Meloni-Salvini power game within coalition escalates

9 months ago 53

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia voted against a proposal tabled by government partner Matteo Salvini’s Lega to have three instead of the current maximum two terms for regional governors and mayors of certain municipalities, with Lega already asking parliament to deliver an opinion on the matter.

Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) and Forza Italia (EPP), together with the PD (S&D) and Movimento 5 Stelle, voted against a proposal tabled by Lega (ID) to allow regional governors and mayors of municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants to govern for three five-year terms instead of two. Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva (Renewal) was the only party to support it.

Dropping the proposal for mayors, Salvini is asking the parliament to express itself on the issue regarding governors, threatening through Lega Senator Calderoli to propose a maximum of two mandates also for MPs if Fratelli d’Italia does not support the removal of the limit for governors.

“I hear parliamentarians who have been in parliament for about thirty years opposing the third term for mayors and administrators working in the territory. The third term limit does not exist in any European state,” commented Giovanni Toti, Governor of Liguria.

The third term is just one piece in the larger mosaic of the ruling centre-right majority, made up of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, Tajani’s Forza Italia and Salvini’s Lega, which is increasingly competing with its allies to regain as much consensus as possible for the next European elections.

One of the most popular governors, Luca Zaia, who has governed Veneto since 2010, has a high approval rating that would allow him to win the next regional elections. To support Zaia – and to keep him away from bigger ambitions at the national level – and to keep a stronghold of votes for the party, Lega will not back down.

On the other side is Meloni, who wants to put forward her own candidate to govern Veneto, a rich and productive region in northern Italy, in 2025 to demonstrate her strength against her allies further.

“It seems clear to me that we are once again witnessing a game played by the right wing on the skin of the institutions (…) It worries us, this right-wing approach that never changes, intolerant of democratic rules, of the functioning of the institutions,” commented the leader of the PD group in the Senate, Francesco Boccia.

On Wednesday evening, all centre-right leaders took to the stage in Cagliari, Sardinia, to support candidate Truzzu in the regional elections to be held on Sunday – which, as the first elections of 2024, will be the first test for the parties already campaigning for seats in Brussels.

“In Giorgia, I have not found an ally or a good prime minister but a friend, which makes all the difference in politics. We will continue for five years,” Salvini assured.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)