Third term, what it is and why the majority is divided. Meloni meets Fedriga

Massimiliano Fedriga, President of Friuli Venezia Giulia and President of the Conference of Regions, has arrived at Palazzo Chigi to meet the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. It is an appointment announced by the governor himself in recent days, after the political crisis in his council, with the councillors of the Lega, Lista Fedriga and FI having resigned their delegations. The League - and in particular that of the northern governors - is not giving up on the third mandate. At the moment, the option of a no-confidence seems more remote, more likely a cabinet reshuffle to heal the crack. But on the horizon remains the more intricate knot of the ban on governors' mandates, which certainly does not go down well with Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region. But not even to

'I have said it several times, I am always in favour when the citizens choose, after that the limitation of mandates is given by the will of the people as far as I am concerned'. This was said by Massimiliano Fedriga, president of Friuli Venezia Giulia and of the Conference of Regions, as he left Palazzo Chigi after a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Returning to the Council of Ministers' decision to challenge the law of the Province of Trento, he said: 'It was a technical challenge. I think the special statute regions have exclusive competence and the Constitutional Court will now say whose competence it is to legislate,' Fedriga concluded. In the meantime, Maurizio Fugatti, the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, has issued a decree redistributing the competences among the councillors and removing the delegations to Francesca Gerosa of Fratelli d'Italia, who was his deputy and councillor.

The League has always been in favour of a third term of office, after all, both Massimiliano Fedriga and Maurizio Fugatti are members of the League. The issue would put the party, which has always claimed the leadership of the Friuli, Trentino, Veneto and Lombardy regions, in crisis. The government, however, does not seem willing to consider exceptions, already opposing the law passed in Campania on the same issue. The argument used to justify the choice of the president of Friuli lies in its special statute: the argument of those in favour is that the province can regulate this delicate issue in its own way, being an entity that is granted wide autonomy on many matters. But the real issue for the League, more than Friuli, is Veneto. Above all, because the territory will vote in the autumn, and in addition to the fate of the former president Luca Zaia, there is the (concrete) risk that there will not be another Lega player in the race, but rather an FdI candidate. With the effect, therefore, of losing the helm of the Venetian stronghold (and the consensus of Salvini's party), and mortgaging the leadership of Lombardy and Friuli, albeit in the more distant 2028. But in spite of the long lead time, it is the Lega Nord governor Attilio Fontana himself who admits: 'A third term in Lombardy is one of the hypotheses that I would certainly consider.

On the other hand, Matteo Salvini continues to downplay his judgement: 'If the centre-right gives us reason, I will be happy because we will have to make sure that it is the citizens who choose,' he confines himself to saying in Foggia, on one of the stages of his engagements as Minister of Infrastructure. It is no coincidence that, pressed by journalists, he adds: 'My days are full of other things'. Words from which emerges the balancing act in relations with the allies. Aware that it is difficult to wrest something from them, after the government has challenged the Trento law on the third term (with the League voting against). The allies - as explained above - are much less sensitive to the issue than the League, which is in danger of losing. The most definitive appears to be Forza Italia: it is a closed discussion, says Azzurro spokesman Raffaele Nevi between the lines. "There are no changes as far as we are concerned," convinced that the two-term limit "for all regions, even those with special statutes" is needed. The 'forzista' thus responds, indirectly, to the pushback attempted by Fratelli d'Italia (while waiting for the Constitutional Court's decision, which one can imagine will arrive no earlier than September and perhaps even later) and to the more explicit opening made by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. He confirmed that 'it is a legitimate discussion that will be settled in the political arena' and recalled that there was 'the broad willingness of everyone to separate the technical-legal issue' from a broader and more political reflection. The president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, agrees: 'I am not against it absolutely and even in this specific case, I think a reflection is only positive,' is the measured comment.