Thursday, March 28

Why Giorgia Meloni does not want Matteo Salvini in the Ministry of the Interior


The political turbulence that many feared, after the elections, with the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, is becoming a reality. Salvini is seen in the Italian media, today, as the most annoying of the Italian leaders, for the politics of the transalpine country, for his bases and many leaders of his own party. Hence his electoral failure. It is thus understandable that for Giorgia Meloni the formation of his Government has started uphill, because, according to all the media, Matteo Salvini intends to be the new Minister of the Interiora position he already held in the first populist government he formed together with the 5-Star Movement, chaired by Giuseppe Conte, after the elections of March 4, 2018. The negotiation lasted almost three months to form a government, which took office on March 1. June.

When Meloni and Salvini are publicly together, they try to appear uniteds, but their differences are great and sometimes they are poorly tolerated. On Wednesday they met for the first time after the elections, a face-to-face meeting amid snares and suspicions between the Brothers of Italy and the League. Between both parties there was an exchange of “messages” by the leaders close to Meloni and Salvini.

The tone, according to the Italian media, was threatening: “The leader of the League must have the Ministry of the Interior or the party could limit itself to external support,” said the circle closest to the league leader. Giorgia Meloni, who seek at all costs a government of pacificationn, which avoids international suspicion and serves “to build a new Italy”, made a denial on Twitter this Wednesday: “I read unreal reconstructions about possible ministers of a center-right government. After the failure of efforts such as that of Speranza & Co. [Roberto Speranza, ministro de Sanidad en funciones]. I assure you that we are working on a level team that will not disappoint you. Do not believe the lies that circulate, “concludes Meloni’s tweet.

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“Attrition Conflict”

The reply from the leader of the Brothers of Italy may silence the voices of Salvini’s closest circle, who are pressing for important ministries in the government in order to extinguish the electoral failure of September 25. The tension between the two leaders was predicted by the political scientist and professor of Political Science at the Luiss University of Rome, Roberto D’Alimonte: «They will have a conflict of attrition. They have competed in the election campaign and will compete even more after the election.” The problem of Salvini is that seems not to have realized the dimension of his defeat. The two leaders have experienced the most extreme swings of fortune in recent years. Meloni’s star has risen largely at Salvini’s expense. His parties have acted almost like communicating votes vessels: Those who left the League have ended up in Brothers of Italy. In the 2018 parliamentary elections, Meloni’s party won 4.3% of the vote, while the League got 17.6%. And in the European elections of 2019, 34.3%, when he was Minister of the Interior. It was at this time, by declaring war against the “invasion” of immigrants and NGOs, that Salvini achieved his greatest popularity. In the electoral campaign he reiterated throughout the national geography that he would repeat that experience. He knows that without a prominent position in government, his political future, which is already at stake, would be even weaker.

A “ticking time bomb”

Today Matteo Salvini it is described in many Italian media as a kind of “political time bomb”. He could end up being in the news every day, as he did during his time as head of the Interior. It should be remembered that the league leader has a trial pending for blocking the disembarkation of 150 immigrants from the ship of the Catalan NGO Open Arms, in the summer of 2019. In addition, while Putin threatens the West and bloody Ukraine, neither in NATO, nor in the United States, nor by the President Sergio Mattarela Salvini would be accepted in a key position in the Government, the Italian media highlight. These underline his well-known pro-Russian positions, and his old admiration for Putin: “Cedo dos Mattarella [presidente de la República] through Putin”, he came to declare in Strasbourg in 2015. Faced with Salvini’s criticism of the sanctions against Russia, which he would like to lift, Giorgia Meloni made his position clear: “We will not be Moscow’s weak ring”.

In the refusal of the leader of the Brothers of Italy to offer the Ministry of the Interior to Salvini, there are not only political reasons, but also national security, given that the Minister of the Interior is also part of the Supreme Defense Council, chaired by the head of Condition. Thus the things, Giorgia Meloni could offer that key ministry to a technician. One of the most cited names for the position it is the Government delegate in the province of Rome, Matteo Piantedosi, who has excellent relations with the current heads of law enforcement. Salvini could not object, because it was he who chose him as his chief of staff during his experience in the Interior. Piantedosi would not be the only technician in the next Meloni government. The right-wing leader wants there to be many women in the government. One of the “technical” candidates is Elisabetta Belloni, who was appointed by Mario Draghi, in May 20121, as director general of the secret services. She today seems to be the preferred candidate for Giorgia Meloni to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With a brilliant diplomatic career, Belloni was one step away from becoming President of the Republic, succeeding Sergio Mattarella, at the end of last January.

The “Odi et Amo” mural

A couple of years ago, Giorgia Meloni was almost nobody in Italian politics, while Salvini was at the height of his political career. In the summer of 2020 he left the Government with the idea of ​​causing an electoral advance, because the polls gave him 39% in voting intention. He even went so far as to claim full powers if elections were called and he won them. Salvini failed in his attempt. Their rivalry has always been, with very visible differences. In the last days of the electoral campaign, a mural with Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni appeared on a wall in a square in Rome, a few steps from Parliament, in a passionate embrace, while they kiss under the watchful eye of Silvio Berlusconi, hiding each one in his back a knife. The street artist chose Catullus’ famous epigram “Odi et Amo” to represent the current political situation. Few doubt that both leaders will come together and iron out differences to form a government. But, given the character of Salvini, some analysts point out that the leader of the League could spoil the party for the leader of the right-wing bloc.


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