Salvini, lights and shadows for Meloni: Santanchè is back in the balance, but no clash with Colle

Giorgia Meloni had prepared herself for both scenarios. And in the event of Matteo Salvini's conviction, he had hoped for reactions from his ally against the judiciary that would not send the end-of-year message of the President of the Republic, head of the CSM, astray. In the end the leader of the League was acquitted and from Finland – in a small village above the Arctic Circle – the prime minister breathed a sigh of relief in this sense. Meloni welcomed – “with great satisfaction” – this news while having dinner with his counterparts from Sweden, Greece and Finland. Not even on purpose, the summit in Lapland is precisely about security and migrants. Meloni among reindeer and sleighs – accompanied by her daughter Ginevra – therefore finds a nice gift from Santa Claus. But, if desired, Salvini's acquittal also brings you some coal.

The automatism that saved Daniela Santanchè from resigning as well as Andrea Delmastro in the event of conviction is no longer valid. An adverse sentence for the Northern League leader would have sealed the political destinies of the Minister of Tourism and the Undersecretary of Justice. Given that Salvini had announced from the first moment that he would never, ever give up when faced with a conviction. Now, even if they are different cases, everything becomes precarious again. With Santanchè, as we know, the agreement is that in the face of an indictment for fraud against the INPS in the use of the Covid fund, a step back will be obligatory. Ditto with Delmastro: he was sent to trial for revealing official secrecy regarding the prison visits of PD parliamentarians to the anarchist Alfredo Cospito. They are two exponents of the Brothers of Italy over whom Meloni has the power of life and death (politics). This is a side effect of Palermo's decision last night which in a certain way takes away a huge stage from Salvini and also the possibility of relaunching himself within his party. His leadership becomes contestable again. And now he will have to find new battle words to try to gnaw away consensus in the center-right and above all in Fratelli d'Italia. Furthermore, with the acquittal, the law for the separation of careers must be speeded up even more and does not alter an already very heated debate with that part of the judiciary against it (yesterday it however stigmatized the “unfounded and surreal” accusations of the Sicilian prosecutors).

Surrounded by the white of Lapland, Meloni puts on the table the pros and cons of this sentence awaited in Rome, in Parliament, with a certain anxiety. Since the Chamber was struggling with the maneuver. And there was no shortage of short circuits. Like the agenda, then withdrawn, presented by the League regarding the “anti-Renzi” law. The agenda asked to adopt “regulatory initiatives aimed at excluding from the ban professional activities regulated by registers established by law, limited to the compensation deriving exclusively from the exercise of such activities”. For FdI, a move inspired by the senator and queen of the Forum Giulia Bongiorno, Salvini's lawyer and more. Then the stop came from Palazzo Chigi. The button appears to have been pushed by Undersecretary Giovanbattista Fazzolari.

• Simone Canettieri

• Viterbese, 1982. At the Foglio since September 2020 as report manager. Eight years at the Messaggero (in news and politics). Before that in Emilia Romagna as a correspondent (between the birth of the M5s and the earthquake), in Florence as editor of the Nuovo Corriere (dealing every morning with crime and judicial news). He started in Viterbo at 19 with skating and minor football, then at 26 he got his first job. He has written for Oggi, Linkiesta, travel and gastronomy inserts. He collaborated with RadioRai, but also with local television and radio stations that never paid. Agnes Award 2020 for printed media in Italy. He also won the 2023 Guidarello award for author journalism.