From Milano Marittima, not far from that Papeete which, according to certain media narratives, should have marked the end of his leadership seven years ago, Matteo Salvini relaunches on all fronts. Welcomed by the embrace of the young League members, gathered by the youth leader, the thirty-year-old deputy Luca Toccalini, for the three-day event “Nexus, the generation that does not give up,” Salvini once again reminds that he will be secretary for another three years, according to the mandate of the congress where he was elected by acclamation last year.
After no one had run to challenge him. Salvini states that in the general elections in a year the center-right will win again with a League over 10 percent. Interviewed by Giuseppe Cruciani, host of the radio program “La Zanzara,” he replies that he would certainly like to return to the Interior Ministry in a new center-right government. Then, he attacks Roberto Vannacci: “A human disappointment” even before a political one. Someone not to be “fooled” by anymore and with whom, at least for now, Salvini says there should be no alliance. “I bear no grudge – emphasizes the League leader, deputy prime minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport – there is more of a human disappointment than a political one that lasts a few hours and then you look ahead.” He continues: “Certainly, since we opened the doors of our home to him, to take it all back within a few weeks – by a man in uniform who should have been raised respecting his word – was a disappointment.”
Salvini, recalling that Vannacci’s supporters also voted no confidence in the government on the Housing Plan like the left, effectively puts Vannacci on the same level as the opponents: “I follow him with due attention and due respect. Just as I follow Schlein, Conte…” He concludes with cold irony: “We haven’t spoken on the phone anymore: you fool me once, not twice.”
As for a certain language of the general of Futuro Nazionale, he dismisses as “nostalgic” the definition “comrades,” a word very far from the future discussed by the young League members at the Nexus three-day event. Here, he clarifies, “there are friends, brothers, compatriots, autonomists. The word comrades is part of a historical past to be studied” and nothing more. Regarding the vote, Salvini explains, “we will arrive with this government alliance”: “With Vannacci, evidently not today. If he considers us failures now, I don’t think he will change his mind in a year.” When, the Carroccio leader assures, “Italians will reward concreteness. While others chat everywhere about immigration and security, we risked six years in jail for having stopped boats and dinghies: that’s the difference between those who talk and those who act.”
But Salvini becomes energetic also looking inside his party ahead of the general election appointment. Which in a year “will find us here celebrating the center-right’s victory with the League over 10% and with any electoral law.” He announces he will lead an electoral campaign that, however, he emphasizes, “will not be solitary.” He explains, urging his members called to team up: “Captains are needed, but troops are needed. Because captains, generals or colonels, without motivated, determined and proud troops, go nowhere.”
After the media buzz about the internal debate, about who we are and where we are going, Salvini directly calls on governors and former governors inviting them to get active and step up alongside him: “And so, from Zaia, to Fedriga, to mayors and governors, I expect them all, not behind, but beside me to win the electoral campaign.” And he recalls: “Last year the militants asked me to continue being secretary for four years. One has passed, there are three more.”
Grand finale with the new anthem of the Young League “Italy that Binds Us.” Here too, it is effectively reaffirmed that the League remains national.
