Lega, today Vannacci deputy secretary. Salvini enlists the General to challenge Meloni on the right flank

A few hours after his appointment as deputy secretary of the League, Roberto Vannacci, the general, calls for a 'return to Russian gas'. A statement that is not surprising but certainly confirms the distance between Matteo Salvini's party and its government allies, starting with Giorgia Meloni's Brothers.

In reality, this entry of the general to the summit of Via Bellerio is also badly felt within the League. The former Folgore commander is not liked: neither by the productive North nor by the administrators who still think that the Carroccio is a federalist party and not a nostalgic movement. "Vannacci next deputy secretary of the League? I've read about this in the newspapers too, but it's not on the agenda of today's federal council meeting,' Luca Zaia cut Luca Zaia short with the journalists. 'The secretary is right to choose his deputies. I remain deeply and genetically attached to the fact that we must represent the demands of the people. A party close to the people and with an identity,' adds the Veneto governor.

The new secretariat will see, along with Vannacci - drum beating on the extreme right - the entry of Silvia Sardone, the Lombardy pasionaria who was, like Vannacci, among the most voted at the European elections. Alberto Stefani and Claudio Durigon are confirmed: the former will keep the task of covering the north-eastern flank (he is the secretary of the Venetian Liga), the undersecretary of Labour will instead continue to oversee the southern front. The strategy is clear: bypass Meloni on the right. Salvini has been trying for some time despite more than one person reminding him that 'between the copy and the original (i.e. Fdi)' the choice will always fall on the latter. The Captain, however, is not giving up. On the contrary, he pushes on the accelerator, courting Fdi's allies. The latest episode was the meeting on Wednesday 14 with the Romanian presidential candidate George Simion, exponent of Aur, a party that in Europe is part of the Conservative group (Ecr) together with Fratelli d'Italia, which at the beginning of the legislature has already been paraded by the sovereignists Vox, of his friend Abascal.

The League leader is betting on the growing Trumpism in Europe and is counting on getting something out of it here too. Vannacci has enlisted him for this. The General, who after being elected in Strasbourg had 'threatened' the constitution of his own movement, preferred to take a seat in the Carroccio rather than wheedle behind residual percentages. So after taking the stage at Pontida last autumn, on 6 April, at the congress that reconfirmed Salvini at the head of the party, he took the membership card of the League of which he is preparing to become deputy secretary. The mandate is a foregone conclusion. He will be the one to amplify the most extreme positions that the vice-premier cannot afford. For Meloni an extra nuisance, a buzz on the right at the moment with no consequences.