Meloni and the ‘unarmed’. The NEC is put to a vote, but it is Borghi of the League and Conte who emerge victorious

Rome. Here is the bulletin from these infamous times, full of scum and nooses: a majority held hostage by Claudio Borghi and an opposition subjugated to Giuseppe Conte. Putin is amongst us. Giorgetti is calling for the activation of the NEC – the safeguard clause, unique in the world – alongside Federico Freni and Minister Foti, whilst the PD is reduced to an enclave of the M5S, Ricciardi’s Ceuta, which sings the praises of China. The ‘thaw’ lunch between Schlein and Conte was paid for by Schlein: he promises primaries and she hands him the reins of foreign policy. The joint PD-M5S-AVS resolution seems to have come, says Luigi Marattin, ‘from the archives of Potere Operaio’. We have the Tupamaros of peace.

Despair, chaos, Salvini threatening – at Claudio Borghi’s suggestion – the editor-in-chief: “If we don’t amend it, let’s add a paragraph on Safe; otherwise, the League won’t vote.” And so it is amended. It will pass into the annals of this pre-election calendar of miseries, like the last day of elegance before the summer holidays, with Federico Freni changing his tie – one for the Chamber of Deputies, another for the Senate; both Hermès; it will pass as Conte’s victory, the bully who humiliates the PD: “It’s a victory for everyone”. It is his victory. He has completely rewritten the resolution put forward by the PD, M5S and AVS, and his aides have sent it to the newspapers. Graziano Delrio recounts: “We PD senators were waiting, but the M5S had already circulated the text to the news agencies. So we march on like this, towards the future, but what future?”. At nine o’clock in the morning, a furious Lorenzo Guerini, sitting on the sofa in the Chamber of Deputies, complains: “Something like this is unheard of; I’d spoken to Provenzano. It doesn’t work like that.” In the Senate, Francesco Boccia – who is certainly no enemy of Conte – had mediated alongside Lella Paita, but the text reached the Chamber of Deputies and was botched; Conte sat down with Provenzano and redrafted it. The phrase ‘to use funds primarily for energy’ is turned on its head to mean ‘to radically reconsider the spending commitments made within NATO’. If the left (right) did not exist, we would have a better understanding of what the right (clumsy right) is today.

Giorgetti speaks first in the Chamber of Deputies, then in the Senate, about the SAFE, its advantages and disadvantages, saying: “We are dependent and lack sovereignty in energy matters; that is why we are asking for the exemption”, and later: “There is no absolute truth regarding the SAFE; it will be assessed”. Suddenly, the sitting is suspended. Tajani is not there, nor is Urso. They are alone. Freni leans in close and whispers to Giorgetti that there are problems. They retreat to the government’s room. Freni asks for a cup of tea; the FdI group leader, Bignami, is on the phone. A paragraph on SAFE – the ‘Borghi stopgap’ – is added to the majority resolution: “To assess the use of various financing conditions, including, where deemed advantageous overall, those set out in the Safe programme”. It seems to have been written by Conte, the master of semantic traps, the de Saussure of triple impudence. He still strides about as if he were at Chigi, acting as conductor because “I speak on behalf of the opposition” and, on Delmastro, “come and see”. They ask him: ‘Mr President, is it you who have philologically rewritten the resolution?’ And Conte gives them a look, narrowing his eyes, before explaining how it works: ‘A third man for the coalition? There are already those who have said no, and so the mechanism grinds to a halt.’ And when will you hold the primaries? In January or October? And Conte: ‘What do you say if we hold them in 2030?’

Everyone is looking for Provenzano, who has a history stretching back millennia, “I’m Sicilian”, who is said to be the co-author of the opposition’s resolution and who recalls: “The wording we used was widely accepted in the past”. Guerini is summoned for an hour-long meeting with Schlein and, before leaving, wonders: “I cannot understand why people are saying ‘no’ to SAFE. It encourages European cooperation and reduces arms purchases from the Americans. Do we want to be like Costa Rica, with no defence?” At least he doesn’t change his mind. He votes in favour of SAFE. Only Marattin (if only the centre would form a coalition) is concerned about the breakdown of decorum and the appointment of Alberto Bagnai to the Antitrust Authority, going so far as to say to Giorgetti: “Freni isn’t going to Consob and Bagnai is going to the Antitrust Authority? What sort of country is this?” And Giorgetti, who still feels like smiling – it’s morning – replies: “Don’t insult the institutions. Yellow card, red card’. Fornaro approaches and they exchange a few words. What did you say to each other? ‘We were talking about this horrible weather, and we didn’t mean the heat.’ Every sort of indecency is heard, right up to the noose brandished by Edoardo Ziello, the deputy general, who, addressing the government, says, ‘You’re putting a noose round the country’s neck’ by choosing the Safe bill. It’s a rehash of the noose remark by the Northern League’s Orsenigo, but that was during the ‘Clean Hands’ era, and, years later, even Orsenigo was ashamed of it. How does Schlein intend to compete with such noose rhetoric, with Conte speaking out against “straightjackets, the Stability Pact and rearmament. ‘You are handing Europe over to an arsenal in the hands of neo-Nazis’?” Giacomo Amadori writes in *Libero* that Conte was about to sell his father-in-law’s Plaza Hotel to Zampolli, but Conte retorts, “I deal with politics, not this nonsense.” The deviation will be put to a vote in October, explains Giorgetti, “a 0.9 per cent deviation for energy security” because “I want to go home having exited the infringement procedure. We won’t veer off course, we won’t run away, we won’t desert. That’s why I’m here today”. They risk being in the same position tomorrow, the day after, or a year from now. The centre-right, led by Tajani, has reached an agreement on the electoral law, with preferential votes and gender alternation. The resolution, of course, also passes: 181 votes in favour in the Chamber of Deputies, and the motion to shield Delmastro – meaning no chat logs will be handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office – also passes in a secret ballot: 206 in favour and 133 against. Remember Ceuta? It already feels like a lifetime ago. On the left, Delrio is the only one still talking about it: “Look, Europe has disavowed Meloni, but Meloni is lucky – she has Fitto. In Italy, there’s Vannacci who, in the end, will back her. The only outcome of Schlein’s PD, it seems to me, is that there’ll be primaries, but on Conte’s terms. He’s the one calling the shots.” Just like the green milonga in the song. He’s Atahualpa: “Descansate niño, I’ll carry on from here...”