The attacks on Ukraine and the embrace with Viktor Orban were not enough. Now it’s time for report by Mario Draghi to receive the niet: League leader Matteo Salvini rejects it because at a time when Italy is growing “more than others” it sounds like “I’m going to fix other people’s problems”.
Not exactly a pro-European speech as the delicate passage of the hearings of the new commissioners indicated by Ursula von der Leyen approaches, with Raffaele Fitto – Italian commissioner but an expression of that right that did not vote for the German’s encore – who will have to demonstrate precisely that he has the license of Europeanism to pass the exam. Not to mention that Palazzo Chigi instead welcomed the report of the former prime minister, who Giorgia Meloni met for over an hour just three days ago. In the note, weighed down to every comma, released after the face-to-face meeting, it was underlined that “the whole government”, not just the prime minister, had found “several important ideas” in the substantial report on competitiveness developed by the former central banker as guideline for the moves of the new Commission. And among other things, the very “possibility of a new common debt” now put on the table by the deputy prime minister was cited as a hypothesis “not to be excluded a priori”. Of course, the Northern League’s skepticism about Draghi’s recipe and the common debt is no mystery, also made clear by the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti, who, however, made it more a question of “difficulty” in getting the 27 to agree, putting black on white by German Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
But it is “curious”, observes some of the allies, to see Salvini on the line on which the so-called ‘frugalì countries have historically positioned themselves, largely precisely those Nordic countries that the Northern League leader in other ways recognizes as very distant. The aim is aimed at the Estonian commissioner who has the energy and housing portfolios, because “there they are more accustomed to lakes and reindeer and other urban contexts than to the historic center of Bologna, Florence or the suburbs of Milan and Rome”. Better instead the Greek commissioner for transport, because “there is at least cultural closeness between Italy and Greece”, comments Salvini who in recent days goes around the gazebos where the League collects signatures in his defense after the request for a six-year sentence years in prison at the Open Arms trial. The Milan stage is also an opportunity to return to the “disconcerting” vote of the European Parliament on the use of Western weapons on Russian territory by Kiev which “brings war closer” rather than peace, insists the Northern League leader. While the Confconstruction conference is the stage from which to say another no, to compulsory anti-disaster insurance for families too.
Its movement, at least for now, does not worry Melonians too much because, the reasoning goes, “in the votes” even on Ukraine, the League has always moved together with the entire centre-right. Furthermore, the party leaders minimize, the debate is premature because to date there are no concrete proposals for another common debt after the experience of the Recovery Fund. And if there are, the purposes and mechanisms of a possible new fund will be evaluated “without preclusions” (a new ESM, is one of the examples, would always find the FDI’s no). Salvini has already ensured the vote in favor of Fitto, at least in the passage of the hearings in the commission. It is not yet defined whether the Italian commissioner will have to appear before the Regi commission alone (regional affairs) or also, given the competence over the Pnrr in common with Valdis Dombrovskis, whether he will be supported by the Budget and Econ commissions ( Economic and Monetary Affairs). The hearings, however, could also be postponed from mid-October to the beginning of November. More time for diplomacy to secure the two-thirds needed to avoid being sent back home.