Salvini, a professional ‘congratulator’

He wins every race and every election, except those in which he takes part. On Sunday morning, the news agencies released his first statement: “Lega secretary Matteo Salvini has sent a message to Alice Weidel, leader of the AfD, ahead of today’s regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt”. Shortly thereafter, on WhatsApp, one of the Lega’s most senior leaders wrote to a colleague in the Senate: “We’re imitating Vannacci. Matteo is a photocopy of his own copy”. A few hours pass, the AfD actually wins, Salvini has just stepped down from the podium (he never misses a beat) where he presented the Monza Grand Prix trophy to the driver Kimi Antonelli, and here comes another dispatch in which the League leader congratulates the German far right on its triumph. “Congratulations to my friend Alice Weidel and the whole AfD.” One must acknowledge a certain consistency in his temperament. In May 2024, when the same AfD was expelled from the European group to which the League also belonged, due to certain sympathies for the Nazi SS, Salvini had offered his congratulations then too, but to Marine Le Pen, who had pushed for the expulsion. Another terse message from the usual League leader: “‘He’s desperate.’ It is difficult to understand why these colonels – or former colonels – of Salvini’s do not appreciate their secretary and deputy prime minister, this man of boundless cordiality, who, at the mere glimmer of any success, wherever it may be, feels the lightbulb of congratulations switch on inside him – as it once did with Putin and then with Trump – and cannot bring himself to switch it off.

Years ago, during the election campaign in Emilia-Romagna, we saw him having his photo taken with partisans wrapped in red scarves, paying homage to the statue of Peppone in Brescello, and wearing a Ferrari cap in Maranello and a Pantani cap in Cesenatico. He then went so far as to extol the virtues of North Korea (“the air here is wonderful”), and he also expressed satisfaction at André Ventura’s presence in the Portuguese runoff—though this came only after a period during which he had been stating, “I agree with Mario Draghi on every point”. Today, however, one name is missing from the roll call of this boundless cordiality, and the colonels who message each other on WhatsApp know this all too well: will he even try to take a place on the podium alongside Vannacci? “We don’t rule anyone out,” laughs Massimiliano Simoni, the General’s right-hand man. He’s joking, but he’s underestimating Salvini.