Government, the League’s ultimatum: “External support if Salvini does not have the Interior Ministry”
“There was no mention of names, positions, attributions of proxies”. This was stated by Giorgia Meloni at the end of yesterday’s expected meeting with Matteo Salvini, in the midst of negotiations to compose the new government. The future premier denied the presence of “alleged vetoes”, despite the numerous background that spoke of a tough tug-of-war between the Brothers of Italy and the League over the assignment of a weighty ministry to the Northern League secretary. A request made explicitly by the federal council of the Northern League on Tuesday, which the Brothers of Italy has vigorously rejected so far. The threat that, according to The Corriere della Serawould have delivered some “messengers” of the League is to limit the support of the League to the new government to a mere external support.
According to reports The Republic, Meloni has no intention of pleasing Salvini, starting with the request to return to the head of the Ministry of the Interior. A choice that would be difficult to explain to the President of the Republic, given the ongoing trial for the Open Arms case, relating to events that occurred when he was already at the Viminale during the first Conte government.
During yesterday’s face-to-face, which lasted almost an hour, the two leaders would not have addressed these issues directly. In the meeting, characterized according to an official note by “a climate of great collaboration”, the two would have limited themselves to a subdivision of the ministries by bands and to indicate a list of priorities for the new government, starting with the energy crisis.
According to the Roman daily, a possible solution is the assignment to Salvini of the Ministry of Economic Development, after the current owner, the Northern League player Giancarlo Giorgetti, has stated that he does not intend to join the government. Another hypothesis could be to assign Salvini the post of vice premier. In this case, there should also be a second vice-premier to be assigned to Forza Italia, as pointed out by the coordinator Antonio Tajani during a sometimes difficult meeting with Meloni. The request made by the forceists during last Tuesday’s face-to-face was that of parity between the ministries between the party founded by Silvio Berlusconi and the Lega, which came out with percentages from Sunday’s vote, with at least one key ministry for Tajani: Foreign, Defense o Internal. The Azzurri are also against the assignment of the presidency of one of the two chambers to the opposition.
At the Lega quota, the name of Giulia Bongiorno is mentioned, who could return to the Ministry of Public Administration, as during the first Conte government, rather than to Justice, where the name of the former magistrate Carlo Nordio stands out. Another Northern League player, Gian Marco Centinaio, could return to occupy the position of Minister of Agriculture. Inside could go the prefect of Rome Matteo Piantedosi, former head of the cabinet of Salvini, or the former prefect of the capital, Giuseppe Pecoraro, considered closer to Meloni. The name of the sociologist Luca Ricolfi was mentioned for the Ministry of Labor, while Letizia Moratti is considered among the favorites for the leadership of the Ministry of Health, if she gives up the race for the presidency of the Lombardy region. Raffaele Fitto could return from the European Parliament to take over the leadership of the Ministry of Community Policies, while for Marcello Pera there is the hypothesis of a Ministry for Reforms. Maurizio Lupi could go to the ministry for relations with the Parliament, disputed with the former force fighter Lucio Malan, who moved to FdI. At the height of Forza Italia circulate the names of Anna Maria Bernini, the former president of the Senate Elisabetta Casellati and Licia Ronzulli, who could go to the Ministry of Education.
Among the technicians, the names of Elisabetta Belloni, head of the Security Information Department (Dis) and former secretary general of the Farnesina and of the ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo for the foreign ministry continue to be mentioned, together with that of the former minister Giulio Terzi of Santagata. Another possible technical minister could be the former president of Confindustria Antonio D’Amato, at the helm of Economic Development.
For the Ministry of Economy, a confirmation of the current tenant of via XX Settembre, Daniele Franco, is possible, after a first no collected by Fabio Panetta. The economist currently sits on the executive committee of the European Central Bank and would aspire to the presidency of the Bank of Italy after Ignazio Visco, whose term expires next year. An alternative could be that of Domenico Siniscalco, who had already become minister during the second and third Berlusconi government, after the resignation of Giulio Tremonti. There is also the possibility of separating the Ministry of Economy, dividing the Treasury from Finance. The second dicastery could therefore go to Maurizio Leo, FdI’s economic expert.
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