Because the League could not say no to Draghi: now the challenge is to govern while remaining the first party
The entry of the Lega-Salvini Premier into the Draghi government has turned Italian politics upside down. Not many expected such a move from Matteo Salvini. Among these certainly were not the leaders of the now defunct Giallorossi government, and, perhaps, not even some leading exponents of the center-right. Salvini spun, running a risk not just. He appealed to the Anglo-Saxon motto my country first , the only label to which a party that has been first in the voting preferences of Italians for two years must appeal to make such a controversial choice.
In this legislature, the chalking of the relative majority party in Parliament, the 5 Star Movement, and the rise of the League as the new center of gravity of the Italian political system are being served from the beginning. A novelty that was sealed by the European elections, by the regional ones – the League and the center-right govern 14 regions out of 20, as Salvini himself recalled when leaving the Quirinale – and by all the opinion polls that continue to reward the Northern League. Could the first Italian party remain outside the Draghi government, from the drafting of the Recovery Fund , from an epochal moment for Italian public life determined by the pandemic and the subsequent vaccine plan? The answer is simple: no.
There are other reasons that led to the choice of the League. Although a government force since 1994 and at the head of the two main northern regions for years, the Salvinian League was serving a conventio ad excludendum within the constitutional arch, well demonstrated by the manner of the fall of the first executive of Giuseppe Conte and the birth of the Conte bis, sponsored by Brussels and the Quirinale. Quirinale who also moved on this occasion, appreciating the spirit of responsibility with which Salvini gave his approval to the birth of the Draghi government.
The end of the Trump presidency in the United States caused an earthquake in Italian politics. Some parties can boast a very close relationship with Joe Biden and the Democrats, others have found themselves without support in foreign policy. It is no coincidence that Giancarlo Giorgetti immediately expressed himself for a renewed friendship between Italy and the US as soon as Biden's victory was announced. A nation's international relations go beyond politics. Losing the Trumpian reference – but beware: there are 74 million votes to show that Trumpism is far from over – the League has had to change pace and find new transnational alliances. Membership of the Identità a Democrazia group in the European Parliament does not allow those who aspire to be a Party of the Nation to play a decisive role in the schemes of European politics. Thus Salvini gave the okay for the approval of the Next Generation EU plan by his MEPs, marking the first act of what, most likely, will be the detachment of the League from the group and its approach to the European People's Party, the group that the more it counts in Brussels dynamics (attention: closeness does not necessarily mean adhesion).
The different choice of the League compared to the Brothers of Italy can also be explained by the distribution of consensus and of those elected at the regional level. Representing the two most productive regions of the country, Salvini could not stand by and watch a Democratic Party and a 5 Star Movement – two rather cold parties compared to the needs of the business and self-employed world – to establish the distribution of PNRR funds. Draghi is the guarantor of an economic recovery that the League wants to exploit to strengthen relations with some sectors that represent its constituencies of reference. With Massimo Garavaglia at the newborn Ministry of Tourism and Giancarlo Giorgetti at Productive Activities, the Northern League presides over two key departments for the reopening of the country.
Both Garavaglia and Giorgetti are experienced politicians who have already had important positions in the 2018-2019 yellow and blue government, respectively as Deputy Minister of Economy and Undersecretary to the Prime Minister. Giorgetti al Mise will also be able to initiate a new economic structure for Italy, recalibrating the Golden Share , and defining a new perimeter for the activity of the State at a time when, even in the major Anglo-Saxon magazines such as the Economist , the debate between neo-statists and post-liberalists is occupying much of the discussion on the subject. The first outings and the first meetings of the new minister all seem to go in this direction.
Of course, the Draghi government roses are also full of thorns for the League. Will the fear of losing consensus in favor of FdI be counterbalanced by the entry into the government and the acceptance of the new Salvinian course in the Rome that matters and in Brussels? Let's not forget that in Italy those who govern have always lost the elections. Finding the right balance between the fighting League and the governing League will not be easy. The party is also a victim of its own success. Just a few years ago the Lega was a single-issue party (the north) and the transition from that to a liberal-conservative catch-all container party present in all regions took place with astonishing speed. It is not easy to adapt the structures and personnel of a movement that had 4 percent to those of a movement that became the first center-right party in 2018 and reached 34 percent in the European elections the following year. To remain the first party in Italy, the League must differentiate itself within the Draghi executive, continue to insist on the "return to life" – as Salvini did yesterday after the meeting at Palazzo Chigi with the Prime Minister – and maintain a bit of that revenge against the establishment that has always marked his path since the time of Umberto Bossi.
The post Why the League could not say no to Draghi: now the challenge is to govern while remaining the first party appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/perche-la-lega-non-poteva-dire-no-a-draghi-ora-la-sfida-e-governare-restando-primo-partito/ on Wed, 24 Feb 2021 05:00:00 +0000.