The real crux of the third term for regional presidents
Because in the center-right (and not only in the center-right) there is discussion about the third mandate for the presidents of the regions. Paola Sacchi's note
In the so-called First Republic, terms such as "verification", "rebalancing" and "relay" were used when things were not going very well. And we saw what negative effects the de facto interruption of the Craxi government had for the country, the driving force behind major reforms that left their mark, now marked by De Mita, with a greater number of votes than the PSI on the balance.
Now, making comparisons with the past is certainly forced, but the controversy that has broken out in the centre-right divided over the third mandate (League in favor, FdI and FI against) makes old political reporters rethink certain political discussions of the past which already then sounded divorced from reality and from the concrete interest of citizens who have every right to vote for who they like most.
Let's get to the point: the request of the Northern League secretary, deputy prime minister, and infrastructure minister Matteo Salvini has a significance that should not be underestimated. They downgraded it as the Save-Zaia amendment. Apart from the fact that he is first and foremost disrespectful not only towards his voters (a constant avalanche which has exceeded 60 percent for many years, starting with the first election in 2010), perhaps he is also a little offensive towards the very popular governor of Veneto himself , who from the beginning of his first mandate set himself the program of Autonomy. Differentiated autonomy with which he won a referendum with over 70 percent.
“Luca” from Bibano di Godega Sant'Urbano (Treviso) is a gentle person, humble like his origins (waiter, worker, imaginative disco pr to support his studies), but serious and tenacious. And it is conceivable that he intends to carry out what he promised to his voters who rewarded him in this way like the man of his word that he is. The “Doge”, who we got to know a little, is not a man looking for places just to have a place. The malicious ones have also written in the usual, now cloying, background in which Salvini would be responsible for the problems of the world universe, perhaps even the weather, that he would like to re-nominate Zaia for fear that without a role the governor would then replace him at the helm of the party in the case of a not good Northern League performance at Regionals and European Championships.
But somewhat stale background and gossip aside, the point is political. And above all of political method. It is certainly understandable that FdI, having become the majority party, aspires to have at least one important governor in the North. But cold mathematics applied on the table does not always go hand in hand with politics where two and two do not always equal four. And according to these logics, which risk becoming forced by the balance sheet or "rebalancing" at the table, on the part of the majority party the center-right risks harming itself.
FdI imposed, for example, in place of the former Northern League mayor Leonardo Latini, who won in 2018, its candidate in Terni, the city of the steelworks and second in Umbria. The entire coalition lost, the outsider Stefano Bandecchi won. The Italians and the centre-right really don't need new Bandecchis, emerging from the mess in Terni which will inevitably also weigh on the next Umbrian elections.
The centre-right has always won above all thanks to its compactness and unity, unlike the fraying of the centre-left. We all win together, the coalition is three-pronged. The automatic mechanisms between policies and administrative voting do not always work. Each is indispensable to the other. Why risk humiliating the momentarily weaker ally, precisely in Veneto, the land of the League, mother of all Leagues? Why humiliate a 90-year-old like Luca da Bibano from Godega di Sant'Urbano, a true resource not only of the League but of the entire center-right? Why can parliamentarians and others have an infinite mandate?
Votes come and go, sometimes in Italian politics in the blink of an eye. And Europeans are not always the Bible. Feet very much on the ground. If the center-right doesn't want to hurt itself in the face of an opposition reduced to tatters.
Salvini has already had to renounce his candidate former president Solinas in Sardinia in the name of coalition unity.
Salvini yesterday evening on Tg2 Post , denying disagreements between him and "Giorgia", however observed that not having the third mandate and even beyond for governors and administrators, while there are no limits for parliamentarians and ministers, "is not doing an injustice to me or Zaia, but the citizens who are prevented from voting for who they want more."
And for an administrator, above all, the liberal yardstick of meritocracy is measured on the consensus of the territory. Not in abstract Palace power games.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/salvini-zaia/ on Fri, 23 Feb 2024 06:24:09 +0000.