As the dust settled after last weekend’s regional elections in Italy, it became clear that the boisterous tactics of Matteo Salvini, leader of the League and the centre-right coalition, are losing traction.
A series of choices made by the leader are being questioned by party and coalition members alike. Disputes range from the choice of candidates, to his unchanging policy line and inflammatory rhetoric, to his party not voting for sanctions on Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in last week’s vote at the European parliament.
Regarding this last matter, his second-in-command Giancarlo Giorgetti advocated for changing tack in an interview to Corriere della Sera, arguing that the League’s credibility suffered from being perceived as “the populists siding with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin”.
Mr Giorgetti, who oversees the party’s relations with the EU and Atlantic nations, said that a party who is serious about leading a nation must first make peace with the European establishment, drop the Eurosceptic and populistic rhetoric, and join the European People’s Party (EPP), the institutionalised, moderate and conservative wing of the European parliament.
The diplomat is perhaps the most powerful and long-standing advocate for moderation within the League, which owes most of its success to Mr Salvini’s explosive rhetoric against Europe, migrants and the left. Corriere reported that the two clashed, quite seriously, over the future of the party, and that the leader has (privately) conceded the need for a change.
The timing couldn’t possibly be casual, as the US Secretary of State is due for a visit in Rome early next week. Mr Giorgetti surely wants to improve Mr Salvini’s standing in the eyes of Washington and cement him as a viable ally to the US.
On the Italian campaign trail, Mr Salvini employed his trademark bravado, hammering on about the need to topple the current government and declaring that the centre-right would win all of the 7 regions that were up for grabs. Instead, he ended up with 4. Not a bad result at all, but the current negative perception derived from his managing of expectations.
Moreover, two of these victories cemented Luca Zaia and Giovanni Toti as governors of Veneto and Liguria, respectively. Despite being supported by the centre-right coalition, which showed unity in presenting one shared candidate regardless of their party affiliation, these two built their campaign around their independent lists, thus linking their persona – and not their parties – to their victory.
Rumour has it that “underground” fighting is also ensuing between Mr Zaia – who won with a spectacular 77% – and Mr Salvini, although both deny it. The former has often been described as a moderate who could take on Mr Salvini’s role, should his star shine less brightly, an idea the governor dispels as “ridiculous”.
Still, there is no lack of friendly fire within the centre-right. In the post-election euphoria, Mr Toti declared that Mr Salvini “only cares about his battles” and did not seem fit to guide the coalition. He later adopted softer tones to call for a governance body of the centre-right, led by a less flag-waiving Mr Salvini.
Mara Carfagna, from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (the smaller party in the coalition), also took aim to Mr Salvini by declaring that “who aspires to lead the Italian moderates must choose. Either they stand at the window and keep shouting at the ‘thieving’ government, or they make an honest effort to formulate constructive proposals to manage the incoming European resources, for the good of the country.”
Forza Italia gravitates around the political centre that could help the other two coalition parties, League and Brothers of Italy, win over moderate voters. However, poor regional results and the passing of a referendum reducing the number of MPs have caused an internal race to avoid insignificance in the next legislation. Similar centrist parties have seen the same results, meaning that a centre-right renaissance is entirely up to the big guys.
Some argue that Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy is the ideal candidate. The party has wandered even farther right than the League in the past, but it has been undergoing normalisation recently – they abandoned Eurosceptic positions and a good part of their inflammatory rhetoric, putting on their responsible hat to present a trustworthy face to Covid Italy.
Ms Meloni has been relatively quiet and never appeared to threaten Mr Salvini’s leadership, preferring instead to celebrate her accomplishment in the Marche region – which her candidate swung to the right after 25 years at the left – and call for unity in the coalition. However, her party’s vertiginous growth has doubtlessly scared the latter.
The League, once the most popular party by a considerable margin, has been bleeding votes for the past year, and most of them are siphoned by Brothers of Italy. And many in the League are realising the hidden potential in moderation, made more evident by Mr Toti and Mr Zaia’s resonant victories.
The philospoher Massimo Cacciari, former mayor of Venice and politically distant from the League, has nonetheless noticed that many of his friends in Veneto have voted for Mr Zaia. He described the latter’s party as a different right, one that’s “reliable”, “not living off rallies” in an interview to La Verità.
In the end, it seems like Mr Salvini has taken the hint. On Wednesday he announced the creation of an administrative office within the League, possibly following the insane amount of internal pressure. “The more I delegate, the happier I am” he announced on live TV.
This new body will likely be made up by the League’s big names, including Mr Giorgetti, Lorenzo Fontana and Andrea Crippa (the other two deputy secretaries), as well as a string of key party members heading departments to deliver “precise answers” to the Italian society.
