneurs in the North, according to his detractors who explain to him today that we cannot lower taxes and finance pensions as he promises in these times of energy crisis.
If Salvini is challenged, is there someone to replace him? He hangs on and, despite everything, he is part of the winning coalition. He should also be appointed minister (even if Giorgia Meloni does not want the post of interior minister, too marked). He will therefore still be on the front of the stage but several names are circulating to replace him at the head of the League, such as the governors of the North, of Veneto, of Friuli-Venezia Giulia: autonomists. It will be the militants who will decide and for the moment, the dates of the congresses have not yet been decided. On the other hand, today, not far from Milan, the “northerners” meet with a slogan: “For the North, the battle begins again!”