Vaccines, Europe, Autonomy: Tension rises in the majority - Vaccines, the League's proposal towards inadmissibility

First there were the tensions over Autonomy, then Salvini's movements in Europe, which are in fact taking away Giorgia Meloni's leadership of the right-wing in the continent. Last there was the proposal by the Lega Nord Claudio Borghi to eliminate the obligation for some vaccines. In the majority, having closed the game of the European and administrative elections in June, the tension seems to be rising mainly because of the moves of Matteo Salvini's party, intent on regaining visibility and votes, even if this causes increasing tensions in the majority, both with Fdi and Fi.

An amendment, signed by the Lega Nord member Claudio Borghi and proposed to the waiting list decree under consideration by the Senate, calls for the cancellation of compulsory vaccination for minors up to the age of 16 and unaccompanied foreign minors. In particular, that vaccines against measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox should no longer be compulsory, but only 'recommended', unlike the current law of 2017, approved by the centre-left. Another demand is to allow children who have not been vaccinated for those diseases to be enrolled in kindergartens (including private non-parity schools).

Although presented as an initiative 'in a personal capacity' by Borghi, it was Salvini who had first proposed and promised it in 2018. For the time being, Fratelli d'Italia has chosen silence: 'This is an argument that you have to ask, at the very least, to the Minister of Health (who is a technician and not a politician, ed.),' the minister and Fratelli d'Italia exponent, Francesco Lollobrigida, confined himself to saying. While Fi and the centrists of the coalition distanced themselves: 'Let us not give in to no-vax suggestions,' said the president of Forza Italia senators, Maurizio Gasparri. The amendment should however be declared inadmissible due to extraneousness of subject matter: the decision will be taken on Tuesday in the Health Commission.

But if the exit on vaccines will probably have little practical impact, the same does not apply to Salvini's moves in the EU. What will shake things up is the birth of the Patriots group promoted by the Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party. Among others, the Spaniards of Vox will join the movement, leaving the European Conservatives and Reformists group of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Matteo Salvini's Lega and Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement national could also join the Patriots, as well as the Dutch (now governing) right wing of Geert Wilders. All three of these parties were part of the European Identity and Democracy group (from which the Germans of Afd were expelled for ambiguous statements on the SS and relations with Russia), which at this point could disband.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Fratelli d'Italia have the de facto leading role within their historic European group, the European Conservatives and Reformists. But with the exit of Vox and the purchase campaign of the Patriots group, the Conservatives and Reformists could fall from the rung of third largest group in Strasbourg after the EPP and the ESP: they could not only be overtaken by the new Patriots group, but also by the liberal democrats of Renew Europe. On the one hand, the exit of the right-wing Vox (invisible to the Socialists) makes the negotiations with Ursula von der Leyen for the new EU Commission less complicated, but at the same time a group with fewer MEPs certainly has less bargaining power.