Salvini’s tweet and Meloni’s double work

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By now it happens to every prime minister on duty to deal with an emergency, with tragedies like the one of these days in Emilia-Romagna and now it’s up to Meloni to carry the pain for the dead and the bill of damages on his shoulders. The reflex of the premier was ready on both sides, both that of institutional collaboration with the Governor Pd Bonaccini and that of providing aid by already setting a Council of Ministers for Tuesday. And after all, Pd leader Schlein also summoned – today, May 18 – the party secretariat to figure out how to support relief efforts. In short, a machine has been set in motion, regardless of political affiliations, with the exception of a stumbling block by the secretary of the League. What happened?

That on the evening of 16 May after Milan’s defeat against Inter, the deputy premier and minister of infrastructures, but also a Milan fan, in a tweet associated the two disasters, the football one and that of the areas affected by the flood. «Heart and commitment dedicated to the citizens of Emilia-Romagna who struggle with water and mud. A Milan without heart, grit and ideas doesn’t even deserve a thought»: this was the text of the tweet which, however, was removed from social networks shortly after. Presumably someone pointed out that the dimension of the two events was strongly unbalanced and therefore it was preferred to delete the comment of which – unfortunately for Salvini – a trace has remained. And the outstretched hand of those who wanted to help him yesterday almost made the situation worse, as happened to the Northern League leader in the Senate Romeo who on Rai Radio1 – “Un Giorno da Pecora” – found an ineffective justification: «The Euroderby are bloody and they are tough, it is clear that then emotions are mixed, it can be there ». Can it stay there? Really?

Those around Palazzo Chigi might not agree. If there is effort to maintain a high level in dealing with issues, even more so when they are tragic, and particular care is taken in managing them also from the point of view of communication, it is clear that these incidents ruin everything a bit. Also because they seem to agree with those who describe the prime minister alone, that is, surrounded by people and characters who, instead of helping her, hinder her. It is useless to redo the list of stumbling blocks, from Del Mastro and Donzelli, to the minister Lollobrigida or Valditara. And then there is Salvini. Also on the Rai affair, he had written a tweet – “belli ciao” – after Fabio Fazio’s farewell to Rai3, putting everything more on the level of a showdown. So then Palazzo Chigi has a double job, that of sewing a communicative canvas and then sewing it up again.