There is a whole common belief according to which the acquittal would have taken away the burden of victimhood from Matteo Salvini. Which, of course, in the eyes of a certain world could also work: the martyr of the defense of the borders, ready to sacrifice himself to the extreme. Yet, net of the story put forward to prepare for the worst outcome, the truth is quite different. The tension that disappeared from the face of the League leader after the sentence tells the story. Just like the chorus of jubilation at the end of a day spent in solitude. On the day of judgment there was neither the general staff of his party nor the crowd outside ready to mobilize at his side. Neither the comrades of that time, when he conducted his naval battle undisturbed from the Viminale, nor, with the exception of Giuseppe Valditara, those of today, who share his slogans and “bad activism” even if they do not apply the same methods. In the evening, however, there was an atmosphere of resurrection.
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Processes that are too slow, that's the real pain
Edmondo Bruti Liberati
December 21, 2024
Perhaps the word is “excessive”: a sentence is not enough to compensate for a worn-out relationship with the country. However, full acquittal – because the fact does not exist – provides Salvini with a non-trivial card. It is no longer sub judice either procedurally or politically. Of course, he is no longer so in his party, where rumors about the succession had already begun, perhaps not immediately but as a medium-term horizon. Because you cannot replace a “resurrected” secretary, even if the other political issues all remain there, unchanged. And it is certainly no longer sub judice in government. He would not have risked losing his role as deputy prime minister anyway but, in the event of conviction, he would have been, technically, a political prisoner of Giorgia Meloni, with little margin for action, sacrificed in the name of preserving his role. In short, it recovers spaces of autonomy. Even within a declining force and all the constraints of the majority, he will have a little freer hands for his Trumpian “right-wing” challenge, re-legitimized in his core business of migrants.
And yet there is something more to this story, such as consequences and implications: a negative outcome would have affected above all Salvini and his fate, the acquittal is greater than Salvini. The prime minister takes away the embarrassment of a convicted deputy and also of a chain effect on other possible convictions of government officials, who would have claimed the retention of their position by appealing to the “Salvini precedent”. More generally, however, the government as a whole is strengthened, as a posture on the robes and a “bad” narrative on migrants.
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The captain's terminus, the League looks to the aftermath
Marcello Sorgi
December 21, 2024
In a normal country, the judgesthey respect each other always and in any case, as well as their sentences. And after all, the acquittal itself demonstrates that “there is a judge in Palermo” and the separation of careers is not needed to break the alleged complicity between the investigating and judging judiciary. The sentence, as is evident, was not written beforehand by a politicized platoon, on the contrary it literally disavowed the accusation. So the system works. However, the immediate declarations smell of revanchism. It is already clear, in a climate of confusion between the prosecution and the judiciary as a whole, that the affair is seen as a setback to the judicial system, its prejudices, its paper castles of accusers. Failure which, in a moment of acute conflict between government and officials over Albania and separation of careers, will be seized as an opportunity. First Open, then Open Arms. In short: they are political trials, they are set up to hit the adversary, we will not let ourselves be tried and move forward with the reforms.
And here is the other part of the story, which concerns the nature of the process: a political process, not because it is based on a prejudice, but as an objective pronouncement on a policy. Matteo Salvini himself gives the clue to what will happen when he says that “an idea of the country has been fulfilled”. That is, that of the famous defense of the borders, always and in any case. Now that the propaganda of martyrdom has disappeared, there is already another propaganda in place: “it can be done”. It wouldn't be surprising if the leader of the League started playing the bass drum of closed ports again, also winking at a remake of the security decrees. The script is already written: Giorgia Meloni, despite not having followed that approach, will have a good hand, in order not to give the issue away to her ally-adversary, in being even more inflexible on Albania, not deflecting a millimeter on the controversy with the judges. Salvini's acquittal, in the story, absolves everyone's lack of grammar, in the name of the right of politics to pursue its objectives, always and in any case.
