The 'Salvini quater' is born. And this time without acclamation and without the name in the symbol anymore. Matteo Salvini remains at the helm of the League. In his Milan, the congress he wanted to stop the Northern faction confirms him as secretary for the fourth time. 465 votes for him, 146 for Massimo Garavaglia. Only 8 blank and invalid ballots were cast and, out of the 611 valid votes, 76% went to the first, almost 24% went to the second. The leader therefore officially locks himself away for another 4 years - the mandate expires in 2030 - and with a new symbol ("federal Italian League") he leads the party towards the political elections.
He asks for at least 1-2 weeks to define the political secretariat (novelty introduced in the statute), assures that Luca Zaia is "valuable" and will lend a hand to the team but without haste. The hypothesis remains in play that the former Doge will instead be offered a more prestigious single deputy secretariat. From the stage, and with an attitude more of struggle than government, Salvini announces that he will ask the Council of Ministers to stop giving money and weapons to Ukraine. It's the promise he puts on the Northern League's plate, before the polls open. And in a somewhat irregular way, still speaking as a candidate, he asks: "Raise your hand if you believe that I have this mandate to carry this position of ours." A move that certainly convinces the most radical Northern League members and which Zaia openly shares ("Otherwise that war will become our Afghanistan").
But his "we cannot continue to send money and weapons" to Kiev sounds more like an internal electoral bait than a message, or threat, to the allies. The latter actually don't seem to worry too much, given the silence. For the rest, the reconfirmed "captain" closed the unexpected Milanese conclave with "bitterness" over the controversies of recent months but also saying enough to the 'knife brothers' within the Northern League or with the boycott which he brands as "betrayal to the Northern League". In the former Milan fair, today a futuristic creature that blends in with the towers of City Life, Salvini glosses over the outcome of the polls. A secret vote for the first time with names written by hand. So much so as to give rise to the suspicion, on the part of some, of tricks by the 'Salvinians' to count themselves by writing the name of the leader in multiple ways, based on the regions. What is certain is that the challenger, senator and friend of Giancarlo Giorgetti, won "almost 25%" of the votes. He says it himself smiling. And so, as an outsider and with the explicit support only of the "rebels" Attilio Fontana and Massimiliano Romeo, he returns home satisfied. The percentage of votes collected reveals that there is an alternative to the "Captain".
Garavaglia explains it like this: "My candidacy was to give voice to the different souls that exist. After that we all work together. But denying the evidence doesn't do anyone any good." It is no coincidence that Romeo echoes him, convinced that "that discomfort was not an invention, they were not internal diatribes, but a discomfort that cannot be ignored, and above all not only Lombard". For Salvini, however, beware of calling it a party "current". And he insists: "We leave the currents to the Democratic Party, not even the minority or the majority."
The day after the trial of the scapegoat Romeo, the tone at the congress becomes soft, apart from the pointed intervention of Silvia Sardone. The MEP running for mayor of Milan proudly claims "an attacking League and not a Christian Democratic League", and many read it as an attack on Zaia's words on Saturday, clearly at odds. All the others describe a climate of peace regained. Giancarlo Giorgetti acts as its interpreter. He speaks as a militant and not as a minister and does not deny that there are problems ("Clearly we have them") but offers the solution: "Let's bring into the team those who have demonstrated in the area that they are able to produce consensus".
It seems like an endorsement for Zaia which he continues to not receive but embodies the role of peacemaker. "Even in families there is something that doesn't work, but in this congress more points of cohesion emerged than division, this is the message", says the former Venetian governor. Garavaglia certainly invokes his name but also that of Giorgetti, Durigon and "obviously Salvini". He defines them as "star players" who he would like on his team if elected, clarifying: "We have to fish from the nursery where we have champions that everyone envies us and not looking for the super footballer on the market". It's impossible not to think of Roberto Vannacci. At the last congress a year ago he went on stage with the League card he had just acquired, now the general is just "a traitor".
