Salvini loses the Bergamo congress. A critical exponent wins with his line

Now we understand why he didn’t want to attend the Lega congresses, he loses them. The after Matteo Salvini begins in Bergamo. In the first provincial congress, the most eagerly awaited, the first real count among militants, Fabrizio Sala wins with 342 votes. He is mayor of Telgate, in his second term, but he is above all an exponent who adheres to the revenge launched by the Northern Committee, the current of Umberto Bossi (we wish him well on his recovery) current that had been warned by Salvini only a few weeks does. Fortino della Lega, a city that suffered from the failure to reconfirm its identity symbol, Daniele Belotti, the voice of Pontida (he had opened all the rallies for more than twenty years) in Bergamo not only Salvini loses. Salvini is not there.

He failed to express a secretary candidate in his area despite trying to the end. It is as if Stefano Bonaccini, candidate for the secretariat of the Democratic Party, were unable to find a candidate in Bologna. Sala’s challenger was in fact Mauro Brambilla, mayor of Fontanella. Brambilla is also a Northern League critical of party management, the choices of the secretary. There was a third challenger, it was not mentioned, a Northern League who was supposed to be Salvini’s candidate, but he was unable to gather the adhesions to present himself.

Salvini, two days ago, in Venice (by now cutting ribbons and doing Renzo Piano; he had gone to see the Mose in operation) declared that he can no longer deal with party quarrels. He has to build the bridge over the Strait with the Lego bricks that Giorgia Meloni gave him. After the election, the election of Sala, he took care to send his best wishes to the new secretary. And the new secretary, as a gentleman, did not make any controversy, but listen to what he said: “The primaries are needed to choose candidates”.

In the last political elections, the candidates were all chosen by Salvini making some concessions to the party bosses. An example, in the south, in Campania, is the candidate Pina Castiello, who compared to the other Northern League supporters has paid only 12,000 euros in the last year. Almost all MPs pay double. When Salvini pushed to appoint Castiello undersecretary for relations with Parliament, the ex ladies and gentlemen, who were excluded despite their promises, slammed the doors in irritation: “There is no meritocracy”. Lorenzo Viviani, a former deputy, one who deserved recovery, changed his life.

There are many former members of the Northern League who, mocked by Salvini (“no one will be left behind”), are abandoning active politics, militancy. Salvini also underestimates his youthful current. The secretary is Luca Toccalini, someone who is touring Italy. He visits sections, he doesn’t spare himself, but he finds them empty. There are fewer friends left in Emilia who play billiards on Saturday. Toccalini harshly criticized the current League on Thursday, again in Emilia. In Basilicata, two other regional councilors have left the League. They are Massimo Zullino and Giovanni Viziello. In Veneto with the truncate and sopire technique, the congresses are postponed with sweetness. The party is now Salvini’s tricycle who prefers to tweet with Elon Musk: “The door is always open for you”. In a little while they take away his house keys and he keeps making invitations.

• Carmelo Caruso

• Carmelo Caruso, journalist in Palermo, Milan, Rome. He started at La Repubblica, wrote for Panorama for eight years dealing with politics, news, culture. In 2018 in Il Giornale. Today in the editorial office of Il Foglio.