The League raises the advertising ceiling to eliminate the RAI licence fee. And tension rises in the majority

It is a puzzle, with still several variables on the table. But the idea of speeding up, and quickly solving the knot of the replacement of Raffaele Fitto, who will move to Brussels from Sunday, is the one that is allegedly prevailing in the last hours at Palazzo Chigi. Maybe even without unpacking the delegations but entrusting the entire department to a new minister. Giorgia Meloni has already said goodbye in public, visibly moved, to one of the most trusted members of her team, whom she reluctantly indicated for Brussels precisely because she did not want to deprive herself of him in Rome. And in the long day in which, together with him, she puts a series of dossiers in order, inevitably the question of what comes next arises. With the only certainty being that he wanted to 'entrust them into very good hands', as he said at the Pnrr steering committee.

The last few days for the majority have not been the best. The tensions continue to hold sway, with the League insisting on RAI (it is ready to turn the proposal to increase the advertising ceilings for public TV into an amendment at the first opportunity) and Forza Italia rejoicing at the halt, the third, to the cybersecurity regulations.

The Azzurri raise 'to move forward on the tax reduction'. Fi's national spokesman Raffaele Nevi says that 'if the money from the concordat is small a small reduction will be made, if it is more it will be bigger'. Thus, when asked about the possible use of the resources from the concordat. Then he adds: 'The important thing is to reduce taxes to the middle class. But what if the resources were enough to reduce the Irpef rate by only one point? 'For us, anything that reduces taxes is fine' and we think it is 'right what Giorgetti says about the need to be prudent'. Finally, Nevi recalls, as Antonio Tajani has already said, that there are now also the 430 million that were not used to reduce the RAI licence fee: they could be used 'for Irpef or to increase minimum pensions'.

The Justice Decree passed through the Council of Ministers on Friday 29 November, but the cyber regulations, as well as the so-called 'gag order' on magistrates, were removed at the last minute from the text. Instead, a strengthening of the electronic bracelet and its controls enters. The meeting is the last for Fitto, whom his colleagues greet with applause. Matteo Salvini is not present, but because, his colleagues explain, he had to return to Milan due to a 'family health' problem, as confirmed by the deputy prime minister himself on the radio. There are no remedial summits as well, as many parties have vented after the blatant split on the RAI fee. There is not even a hint of the general strike of CGIL and UIL (while the condemnations on the Turin clashes are severe). The Council of Ministers goes quickly, just over a quarter of an hour, after which there are Fitto's other commitments to conclude. The resignation will come in the next few hours, in the meantime the right fit must be found to compensate for his departure. Meloni is said to have discussed the matter at length during her mid-week lunch with Sergio Mattarella, presenting him with various options, including keeping her portfolio intact. A conundrum for the premier since before the summer, when the candidature of the man who later became executive vice-president of the European Commission was still to be made official.

The very first hypothesis, that is, to keep the interim and take more time to settle the matter, would have lost share over time, and would now be at the back of the queue. Just as the desire not to unbundle would prevail, but only slightly, in the last few hours. Although the latter scenario remains quite strong. Cohesion and Pnrr in any case, they assure from the top levels of the government, would remain together, Meloni has made it a flag, waved also in Puglia where she signed, together with Fitto, the last cohesion agreement. The machine is so well-oiled by now, is the reasoning in the majority, that even a technician could be good enough to take it forward (and the name is mentioned, among others, of Fitto's current chief of staff, Ermenegilda Siniscalchi, or of the undersecretary to the presidency Alfredo Mantovano, whose presence in the Pnrr steering committee has not escaped even the technicians who always attend it).