Salvini "sabotages" Zaia's third term to keep Lombardy. Spite, missed meetings with Tajani

Who is sabotaging the third mandate ? Listen to what Giovanni Donzelli , the head of FdI , the person Meloni trusts, tells Foglio: “If I come out in favor of the third mandate, it means that Meloni is in favor of the third mandate. If I come out with a statement on the third mandate, it means that we at FdI have proven our loyalty to Luca Zaia. But what about the others?” Is Salvini sure he has proven this? To the question: “Secretary, have you done everything, really everything, to get the third mandate?”, is Salvini sure he can answer: “Everything”? An amendment that is essential for the League (without Zaia, who will drag the lists along?) is presented without notifying Zaia, a fundamental amendment is thrown into the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee with a strategy of reckless individuals. The Leaguers are voting for it today, with the risk of seeing it rejected, forever, never presented again in the Chamber. They are voting for it without a precise order, a route, but only to make a splash.

For months, the leader of the League, Salvini, has been calling his party's Federal and telling Zaia and Fedriga: "I'm fighting for you, for the third mandate. It's Forza Italia that doesn't want it. I'm doing everything I can." It's true that it was, and is, Antonio Tajani who opposed it, but when Salvini had to ask Forza Italia for the "big favor," how did he ask? Donzelli says in a note: "If the League and FI reach an agreement, good, otherwise FdI won't vote on the Senate amendment" and Donzelli adds to Il Foglio: "We at FdI have a word. If I come out and say 'ready to talk about the third mandate,' it means that the position has been agreed with the top of my party."

It happens on June 5 but it is Meloni's decision after intense phone calls with the governors of the League. The turning point matures during the last Festival of the Regions, in Venice, and it is an astonishing political operation: in Campania, Vincenzo De Luca is ready to run again and therefore the left is split; in Puglia, Antonio Decaro's plans are ruined; in Veneto, needless to say, Zaia would win by acclamation; in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Fedriga can compete with ease. It is a careful plan approved by the prime minister and can allow the entire right to have a good battle in the Marche, the real disputed region, in the balance. It is a plan that helps the League but does Salvini seriously want to get help in Veneto? Can we ask Tajani for "the big favor" as he did? They say that at one of the decisive summits, at Palazzo Chigi, instead of showing up with all the courtesy in the world, Salvini sent Minister Calderoli, who undoubtedly puts his heart and soul into it, but is not Salvini. Tajani points it out, he says it, because if you negotiate between leaders, "you negotiate between leaders. Salvini must be there."

The Senate technicians explain that the operation was already at the limit with the times, a week ago, reckless. To carry it out, the bill would have to be approved in the Senate, moved, urgently, to the Chamber and approved by September 8 (and the date already tells it all). Salvini instead entrusts an operation of very fine parliamentary technique to the anger and the unknowns of his party. In the most difficult hours, when Tajani should be caressed, with declarations, supported also on foreign policy, Salvini unleashes a battery of parliamentarians against him against the ius scholae which is the minimum union that Tajani can ask for. It would have been enough to consult the Lega base (is Veneto worth a concession on the ius scholae?) and anyone would have answered: secretary, sign. It is an illusion that Zaia can make his own lists, in Veneto, and FdI has already said so: "If the president's list is made, and that president in the end will be a member of the Lega, the former president's list certainly cannot be made too".

In those difficult hours, on June 19, Salvini calls his local government representative, Stefano Locatelli, who, to be fair, no one knows, and has him close the game that determines the survival of a community with a note. On Tuesday, June 24, in the Senate, and it's a farce, an amendment is tabled with this sensational line (and it's the members of the Northern League who say it): "If it is rejected, being a 'drafting' text, a text that is voted on in the Commission, it can no longer be re-presented. If we withdraw it, we'll look like drifters." Salvini is sure he can repeat: "Have I done everything?". Zaia tells the Venetians: "Don't worry. I can find another job." And it's true. Meloni lets him know: "We've known each other for so long...". They've known and respected each other since FdI was a three percent party and Zaia was already Zaia. He may choose the presidency of Eni, or perhaps Enel ... and who knows what other subsidiary, but how many councilors will the League elect in Veneto? The League parliamentarians in the Chamber say: "If all goes well, it will go down to 10 percent. With the Zaia list we reached 60 percent." What will the other members of the League do? Will they all have a presidency at Arera as imagined for Laura Ravetto? In the Senate, the group leader Romeo remains silent, but he looks attentive, very attentive, when the journalists tell him: "You are abandoning Zaia thinking of keeping Lombardy. Is it true?". Zaia and Fedriga are slowly being given the opportunity to create a ticket, a new party, the center that has not been able to create the center, or something much worse. Both of them are being given, scientifically, a reason to become embittered and Salvini the role of butler in the mystery "Who sabotaged the third mandate?".

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