Meloni’s ‘school’ is causing a rift between the Lega and the government

Either he ends up in FdI with Meloni, Brother Giorgetti, or it ends badly. A Budget Bill is being manipulated by the Lega, says FdI, “to settle internal scores, to try to oust Giorgetti”. Minister Valditara, a Lega member, complains about cuts to schools which, for Meloni, are not cuts but measures of “absolute logic”. They describe Giorgetti as ‘betrayed’ because ‘Durigon, Valditara – everyone knew everything’. He is under fire from his own side, defended, as usual, by Meloni, by FdI – his ‘new’ party (and who knows if it might not become so) – and even by Forza Italia. He has been ‘put under administration’ by Durigon and Salvini, who are demanding four billion for the ‘Quota 64’ scheme and who have disavowed him in a statement that smacks of ‘Goodbye, Giorgetti’: ‘Lega experts and MPs are working to identify resources’. They want to take over the State Accounting Office just as Ilaria Salis takes over houses.

Maurizio Casasco, FI’s economic spokesperson, says: “If you get on your minister’s nerves – and Giorgetti is a League member – are you helping him or hurting him?” The same controversy as last year is playing out again, this time over pensions, but this time it’s the end-of-term budget and the League needs to make up ground and get its act together. In Trieste, sources say the disappointment is such that Fedriga will withdraw his candidacy for the general election: he is so disillusioned that he would rather go to the European Parliament. At the last leaders’ summit – the one where the budget deal was sealed with a handshake – they asked Maurizio Lupi: ‘But will the League’s “Quota 64” go ahead?’ And Lupi replied: ‘Never’. There is 800 million euros available for one year, but the League is asking for four billion to fund the measure for three years. Within the League, as usual, they are accusing the ‘state swan’, the accountant Daria Perrotta, of having tricked them like Azzeccagarbugli did to Renzo – only this time, they are the ones being taken for a ride. They cite a poll—comparable to horoscopes that, when paid for, promise beauty and strength—which would place the League at 7.5 per cent thanks to this “quota 64” push. Hence the fury and the determination to extract a pound of flesh from Giorgetti.

First, they replaced Silvana Comaroli – a Giorgetti loyalist who endorsed Garavaglia at the Lega congress – the rapporteur who has always overseen the budget on behalf of the Lega (and the minister); and then they put Valditara in charge. He is one of the most outspoken ministers, and the more outspoken he becomes, the more he annoys Meloni, who does not want to hear talk of ‘cuts’, but only of staff turnover, because ‘if we don’t have students, should we perhaps pay a teaching allowance?’. Marco Osnato, the toughest of the lot and the spearhead Meloni is putting forward to defend the budget, explains: “In Italy, the average is one teacher for every seven pupils; classes are already small. What are we on about? I hear people stirring up trouble over the pension revaluation, which penalises – and only minimally at that – high pensions. What are we on about? Valditara talks about cuts, but it’s not a cut, and I hate to hear that word.”

No one has noticed, except for FdI economist Ylenja Lucaselli – a woman who deserves the post of deputy minister in a future Meloni II government – that the ‘quota 64’ scheme the Lega is dreaming of penalises women, as usual. As Sabino Cassese always says: “Pension? It’s a horrible idea. You stay at home and soon become a problem for your wife, who has to put up with you, and for the health service, which has to listen to your whingeing.” Salvini has been obsessed with pensions for at least ten years (and an obsession is worse than an illness), but Meloni does not want to humour him, perhaps for a noble reason. Together with Giorgetti, she is concerned about Ilva and believes that a billion could be used for early retirement schemes, to support that community which will be left with asbestos and unemployed. She doesn’t want it because Durigon’s four billion risk pushing Italy off its path to recovery, and because that sum is an expense that will continue indefinitely.

They ask FdI: what if the Lega carries on? The reply is: “Do they want to go to the polls straight away? Let’s go!”. Four years have passed and there are those in the majority who still haven’t grasped how it works. The exit tax legislation, which has already been dubbed the ‘tax on the rich’ and criticised by the FT, was devised by Palazzo Chigi. It is a response to the wealth tax that is stirring up the left. It has a minimal economic impact, but Meloni needs it to demonstrate: see? With me, the super-rich pay up. Even the tax amnesty in Campania (as reported by this newspaper) serves to flush out the Campania left. It is Meloni who sings; Giorgetti merely sets it to music. He really does risk ending up in FdI. All sorts of rumours are circulating about Giorgetti: some say he’ll split the League, form his own party, or support a future government, much like Draghi’s. Those who can’t criticise Meloni criticise Giorgetti; those who can’t criticise Giorgetti criticise Perrotta. Everyone is taking potshots at the economist.