The league splits in half. Salvini wins the congress of Varese and Pavia but loses Brescia, Lodi, Cremona

He is now a minority secretary. Matteo Salvini is secretary of half the League. Lombardy is no longer his. It has half. The provincial congresses of Varese, Pavia, Brescia, Lodi, Como, Cremona finished with 50/50. In Varese, the most important congress, and here where the League was founded, Andrea Cassani won by just 12 votes. He was the candidate supported by Salvini. The other was a sponsorless Spartacus, Giuseppe Longhin managed to get 217 votes. There were 13 void ballots. Three blanks.

In Brescia, a province which in the League economy is worth as much as three provinces, the candidate won Roberta Sisti. Bossi’s current is close to the Northern Committee, someone who put his face into it, his strength. He showed up on Saturday morning, at Giovenzano Castle, after weeks of hospitalization and spoke to the militants: “If you lose your identity, you die”. Sisti beat Alberto Bertagna. This League, the Enrico Toti League, also won Lodi.

Claudio Bariselli is another of the critics of the secretary’s line, one who publicly opposed the bridge over the Strait. Same thing in Cremona. The secretary is Simone Bossi, another Northern League supporter from the Northern Committee. Pavia goes to Jacopo Vignati, thanks to the support of the vice president of the Senate, Gianmarco Centinaio. It cannot therefore be said that he won Salvini’s candidate. It is more correct to write that he won the Hundred candidate. Laura Santin was instead reconfirmed in Como. She is the wife of Fabrizio Cecchetti, secretary of the Lombard League, one who in Lombardy worked against Attilio Fontana. Her message in her chat in which she tried to hinder Fontana’s race is famous.

In Rovigo, in Veneto, at the first provincial congress, Guglielmo Ferrarese won. He is close to the councilor Cristiano Corazzari. It is the Zaia line

Salvini obviously rejoiced over the result in Varese. It’s true, the Lega supporter won in Giancarlo Giorgetti’s city, choosing a “house on the hill” on the most beautiful Sunday. He preferred not to participate in the most formidable “resistance” ever. A resistance of those who had nothing but a membership card. He preferred to stay away. He didn’t show up. Everyone was waiting for him. Many would have liked to find the courage he lacked, they would have found it in him. But he wasn’t there. He hid like Cesare Pavese’s characters. He will certainly reach great goals but he will arrive there as Corrado, the hero of the most melancholic writer of our literature. He was always looking for the furthest hill to escape history which is made up of conflicts.

The others fought in his place. He saved himself and wrote, philosophized. When he gathered courage there was nothing left to fight for. There was nothing left. Salvini is not unbeatable, he is just a man, and he must be acknowledged that he has more courage than many other Northern League supporters. He was also ready to show up in Varese. A few weeks ago he lost in Bergamo, today Brescia, Lodi, Cremona and in Varese, even if won, he has exactly half. On Facebook, the former secretary of the Lombard League, Paolo Grimodli commented on the results: “If I think that until recently the whole League in Lombardy was a Prussian barracks, someone should say mea culpa. We proved it today. Let hope flare up.”

One day, if it comes, the names of these anonymous and otherwise secretaries, Fabrizio Sala (in Bergamo), Roberta Sisti (Brescia), Claudio Bariselli (in Lodi), Giuseppe Longhin (in Varese) will deserve applause. They raised their heads. They did not take refuge in the hills.

• 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.