The League, Salvini and Sardone received the most votes at the polling stations for the mayoral candidate in Milan. He expressed his thanks: “I’ll stay on as a minister.”

Matteo Salvini and Silvia Sardone received the most votes at the polling stations set up over the weekend by the Lega (with around 10,000 participants) to select the mayoral candidate for Milan, with the election scheduled for spring 2027. This was announced by Samuele Piscina, provincial secretary of the Lega and a Milan city councillor, who listed his own name alongside those of ‘Morelli, Verri, Spada, Del Debbio, Albertini, Parodi and Borghi’ among the other names voted for. “This shortlist of names, provided the individual candidates accept, will be rightly and proudly put forward to the centre-right coalition,” explained Piscina, “for the final, joint selection of Milan’s future mayor.” In detail, “Salvini came first with more than 5,000 votes, Sardone second with around 4,600 votes, and together they accounted for over 90 per cent of the votes. Next came Morelli with 90 votes, followed by all the others in descending order,” explained Piscina.

Salvini, as expected and as he had already hinted at on Saturday (“I’m serving as a minister; there’ll be time for Milan later”), expressed his thanks and took a step back. “Having more than 5,000 people who wrote ‘Salvini’ is a source of pride,” but “I am serving as a minister and I intend to continue doing so,” emphasised the League leader on the sidelines of a site visit to the Montello Barracks construction site in Milan, speaking about the results from the polling booths.

Meanwhile, the party’s deputy secretary, Silvia Sardone, has agreed to stand as a candidate (she works alongside the governor of Veneto Alberto Stefani and Senator Claudio Durigon, representative for central and southern Italy), who had already received a sort of endorsement from Salvini (“a mayor I’d like to see is called Sardone; she knows and loves Milan”). Sardone, however, is aware that the final decision on the candidate rests with the coalition. And it is no coincidence that he states: ‘I hope that the entire centre-right decides to hold coalition primaries; if that were the case, I would stand in the coalition primaries. I also know, however, that if the other parties decide not to hold primaries and instead impose candidates from above, at that point the ball is in the party secretariats’ court – it’s a different game. It’s not up to me; let’s put it that way.”

And Sardone, an MEP and city councillor, is a figure who does not meet with the approval of the other centre-right parties. Back when things were still calm, Forza Italia’s coordinator Alessandro Sorte had dismissed the matter with a quip: ‘It’s not the “Sardonisation” of the centre-right that will win us Milan.’ Forza Italia has begun considering the candidacy of the economist Carlo Cottarelli, backed by Carlo Calenda. In fact, Antonio Tajani’s party has long maintained that, to win in ‘progressive’ Milan, it is necessary to field a ‘civic’ candidate, broadening the coalition to include Azione. So much so that the possibility of running alone, as in Vigevano, has been raised. And even Fratelli d’Italia, which is pushing for the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi,, has repeatedly emphasised that Milan requires a more moderate, less strident tone than that of Sardone, who has made the fight against the danger of the Islamisation of Italian society his flagship issue.

In any case, whilst Salvini is prepared to mediate on the names, he has no doubts about the timing. We must act quickly. When asked about the possibility of the centre-right fielding Lupi as a candidate, the Carroccio secretary replies that Maurizio Lupi’s name ‘did not come up’ in the Lega’s primaries. ‘But perhaps others will hold primaries and his name will come up in theirs.’ No pre-conceptions, then; ‘it’s a name worth discussing’. And further, as proof of his ‘flexibility’: ‘We’re offering around fifty candidates. I’m happy with a politician or a civic candidate, whether from the Lega or not. After 15 years of left-wing rule in Milan, I’d like to look ahead’. The important thing, however, is that the centre-right chooses ‘quickly, even before the summer. Not like last time, both in Milan and Rome. Because if you choose at the last minute, you’ll struggle’. A point reiterated by Sardone herself when she says: “With these primaries, the League wanted to shake up the centre-right, because to win, we must choose the candidate today.”