Italy from Mattarella to Mattarella: Salvini’s wrecking balls and the clash of politics

EMANUELE LOMBARDINI

The presidential elections in Italy? We could define them as a great “Wacky races”, if any of you remember the famous cartoon: a strange race between cars driven by weird and unlikely drivers, with he who believes himself to be the smartest of all, Dick Dastardly who then ends up regularly shot dead.

This role, no doubt, is played by Lega leader Matteo Salvini. He played his cards with the sole objective of blowing up the bank to his advantage, trying at the same time to break the majority and take back the scepter of a center-right that has now got out of hand and the result is that he has lost on the whole line

The only difference with the famous cartoon series of Hanna and Barbera is that in this race there are no winners, but only a series of losers that, all together, have helped to destroy that minimum of international reputation that Draghi hadmanaged to rebuild during his year of premiership.

Indeed, it could be said that the very presence of Mario Draghi in the key role, prompted the current Italian political class to give up looking for a real alternative to the status quo, preferring to continue to remain anaesthetised and deprived of responsibility. The re-election of President Sergio Mattarella, the second time in absolute that a Head of State is reelected in Italy, but the first time that it is assumed that he will serve his full seven year term, is proof of the absolute nullity in terms of competence and capacity of the current political leadership – with few exceptions, all of them in secondary, back bench positions.

The leaders from whom no one ever wanted to hear

The reference is Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda. It is no coincidence that they lead two government forces uncomfortable for the “big parties” leaders. The senator of Florence, leader of Italia Viva, ALDE Party Member in the Bayroux PSE component, is one of the few who can smile: he said no to Berlusconi, he refused the presidency of the Senate that had been offered to him in exchange for the vote for the current president, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati and blew up (together with Forza Italia) the candidacy of Elisabetta Belloni, head of the Secret Services “because only in Stalinist Russia can the head of the secret services become Head of State“, building for himself the enviable win-win situation of having always supported the two candidates who reached the final rush, namely Senator Pierferdinando Casini and the current president Mattarella.

Carlo Calenda S&D MEP, joined Brussels with the Democratic Party and then founded Azione, a liberal-socialist inspired party which in Italy has just federated with the liberal-radicals of +Europa, which joined ALDE Party, within Renew Europe. Calenda has consistently supported, from the beginning, the candidacy of Marta Cartabia, Minister of Justice, whom nobody else supported within the majority, so as not to offend those within the Government who do not forgive her the cancellation of their key justice reform, with which they intended to introduce rigour in the system. Unfortunately, put together, Italia Viva, Azione and +Europa do not currently reach 7%, being bound to play only a side-role in the next elections.

Salvini “The Wrecker“

Provided that in Italy someone still bothers vote, who will want to vote for parties that stab each other in the back, within the same majority? The result of this farcical election is, in fact, the implosion of the Italian political system. Salvini, wanted to stop Giorgia Meloni’s takeover bid on the centre-right and, instead, managed to definitively split Lega: the ruling wing of the party, headed by the Minister for Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti and the Regions Governors of his party, already displeased with his constant shambolic games within the government, blame him for the defeat and no longer want him as a leader. Giorgetti voiced his discontent by announcing his resignation, and only his friend Mario Draghi convinced him to withdraw it.

Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) de facto, no longer exists. Salvini tried to break it by negotiating with the former premier Giuseppe Conte the candidacy of Elisabetta Belloni, and he succeeded: when Conte, together with Salvini announced her name, Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio, who inside the M5S controls the majority of the party, attacked him, because the negotiations took place without his knowledge and announced his dissent. Conte responded by launching a showdown for leadership against his great rival.

Forza Italia, the only liberal force within the majority, also met its Waterloo, because it’s the party of the Senate President Casellati, which convinced all the center-right to accept her self-candidacy for the presidency of the Republic. Eventually, not only her coalition failed to vote for her, but even many within her own party didn’t support her.

Democratic Party? Did not reported

As for the Democratic Party, it never managed to touch the ball, during the seven days the presidential match lasted. The main party of the centre-left was unable to even come up with an initial candidate, so as to start a negotiation. As it turned once the election concluded, that the PD had worked behind the scenes, from day one, for the re-election of Mattarella, thus confirming its weakness. They can claim that it was what they wanted all along, considering that Mattarella did come from the Democratic Party before his first term.

In the end, the only one who can smile is Giorgia Meloni, leader of Fratelli d’Italia, the only opposition force to the government, which is now likely to take over the entire right.

What will happen now? The Draghi-Mattarella axis is the glue that holds together a coalition of parties that, immediately after Mattarella’s re-election, will soon restart stabbing each other other again, considering that we will be voting again within a year’s time. It’s evident that, at the moment, none of the teams seem capable of winning alone. In Mario Draghi’s place, we wouldn’t be preparing any boxes yet.