Forza Italia risks losing Cirio in Piedmont and Bardi in Basilicata
Stall. Indeed, everything is on the high seas. On the thorny issue of candidacies for the next regional elections, the centre-right, as in the game of goose, has returned to square one. Even though they met yesterday Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, but together with Matteo Piantedosi and the dossier on the table was that of immigration, there is still no turning point and the agreement is very far away. The three center-right leaders only mentioned the topic of the Regionals, taking note of the distances and committing to meeting again in the next few days, at the beginning of next week at the latest.
The main issue, as is known, is that of Sardinia which goes to the vote on February 25th and therefore the deadlines are very tight. Fratelli d'Italia now speaks with one voice and does not intend to take steps backwards with respect to the candidacy of Paolo Truzzu, mayor of Cagliari in the name of discontinuity. From the League this morning – sources at the highest levels – explain that the issue is not the defense of Christian Solinas but of the principle of re-nominating the incumbents, despite what happened in 2022 in Sicily when Nello Musumeci was pushed aside to make room for Renato Schifani ( but, they explain from the Northern League, it was a particular situation and at the time Musumeci, now minister, was not an integral part of FdI).
There is a fact that few have underlined and it is the dead silence of Antonio Tajani. Everyday Affaritaliani.it asks the secretary of Forza Italia for a comment but the deputy prime minister and foreign minister does not respond. And it's easy to understand why: Forza Italia is the party that would lose the most from a possible split in the majority Centre-right. If, hypothetically, the League were to accept Truzzu in Sardinia, but Solinas would still run as a candidate with the Sardinian Action Party which has a close link with the Carroccio but is an independent regional force, at that point Salvini would ask to review all the candidates from the regions who go to the polls in 2024. And out of four regions, two belong to members of the party founded by Silvio Berlusconi.
And, therefore, both Vito Bardi would miss out in Basilicata, where the League has Pasquale Pepe ready, but also Alberto Cirio in Piedmont, the spearhead of the Azzurri who, however, would inevitably end up in the shuffle triggered by the case Sardinia. But at that point there is also Marco Marsilio of Fratelli d'Italia in Abruzzo who would be questioned by the League. So the key point of the story is not Solinas yes or no, but the principle of re-presenting the leavers. If the concept hits Sardinia, it hits everywhere. And Forza Italia would be the most penalized. This is why Tajani is silent and despite the fact that in Sardinia the Forzi supporters are at Truzzu's side, no approval has been received from Rome. For fear of the domino effect that would hit Bardi and Cirio. Of course, then the League would risk losing Donatella Tesei in Umbria – where there will be a vote at the beginning of 2025 – but the point must be maintained and there are no signs of surrender on the part of Salvini and his supporters.
All with the Northern League proposal, neither accepted nor rejected so far by the allies, to remove the constraint of the double mandate to allow Luca Zaia to stand again in 2025. But there is time, we are only in January 2024 and based on how the situation evolves we will see how that match will end. Meloni was initially against it and then in the conference at the beginning of the year she simply said that “it is a matter under Parliament's competence”. It is difficult to say how one can find Bossiana's square, but it should not be forgotten that the knot is not just there Sardinia but the whole picture of the Regionals. So much so that the League insists in saying that Fratelli d'Italia should reconfirm the incumbents and, given its strength, then concentrate in 2025 on trying to wrest the regions in the hands of the Democratic Party, namely Emilia Romagna, Campania and Puglia.
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