Matteo Salvini tests the patience of his allies
The European elections may be the last chance for the League leader to halt his party's decline. Accordingly, he is violently criticized.
Matteo Salvini celebrated in Rome over the weekend. But what's interesting is who didn't come.
Photo: keystone-sda.ch
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The hall at Rome's Via Tiburtina studios was packed with 1,500 participants, so all was well on Saturday for Matteo Salvini, head of the populist right-wing League party. Now, it cannot be difficult for the long-time party leader, who also serves as deputy prime minister, to muster enough people to fill the hall. The most interesting thing was to know which celebrities attended the IDD family meeting, to which Salvini and his gang belonged, and which celebrities did not belong to him.
There was the leader of the Portuguese right-wing populist Chiga party, Andre Ventura, the Austrian Freedom Party politician Harald Willemski, the American businessman and Trump friend Vivek Ramaswamy, but also Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, who has a good reputation among moderates. Salvini's main ally at the European level, Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, was not there; I sent a video with a welcome message. But several well-known La Liga referees from the Italian provinces also canceled.
The AfD was not present either, but for a different reason: the Germans were simply not invited. It is clear that even Salvini now feels embarrassed to appear with AfD members. Le Pen recently distanced himself from the Alternative for Germany party and some of its far-right positions.
European elections: great importance
Italy is already participating in the European election campaign, which is seen as an extension of the national competition. The importance can be seen in the fact that the leaders of the parties concerned are considering the idea of nominating them as the best candidate on their list, although it is clear that they do not want to move to the European Parliament in June.
The capital's La Repubblica newspaper wrote of Salvini: “Like a wounded bull in the arena.”
Photo: Angelo Carcone (EPA, Keystone)
League leader Salvini, who was known across Europe as a nationalist, Eurosceptic and staunch opponent of humanitarian refugee policy from his time as Italian Interior Minister until 2019, is currently receiving special attention. He is currently in the process of occupying the extreme right wing of the Italian party scene, but in doing so he is exhausting the patience of even his allies. The declared friend of Russia who could not do so Opposition activist Navalny dies Attributing this to Putin's regime and calling the recent elections irregular is also met with headwinds from those with similar views in Europe.
Georgia Meloni, very practical
Frenchwoman Le Pen, for example, who wants to be Emmanuel Macron's successor as president, is currently pushing toward the center with regard to foreign policy. She can do this Georgia Meloni As a model, who has done a good job with this line so far. Although Meloni comes from where Salvini is currently heading, she is on the far right, positioning herself more moderately as head of government – without losing the support of voters. It works closely with the Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen, and acts more constructively at EU summits than the right-wing parties in Hungary and Poland, which are actually kindred spirits.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's position has become more moderate.
Photo: keystone-sda.ch
She is already setting the tone in the European Conservatives and Reformists group, to which her party, the post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia, belongs. Whether she really wants, as is often assumed, to receive her friend Viktor Orbán and his party, who were expelled by the European People's Party, is still an open question. In practice, it still keeps all options open.
Keeping all options open – that's not Salvini's business. Whether it is social or legal policy, foreign policy or the environment, Milanese never miss a single tweet on X to stir up moderate forces. In his party, which was dominated by business-oriented conservatives, he was allowed to get away with this for so long because he was successful. Salvini expanded the Northern League, which was originally mostly separatist, to include all of Italy and led it to as much as 34 percent in the last European elections in 2019. But since then, that percentage has shrunk dramatically; It currently stands at 8% at best.
“A wounded bull in the arena”
In view of this, Salvini is currently behaving – in the words of the capital's newspaper, La Repubblica – “like a wounded bull in the arena.” At the Identity Movement class meeting on Saturday, he also strongly criticized attacks on the EU, Commission President von der Leyen, and “European warmongers” such as French President Macron. Salvini set a target of 10 percent for the European elections. If he cannot achieve this, his political end will not be far away.
The third government party, the right-wing conservative Forza Italia, faces further consequences from a similarly dramatic collapse. It was relatively successful for some periods during the era of its founder Silvio Berlusconi, and now it is only 8 percent at best. However, with Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, he has a clear European stance and is a member of the EPP family.
The opposition parties, especially the second largest, Elie Schlein's Social Democratic Party, are particularly European in their stance, but have so far been unable to replace Meloni in Italy. Their chances of remaining for a full legislative term are increasing, contrary to all expectations and the usual political game in Italy. If current projections hold, the Prime Minister would win the EU elections by 25 to 30 percent with a significant lead, and could then grow into a major role in Europe.
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