Lega: primaries for the mayoral candidate in Milan get underway. The steering committee, comprising Zaia and Fedriga, is up and running

Salvini is stepping up the pace and seeking a truce. Whilst the party is rocked by internal tensions and, for the first time, has been overtaken in the polls by General Vannacci’s party, he has opted for the immediate launch of the steering committee announced in recent days. Redefined as a ‘coordination committee’ for the regions (comprising 19 people, including, alongside Salvini himself, the ministers Calderoli and Giorgetti, the former Doge Luca Zaia, the governors Fedriga, Fontana, Stefani and Fugatti, as well as the mayors of the provincial capitals led by the League – the sole woman being Roberta Cuneo, president of the Province of Rieti) – the new body will meet for the first time on Monday afternoon. Its task will be to ‘address the main issues of national interest that directly affect the regions’, according to the official statement from Via Bellerio.

Among the first items on the agenda is the housing plan. But also urban security, the cost of living, cutting red tape and simplifications to support businesses, as well as “the reform process towards regional autonomy and federalism’ and ‘the review of European constraints affecting regional competitiveness, starting with the Cohesion Fund, the Common Agricultural Policy and the effects of the Green Deal’. A solution designed not to upset anyone, involving representatives from north to south, from Treviso to Sicily.

The coordination committee is an attempt by Salvini to reach a compromise with the ‘northern’ wing, following the decision to shelve the party’s federalist reform (involving a splinter group with extensive autonomy, modelled on the Bavarian CSU-CDU arrangement) championed primarily by Zaia to better represent the concerns of the North. A model that Salvini considers too one-sided, as he fears the region could be placed under direct administration. However, the committee is viewed with scepticism by those who have had dealings with Zaia himself, although he has decided not to back down. And the widespread feeling within the northern wing (as they await the ‘retreat’ on 4–5 July in the Treviso area) is that this cannot be the means to bring about the change of direction the party needs to return to being the ‘trade union of the territory’, protecting the self-employed and SMEs.

Meanwhile, as the Lega prepares for its primary elections in Milan – with 36 polling stations where party members will be able to put forward a name for the mayoral candidate this weekend – yesterday the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi met with the Head of State Sergio Mattarella. The Quirinale announced the meeting without providing any details. Government sources indicate that the minister outlined what has been achieved and what remains to be done until the end of the parliamentary term. It is clear that the visit to the Quirinale strengthens Piantedosi’s position, following the Lega’s Federal Council’s call in recent weeks for Salvini to return to the Ministry of the Interior.

As for the primaries in Milan, the Carroccio leader is the frontrunner. However, the secretary’s loyalists rule out any links with internal Lega matters, denying an ‘exit strategy’ along the lines of the one adopted by Roberto Maroni when he stepped down as secretary and went on to become governor of Lombardy. “The primaries will produce a shortlist of names that we will take to the centre-right negotiating table for a joint candidacy. We need to start the election campaign in mid-September,” explains Igor Iezzi, group leader on the Constitutional Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies and one of the advocates of a vote for Salvini, who adds: “We can wrest Milan from the centre-left, but there is no time to lose.”