Salvini stands firm against the northerners with a strategy

Yesterday, at the Rimini Meeting, Matteo Salvini spotted Attilio Fontana from a distance and practically ran towards him, smiling and shaking his hand, to capture in a single image what he had failed to secure in an agreement over the past two months. Some within the League are smiling at this ‘photo opportunity’ diplomacy. But watch out – it might well work, whilst Salvini regains ground by insisting (as he will do today in the Council of Ministers) on taxing the banks’ windfall profits. Since mid-August, Fontana has been calling for a collegial leadership of the party, extended to include the governors of the north. But the request is nothing new, and the secretary has always responded to pressure from the regions in the only way he knows how: by organising round-table discussions. The regional coordination meeting in June: nineteen invited and nineteen present, almost all joining from home or in their cars. An hour and a half on autonomy, security, healthcare and the family. Then nothing. The northerners wanted a rebalancing of power and got one more round-table discussion – which is the most elegant way of conceding nothing to anyone.

Time would now have run out; Pontida is on 20 September. Except that the faction set to present the bill is an imaginary one. Zaia dreams of a Bavarian-style federal League and never delivers the decisive blow. Fedriga works behind the scenes, making phone calls and weaving a web of influence, but has been silent for weeks. Fontana and Romeo have put themselves in the firing line, and the loyalists accuse them of only wanting the candidate lists for the general election. Fugatti skips the Pinzolo event and the next day goes for a coffee with the secretary. Alberto Stefani, who governs Veneto, owes everything to Salvini, who has in fact already begun reminding journalists that Stefani, too, is a northern governor. Giorgetti is playing on several fronts and isn’t showing his hand. The ‘northern axis’ is an idea propped up by too many legs, each marching to its own tune. There has been talk for months of ousting the party leader, but if there is one trait that unites the northerners, it is a lack of courage. And courage, unlike photographs, cannot be improvised.