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Roberto Vannacci puts the arrow to the right and overtakes his former party, Matteo Salvini’s League, in the polls. The overtaking is immortalized by the snapshot of the Youtrend institute, according to which Futuro Nazionale stands at 5.9% of the votes against 5.8% of the Northern League. A limited advantage, but with a symbolic value. And it is precisely on icons that the Vannaccians play. Who publish the photo of Dino Risi’s famous film, ‘Il sorpasso’, on social media. The tone is mocking, the message less so. “We were supposed to be a parenthesis, ‘the personal party destined to disappear’, but instead Futuro Nazionale is still growing and now we are accelerating”, is the challenge launched by the general’s party.
Words that bounce around the Transatlantic and once again agitate the center-right parties. The declarations, however, are kept to a minimum. While – with the microphones turned off – no one hides the concerns that affect the various majority political forces, the League first and foremost. “We are tired of looking at polls every day,” says the leader of the League in the Senate Maurizio Romeo. Which vindicates the government’s results on security and migrants. «These are not surveys but marketing gimmicks», counterattacks the deputy Igor Iezzi. «On the topics – he insists – we do not fear challenges from those who were with the government yesterday and today vote together with Fratoianni, Bonelli, Conte and Schlein».
We try to downplay it but the tension in via Bellerio is high. And the tile arrives precisely in the hours of approaching the gazebos of Milan, the initiative launched by the secretary as a stimulus to identify the name of the centre-right mayoral candidate for the city of Milan. There are around 40 points where Northern League militants, but not only them, will be able to express their favorite name. And more than someone in the party has already said that they will write Salvini on the ballot. In the event of a plebiscite, the leader could find a new relaunch. But after the banners that appeared in favor of Luca Zaia, and with the party’s belly in turmoil, there are those who no longer take anything for granted. Certainly, the gazebos will put the ‘Milan question’ back on the table of the centre-right, where there is no shortage of hypotheses: Ignazio La Russa has already launched Maurizio Lupi while Forza Italia is pushing for a civic; Carlo Calenda would look favorably on Carlo Cottarelli, and meanwhile Paolo Berlusconi supports Guido Bertolaso. For now, a challenge to be played.
Just as the front – within the Northern League – of the governors of the North remains open. With Salvini who for now has only announced the control room of the territories to accommodate the change of pace requested by Zaia and his associates. Vannacci’s overtaking, however, does not only worry the League. The Financial Times also warned the government coalition, speaking of the general’s “impetus” as “a significant challenge for Meloni”. And to make matters worse comes another Youtrend survey, which looking at the coalitions shows a center-right disadvantage on the broad field with or without Vannacci in the coalition. The people of Vannaccia, meanwhile, look at the jump of one and a half points compared to the findings of three weeks ago, and toast. The party’s national coordinator, Massimiliano Simoni, does not say he is surprised. And he adds: «the trend will be increasingly in our favor». «The only real poll is that of the voting booth», tries to tone down the FdI deputy Ylenja Lucaselli. Which, pressed on a possible entry of FnV into the coalition, reiterates again: “there is no point in going into government with someone who doesn’t have the same vision as us”. In fact, around Via della Scrofa, the refrain echoes: “he’s the one who pulled out, the problem doesn’t arise.” In FdI the certainty prevails that Vannacci will continue with an ‘anti-system’ campaign, and it is no coincidence that the finger is pointed at the M5S, which in recent Youtrend surveys lost 1.4%. It is there – the reasoning – that Vannacci erodes, not in FdI and not even too much in the centre-right. While in Forza Italia the fear is that a rising Vannacci could shift the balance of the center-right further and further to the right. But there seems to be no doubt about the general’s entry. «It is not conceivable», says the Italian minister Paolo Zangrillo, a coexistence between Fi and Vannacci in coalition.