Cateno De Luca is getting on the Lega’s nerves and is at loggerheads with Calenda. Cattaneo (FI) chides him: “We need to show some class. We’re losing voters this way.”

The alliance is not even a month old, and already Cateno De Luca has angered the Lega and fallen out with Carlo Calenda. Forza Italia is calling for more restraint: “To remain in the coalition, we need a mutual gentleman’s agreement and a certain level of decorum. We do not recognise ourselves in this approach,” Forza Italia MP Alessandro Cattaneo tells Il Foglio. Last week, the leader of Sud Chiama Nord opened the doors of his national convention to prominent former Lega members such as Mario Borghezio and Paolo Grimoldi (expelled from the Lega in 2024 and now at the helm of Patto per il Nord), then declared himself ready to put forward Renzo Bossi, son of the ‘Senatur’, as a candidate: moves that have provoked discontent amongst Salvini’s supporters. Shortly afterwards, the mayor of Taormina (who has been a frequent presence on television and in the capital in recent days) began squabbling with the leader of Azione, who, speaking to the Corriere, quipped about his “spiritualist séances”: “He announces the election date regardless of Mattarella.” In response, the Snc leader recalled the time when “you sought me out to strike a deal for the European elections, only to then scupper the whole thing. I still don’t understand why, but you brought this on yourself by failing to reach the 4 per cent threshold”.

Such a heated clash, however, risks undermining the attempts at an alliance that Forza Italia has been trying to forge with Azione for weeks. “The centre is our political space and it is where we must expand, especially we in Forza Italia, and we believe it is wise not to close any doors,” says Cattaneo, who warns Cateno: “By launching personal attacks on this or that leader, we also risk alienating the centrist electorate. Setting aside leadership issues, if a party leader decides not to join the alliance, we cannot cut ourselves off from that leader’s electorate. That would be a grave mistake.” 

It is a daunting task to try to appease a politician known, not coincidentally, as "Scateno". Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself has acknowledged that he has “a touch of madness”, perhaps recalling the time in 2007 when he stripped naked in the Sicilian Regional Assembly (Ars) to protest against Totò Cuffaro over the sale of the region’s properties, holding a Pinocchio figurine in one hand and a Bible in the other. “I haven’t met him personally, but I remember when he came up north to stand in the senatorial constituency against Adriano Galliani of Forza Italia. Even then,” recalls Cattaneo, “he tried to make a name for himself, to stir up the debate in a forceful way, with bombastic statements designed to grab attention. But it didn’t work in staid Lombardy.” Here, however, the scenario facing the centre-right coalition (which would also like to form an alliance with another media-savvy mayor such as Stefano Bandecchi) is the national one. “That is why I believe,” concludes the centre-right MP, “that within the coalition’s dynamics there is a distinctive approach, and also a willingness not to rule out valuable opportunities at this stage.”