Alfredo Mantovano is taking up more and more space. And it bothers Salvini

“He is too conditioned by the Church”, said the deputy prime minister Matthew Salvini about Alfredo Mantovano. And this can be a problem for internal government dynamics. Mantovano, undersecretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers, is gaining more and more space in the decision-making network of the government, above all because the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni trusts him, listens to him, has expressed him when speaking of the Cutro massacre: “I think what Mantovano said”. The undersecretary says little, but he did so in relation to the shipwreck and, above all, he received the go-ahead from Palazzo Chigi to manage the situation that was getting out of hand for Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.

It is not the only case in which Mantovano has taken action. It also happened with the replacement of Roberto Baldoni, removed from the leadership of the National Cybersecurity Agency, without too many consultations with the other ministers. And Baldoni’s role is of primary importance in a historic moment like this, above all if we take into account the importance that the area of ​​cybersecurity is assuming with the war in Ukraine and the latest cyberattacks. In place of him came Bruno Frattasichosen without the sharing of a part of the majority.

Giorgia Meloni is leaving the field in Mantovano, on the strength of the excellent relationship that the undersecretary has with the Quirinale – the magistrate is an old friend of the President of the Republic – and the Vatican. And this last connection with the Church and the listening that Mantovano has from beyond the Tiber is what annoys Salvini not a little, who over and over again has tried to get listening and support from the Vatican.

Today will be important to understand the line that Meloni will want to give to the executive. In fact, it sees two related and in some ways opposing political events coincide on the migration issue: the CDM of Cutro, which wants to give a signal of closeness after the shipwreck, and the discussion in the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Chamber on the changes to the text on immigration. Modifications that push in a restrictive and security sense, in fact trying to reintroduce the Security decrees (which, however, should bump into the Fratelli d’Italia wall about it). The Melonian line of the decree that will be brought to the Council of Ministers today – the draft confirms it – agrees with that of the CEI and consists in giving more severe penalties to smugglers and opening up to a new flow decree.