The Tuscany Region on the center-left was a foregone conclusion. Less the hit of the League: the Northern League stops at 4.3%, compared to 21.8% five years ago. The allies smile: Fdi 26%, Forza Italia 6.1%, Noi Moderati 1.1%, the civic of candidate Alessandro Tomasi at 2.3%. The joy for the 9.3% obtained in Calabria has already evaporated.

Who was in Tuscany leading the electoral campaign? He, the general, resident in Viareggio. Having put Susanna Ceccardi and Claudio Borghi aside for a moment, until yesterday the greatest Tuscan exponents, the line to Matteo Salvini’s movement was given by Roberto Vannacci, already designated as the scapegoat for the failure.

A meme campaign

His campaign was all a mockery, a meme, one joke after another: from the “sinister-faced” fish to the invitation to his political opponents to go to “Piazza della Passera”. He also removed from the lists those who were already there to make room for “his”. The general, then, with the ballots stripped, even managed to get ridiculed by Elly Schlein (“if this is the Vannacci effect, let it continue”). And even within his party, discontent and intolerance for his trivial outbursts is rising.

Vannacci, on the other hand, has no support on which to count: deputies and mayors do not support him. For this reason it tries to build them in a parallel structure, the political associations built here and there in the territory, with mixed results.

He couldn’t have any friends among the managers. In a party that strongly believes in militancy, the latest arrival has surpassed everyone, arriving at the nomination of deputy federal secretary, position number 2, overtaking personalities who have been members for thirty years. The general remains an extraterrestrial in the League which continues through provocations, which are increasingly poorly tolerated.

Zaia also becomes a case

Agreed, Tuscany was a (former) red region that has always rewarded the center-left. But more clarity would be needed within the League on hierarchies and the political agenda, because the risk of slipping into the role of third leg of the center-right table is increasingly palpable.

Now the Zaia case has also exploded: the leap from “authoritative figure of reference” to “trouble to manage” was very rapid. Luca Zaia has always preferred his Veneto to government positions. In a few months Cortina d’Ampezzo (with Milan) will host the Olympics, on which it has been working for a decade. The allies have played a dirty trick on the “doge”: no fourth re-election (it would be obvious) as governor, nor a list in his name. Not even the surname on the Northern League symbol. Nothing at all. He has prepared the Olympics, but he won’t play them. The tug of war between Lega and Fdi for the presidency (voting at the end of November) has led to the candidacy of 32-year-old Northern League member Alberto Stefani, a rising star.

Disputed Lombardy

The promotion of the young rampant Stefani in Veneto costs dearly to the Carroccio. The vote will take place in two years, in 2027, but the Brothers of Italy are already making things clear now: they demand the leadership of Lombardy. On the other hand, the most important region has long been led by Forza Italia (Roberto Formigoni), then by the Northern League (Roberto Maroni and Attilio Fontana) and now it would be the turn of the first party in the coalition, that of Meloni. The group leader in the Senate, Massimiliano Romeo, insists and promises to sacrifice himself for the cause: Lombardy to Fdi, never. But the feeling is that the birthplace of the movement was sacrificed to save Veneto.

The exes with the poisonous tooth

In mid-November, the congress of “Patto per il Nord”, the movement of former Northern League members, disappointed by the transformation of the party into a national force, will also be held in Treviglio (Bergamo). Founded by former minister Roberto Castelli and Paolo Grimoldi, it is a thorn in the side, more for the vitriolic declarations to the newspapers than for the consensus it has gathered. “Pact for the North” tends to remind voters of the “betrayed origins” of the creature founded by Umberto Bossi, with Minister Salvini now a great and proud sponsor of the bridge over the Strait.

The League is stuck in a dead end

The feeling is that the League resists in its historical strongholds, but little else. The ideals no longer exist, the party moves forward by inertia, thanks to the commitment of mayors, councilors, councilors and local secretaries: many of these are first-timers. It is difficult to convince a centre-right person to register and vote for the Northern League and not the Brothers of Italy. Salvini has exhausted his drive, he is left without ideas. Vannacci solved an electoral round for him, the one that matters least of all, the European elections, but it does not guarantee prospects, because it tends to push a movement that could have more political space and luck in the center into a dead end, on the right.