That Brussels Taxi. Seventy-six MEPs and a temptation: to leave the EU to return to Italy

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Brussels . Seventy-six Italian MEPs with their head in Brussels but their eyes and heart in Italy . Some, to paraphrase Europe's most famous football nursery, call it the "Strasbourg academy". A long bench of names ready to take to the field that the Italian parties are preparing to use. At the end of the legislature, in fact, each delegation has generally lost almost a third of its members along the way, between those who ran elsewhere and those who have changed sides. And this five-year period promises not to disappoint, with the next regional elections that will be the occasion for the first farewells. The most well-known names among those who are already packing their bags are the Democrats Matteo Ricci and Antonio Decaro: the two PD MEPs are in fact already projected towards the challenge in the regional elections in the Marche and Puglia. To prepare things, Decaro has already acted as a guide for an entire afternoon through the corridors of the Eurochamber to Georgia Tramacere, the first of the non-elected in the southern Italian constituency, who will start after her, now almost certain, resignation. But the Apulian challenge could also attract another MEP: in fact, the name of Melonian Francesco Ventola is circulating in Brussels as a possible challenger to Decaro. However, this is an unsought-after role, as the game is already considered almost lost.

Eyes are also on the great match of Veneto, where the fate of Doge Zaia is still unclear. Despite the dry no comments from the Northern League offices, something is moving among the allies. Aiming for the governor's seat is in fact an idea that does not displease Melonian Elena Donazzan, but another name in the Eurochamber not to be underestimated is that of Flavio Tosi, the former Northern League member now in Forza Italia, former mayor of Verona and recently elected MEP but with some unfinished business with his former party.

Many broken dreams, however, for the Campania region. The candidacy of Forza Italia member Fulvio Martusciello has in fact been bogged down in the alleged legal problems in Brussels, linked to the Huawei scandal, which have forced him, at Tajani's request, to step back. The Democrat Sandro Ruotolo is also aiming for the governorship of Campania, but at the moment, even within the Democratic Party, rumors are that he will be permanently in Brussels, given the Nazarene's desire to focus efforts on the unitary candidate Roberto Fico.

Further away is the Friuli Venezia Giulia issue, which is worrying the majority these days, and here too, in Brussels, something is moving. If the candidacy of the Lega Nord's Fedriga is no longer possible - a scenario against which the Lega is preparing barricades - in the corridors of the Eurochamber there is talk of the entry into the game of the Meloni MEP Alessandro Ciriani. A Brother of Italy in all respects, the Pordenone native is in fact the brother of Luca Ciriani, now Minister for Relations with Parliament in the Meloni government. The challenge for Palazzo Marino is distant, but not that far away. And here, there are four potential candidates for the European Parliament. To solve the post-Sala problem, in the Milanese PD more than one would like to push Irene Tinagli to run for mayor of Milan, but for now the former president of the Eurochamber's Economics Committee has denied his availability. On the right of the Strasbourg hemicycle, however, the names of Moratti, Fidanza and Sardone are weighing heavily.

Letizia Moratti would like a rematch. Already mayor and minister of Forza Italia, she could be the most obvious choice to aim for the moderate Catholic vote. The Fidanza hypothesis represents instead the takeover bid of Fratelli d'Italia on Milan, with the relative (ethnic?) replacement of the Lega ruling class with the new Melonian right. And then there is the Sardone hypothesis, who swears to Il Foglio that he is out of the race for Palazzo Marino, but adds that "he would be lying if he said that being mayor of the city is not his dream". Rooted, combative and on the rise, she has proudly welcomed the arrival of the term "sardonization", created in theory to discredit the rightward turn of her party. She says that Trump is the winning example and "he wants to be the Rudy Giuliani of Milan", jokes her party. That's not to say that she can't succeed. And then there is the 5 Star Movement, which with Pasquale Tridico and Giuseppe Antoci has two finished candidates to play in Calabria and Sicily. However, 5 Star sources flatly deny it: "We have clear internal rules, elective mandates must be finished". No early escape from Brussels, therefore, for Conte's men. Unless the rules change - and it wouldn't be the first time.

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