“Salvini and windfall profits? It’s enough to give you hives. Vannacci is ready for Cernobbio,” says Rinaldi (Fn)

“Taxing windfall profits? It makes my skin crawl. Vannacci in Cernobbio is a calling card for entrepreneurs.” Antonio Maria Rinaldi, a former MEP for the Lega, is now Fn’s economic editor. “Monti can’t give me a failing mark,” Vannacci assured. “We talked about the economy,” Rinaldi told Il Foglio, “but the general is used to studying, and he’s prepared thoroughly for the Ambrosetti Forum. By the way, is it being streamed?” Yes, but Carlo Calenda will not be watching it; he has boycotted the forum because of that “fascist and pro-Russian” Vannacci. “But Calenda is a caricature. The Financial Times, before the ‘Trojan Horse’ incident, wrote that in the first half of the year France, Belgium and Spain imported a lot of Russian LNG. Are Macron and Sánchez Putinists?”, objects Rinaldi. He also plays down the accusations of reconstituting the fascist party and the investigations launched by the Military Prosecutor’s Office. “Fascism has nothing to do with it. As far as I’m aware, the trade union that filed the complaint isn’t even registered.” The economist also plays down the chaos within the FN over an overly conservative programme. But he offers no condemnation of the AI videos featuring Vannacci in uniform saving the world with a flurry of slaps. “They’re not ours, and anyway, we can’t exactly report them all. Whoever makes them is a 2026-style Forattini.”

Meanwhile, whilst Vannacci marches towards Cernobbio (and the Pavarotti family urges him not to imitate the tenor’s voice), Salvini is targeting the windfall profits of banks and energy companies in the face of price rises. “When they talk about windfall profits, I break out in hives,” says Rinaldi, unwittingly repeating the very same phrase uttered by Tajani at the Rimini rally. “But then how do you determine which profit is ‘extra’?” Doubts from the centre-right and a few left-leaning proposals. “Variable excise duties would be needed. But the case of the petrol station purchased by the Abruzzo local council could also serve as a model.” The first is a proposal from Schlein, and the other is a suggestion from Fratoianni. “Renationalisation isn’t the solution. But Mattei did bring down the price of petrol. He was able to do so because Eni and Agip were state-owned.” After the ‘black Vannacci’, is a ‘red’ one on the way?