Salvini and Tajani stand Meloni up for the government’s party in Bari

They are celebrating the government’s record but feel like guests. So both Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani are standing the Prime Minister up: if they do attend (and that’s not certain), it will only be via video link. At the port of Bari, preparations are being finalised for Friday’s celebration marking the longest-serving government in history: the stage is practically ready, over 10,000 Fratelli d’Italia activists are on their way, and the organisation is running under the watchful eye of the Under-Secretary for Health, Marcello Gemmato, a staunch loyalist of Giorgia Meloni. As for the deputy prime ministers—including Lupi, who will be present—they had been allocated the customary slot for speeches just before the Prime Minister’s. Yet, given the setting, the Fratelli d’Italia flags, and Meloni’s inner circle, it is clear that for them this is only a partial celebration. This is also because, whilst the deputy prime ministers have been allocated around ten minutes each – or slightly more – the Prime Minister is expected to speak for over an hour. For this reason, both have informed the Prime Minister that they will not be attending (Salvini has opted for the Lega’s party in Tuscany), at least not in person, and may speak via video link. The Lega leader had already done so in Pescara before the European elections, joining via distance learning.

It is perhaps the content that the Prime Minister will address that is causing her two deputies even greater concern. As we had anticipated in Il Foglio, one of the key points of Meloni’s speech will be the results achieved on immigration and security, amidst weeks of protracted crisis with Spain. This is also why, as has been noted in recent hours, Salvini has resumed making bold statements, bringing up ‘chemical castration’ in relation to the case of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl (who has since been released from custody) in Turin. This nervousness is also fuelled by the fact that the handling of arrivals, with the ‘Dublin cases’ affair, has brought the role of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, back into the spotlight; he is a technical expert whom Meloni has trusted and who has dispelled speculation about a change at the Ministry of the Interior. Not only that: new measures in the field of public order could be announced from the podium. Likewise, the timetable for proceeding with the opening of new CPRs could be better defined. This is on the League’s front, but within Forza Italia too, they are waiting to see the economic battles Meloni has pledged to fight. The cut in personal income tax (IRPEF) and the reduction of the tax wedge are considered by Tajani to be part of FI’s DNA. However, precisely in anticipation of the forthcoming Budget Bill, and also because of the promises made to ‘friendly’ trade unions such as CISL and (for some time now) UIL, as well as to Confindustria, there are fears within Forza Italia that they may be overtaken in their role as the ‘voice of the middle class’. The famous anti-bureaucracy plan, launched imprudently in the middle of summer by Tajani (without the involvement of Ministers Zangrillo and Casellati) and which came to nothing, also stems from this limited room for manoeuvre. Even the single Special Economic Zone (ZES), which is due to be extended to the north, is among the measures they hope to push through in the coming months (a gesture towards the Northern League governors in the north, much to the secretary’s chagrin).