The black wave of Alternative fuer Deutschland is no longer just a running poll. With 44% of the votes, the far right beat the predictions, overwhelmed Saxony-Anhalt and could now have a domino effect in Italy, this is the fear of some sectors of the majority. A risk that worries the prime minister in perspective.
Giorgia Meloni - who so far prefers silence on the elections, at least in official interventions - begins to weave a web of national initiatives with events concentrated in Italy and a little less abroad. So much so that - barring any last-minute surprises - they will also miss the United Nations assembly in New York at the end of September.
The internal and international situation still needs to be studied, it is discussed in majority circles. The risk of an effect of the German vote in our country too, a few months before the political elections, deserves maximum attention and a communication strategy capable of making the work of the government as clear as possible - and therefore clearly visible to Italians - according to the reasoning in the upper levels of the Executive. Hence the need for a more constant presence in the country in this delicate phase of the pre-election campaign.
In any case, a few hours after the vote in the former East German land which today accounts for 3% of the German population, the government allies in Italy are feeling the pinch. Anxiety is growing over the advance of a party, the former general's futurists who, encouraged by the good wind of the 'cousins' of the AfD, risk influencing schemes and plots for the 2027 policies. Whether they are held in spring or autumn, as Matteo Salvini insists. And beyond Vannacci, on the triumph of Alice Weidel's movement, the coalition goes in no particular order.
Forza Italia and the League remain divided with the Northern League secretary who downplays: "On the left they use the words terror, Nazism, fear, black wave or avalanche. It's called democracy. When people vote they always respect it." And if today Antonio Tajani is silent, among the centrists the most explicit is Maurizio Lupi: "As far as we are concerned, no electoral outcome can justify openings towards extremist forces", insists the leader of the Moderates. At the same time, embarrassment prevails within Fratelli d'Italia and many display vigilant caution so as not to emphasize - they say - a regional consultation.
"We believe that that vote will be measured on the basis of facts", says group leader Galeazzo Bignami shortly. It is no coincidence, however, that the most enthusiastic and irrepressible about the success of Afd in the land of Mandeburg is the leader of Futuro Nazionale.
"It's a popular wave", proclaims the former paratrooper, citing German polls which would prove the vote of the over 60s for the CDU against the young people who have chosen the ultra-right and "change". Just like FnV, he ventures and concludes: "This is why even Futuro Nazionale is scary". He then mocks those who belittle them: "The faded right-wingers are retreating. The people are raising their heads again. And now you continue to call us extremists." So much so that he claims - for the first time in such a clear way - the validity of his departure from the League, given the lack of "coherence" of his former party, guilty - according to Vannacci - of now complimenting Afd after distancing himself from it when he was expelled from the Identity and Democracy group at the European Parliament in 2024. "Therefore I am increasingly convinced that I acted correctly in leaving the League", concludes the leader.
Words that underline the distance from Salvini, who had not held back his enthusiasm. And without even waiting for the polls to close, he encouraged AfD's victory, and then celebrated a "sensational success" which demonstrates that "another Europe is possible". The following day the comment becomes milder: "In democracy the Germans of Saxony-Anhalt have voted and asked for change. Elections are never a problem" underlining that "the battles on border defense, attention to external interference, stopping the Green deal and security are the same ones that the League carries out".
A League that continues to have its internal problems. Apart from the ambitions of the "Frondists" aka the governors of the north and of Massimiliano Romeo (number one of the Lombard League, who could risk losing his role as group leader in the Senate), there is the challenge of the former Northern League members ready to take control of the Northern League and its symbol by starting an online signature collection to convene the congress of the old party.
