Salvini “ribbon cutter”. The minister out of the room two days out of three

ROME – The Senator? He’s out of the room. Taken by electoral commitments, responsibilities as party leader and the need to spread propaganda, the Minister for Infrastructures (and Deputy Prime Minister) Matthew Salvini he did not frequent the ministry offices much. On the contrary. In the last ninety days, those that have passed since the beginning of the year, the head of the Carroccio has been away from Porta Pia 53 times for appointments of various kinds: above all conferences (he never misses one) and site inspections on construction sites. Not only of great works, but also of anonymous links in Val Camonica or roundabouts in the suburbs. Activities that earned him the title of “site manager” of the Meloni government, always ready to wear the yellow helmet. And that’s nothing new: in 2018, as soon as he took office at the Viminale, he spent two thirds of the summer between rallies and election parties. But then he was preparing the tear of the Papeete. This year there are the Regionals (first in Lombardy and Lazio, now in Friuli Venezia Giulia) to steal his time. Precisely in the hot phase of the Pnrr, which he sees the ministry he leads at the bottom of the spending ranking.

But he looks ahead and is, as always, a top. He makes inroads far from his institutional headquarters above all in Lombardy, where he spent almost a third of his days as minister. The period close to the race for the renewal of the Pirellone was the most intense: convinced of the electoral return of large (and small) public works, the secretary in rapid succession was in Travagliato, in the province of Brescia, wanted to ascertain the state progress of the Ospitaletto-Montichiari link, visited the construction sites of the bridges of Ostiglia and San Benedetto Po in the Piacenza area, reaffirmed in Vigevano its intention to continue the expressway to Malpensa and in Bergamo it made an inspection of the roundabout at the exit of the highway. But there was no lack of detours, always in favor of the camera, to the construction site of the Casalpusterlengo variant in the Lodi area, or to the Tremezzina variant on Lake Como.

And how could you not be present at the crucial inauguration of the elevated road on the A4 motorway in Cinisello Balsamo? Not exactly construction sites suitable for the Minister of Infrastructure. Then in February, between the imminence of the vote in Lombardy and also in Lazio, Salvini was not stopped for a moment and some days were really intense. On the first of the month, in the morning, he was in Milan at the Polytechnic to take stock of the Bovisa-Goccia project, then he flew to Velletri for an electoral event of the League and the day ended in Rome at the Temple of Hadrian for another meeting in view of the vote. What a stress to be a minister and, at the same time, the secretary of the League. From 3 to 10 February he was always in Milan apart from a trip to Rome to participate in the launch of the candidacy for governor of Francesco Rocca. The month ended with a video of him on the Öresund Bridge, “the great infrastructure that unites Sweden and Denmark”, to say that he will now build the Strait Bridge. Then he met the European transport ministers in Stockholm.

March was also a month full of commitments but outside the ministry, including meetings at the Luigi Einaudi Foundation in Rome, a trip to Casalecchio di Reno for the presentation of the Anas project for the railway and road junction and a stop at the Verona Fair. From 23 to 31 March he never stopped. And the hearings in the Open Arms trial, which sees him accused in Palermo, are also an occasion for political meetings: on March 23, the day before the trial, he was in Taormina. Then back to Milan at the Lega’s political training school. Last Wednesday he was in the capital: first at the Confapi conference, then at the forum for sustainable intermodality and then at the Federcasa conference.
And it ends up that in his office, in the ministry, Salvini is when he should be elsewhere: Prime Minister Meloni’s communications on the European Council are scheduled for March 21 in the Senate. But he, the former Captain, is busy in the premises of his dicastery in Porta Pia for a table on road safety. However, normality is that of the tour: yesterday, to reassure his constituents, he was back in the North for the inauguration of the Brenner Base Tunnel.

Today, however, he has a rally with the other center-right leaders in Udine on his agenda. But first an aperitif (at 3 pm!) in San Daniele del Friuli and a stop in a restaurant in Spilimbergo (at 4 pm). “Works” after hours, for the globetrotter minister.