Matteo Salvini has opened a new front: a group of former parliamentarians and provincial secretaries want control of the former Northern League and have therefore created the Committee for the Convening of the Federal Congress, as previously reported by Sky Tg24 and then Corriere della Sera.
Among the initiative's promoters is Gianluca Pini, a former parliamentarian who left the Northern League but still serves on the federal council of the Northern League, a structure that remained in existence after 2017 as a sort of bad company, to pay the €49 million it owes to the state. The congress's goal is to "snatch" the Northern League from the control of its current commissioner, Igor Iezzi, a staunch supporter of Salvini.
"Our committee was created to secure the convening of the Lega Nord's federal congress, to unblock the symbol and thaw out the old party," explained former Lega parliamentarian Gianluca Pini.
"We started collecting signatures three days ago, and we're already up to a hundred, all ordinary activists from all over the North," he added. "It's not a nostalgic operation, but they've trampled on the rules and the statute of the Northern League. If they don't convene the congress, there will be legal action."
Sources within the League and Salvini's entourage, however, expressed a "surprise." "Those who nearly killed the League are now back, looking for a seat. Are those who pleaded guilty to corruption also willing to fully shoulder the €49 million in debt that the League inherited for Salvini as Prime Minister and is still paying?" the secretary's loyalists wonder. They added: "The North is demanding solutions, answers, and concrete action, which the government is providing, thanks in part to the push of the League and its five Lombard ministers. There is a League that works, with over 500 mayors, governors, thousands of local administrators across Italy, tens of thousands of members, elected officials, and activists. And then there are those who spend their time arguing and filing appeals, thinking more of their own interests than those of the local area," they point out from Matteo Salvini's party.
(Unioneonline)