A heated clash: Salvini’s old guard versus his new guard

Rather than harming Salvini, they are hitting those who want to oust him. They are a group of veterans from the Northern League, led by former MP Gianluca Pini; they are calling for the old party to be revived, even though the real effect is just a row, and the best outcome would be a court case. It is a paradox. They are a different group; they have nothing to do with the ‘hidalgo’ Attilio Fontana, nor with Zaia, Fedriga or Romeo, yet they are harming both of them. They are harming a community that is desperately trying to replace its leader. Do you remember the carcass – that Northern League buried under 49 million in debt, which the new party is now paying off, that old League that has remained alive as a mere shell? Well, Some figures, such as Calderoli and Giorgetti, continue to pay membership fees, while others remain formal members. The party even has a federal secretary, Igor Iezzi, a friend of Salvini’s often referred to as the custodian, and, in theory, a federal president: the late Bossi. The list of federal council members still appears on the website (including Lorenzo Fontana, Gianni Fava and even MP Erik Pretto, who has since joined Forza Italia). One of the long-standing members, Pini (in fact, as Salvini’s MPs point out, he was expelled), is now announcing the formation of a committee that will call for a congress of the Northern League.

Pini asks: “Our committee was set up to unblock the party emblem and revive the old party.” The party congress has not been held for nine years because that Lega exists only on paper, a ‘bad company’ kept alive as a mere facade. It is a way of trying to gain ground, to further poison the atmosphere – which is already toxic – to the extent that even Attilio Fontana has to clarify: “I too have heard of this initiative, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the dialogue we are pursuing with Salvini.” Salvini, at least on this point, is right when he points out that “those calling today for a party congress to return to the Northern League” are “the very people who nearly destroyed the League and who are now resurfacing in search of a seat”. He asks: “Is anyone who has pleaded guilty to corruption also prepared to take full responsibility for the 49 million in debts that the League, under Prime Minister Salvini, inherited and is still paying off?” The issue concerns the party emblem and the historic Albertino statue in Giussano. It is the old League granting the new one the right to use the name “League”, as well as the Albertino statue. A legal dispute would ensue, and Salvini might win it (by virtue of custom), and he might also win any party congress, given that the members of the ‘carcass’ remain Salvini’s loyalists. In short: it is yet another thorn in the side, tarnishing the image of a party and even those who wish to change it. Salvini is due to call a meeting in the next few days – a new one – with Zaia, Fedriga, Fontana and Romeo. In other words, negotiations are reopening, just as the mainstays of the ‘Report’ editorial team do at RAI (as Iovene, Ranucci’s Alessandro Morelli, puts it: ‘Dialogue resumes with the resignation of Presutti and Piervincenzi’). They want to defrost the old Lega, but they do not realise they are already on the grill.