The sherpa we meet has the hoarse voice of someone who has been doing a real oratory marathon in Strasbourg these last four days. “They didn’t understand the cunning of Giorgia Meloni’s move,” he tells us. And he sneers. We ask for clarification. He quotes a page of Roman football history: “Do you remember Bruno Conti’s feint? He pretended to look left, he shot right. And vice versa. If you want to understand what really happened in Europe, think of Conti.” We are perplexed. Then he explains better: “Do you know how many phone calls there have been between Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen? Lots, in the last week. Some days, just one. Others, two or three. And in your opinion, were they all interlocutory? No. How long does it take to say whether I vote for you or not? The truth is that Giorgia and Ursula agreed on everything. And then they did Conti’s feint.”
According to the senior official who prepared the dossiers for the Italian candidacies, who he continues to talk to us about in the plural, in the numerous and always friendly phone calls the traits of a “formal, but soft opposition” were agreed upon. Indispensable so that von der Leyen could convince, even through a speech unbalanced – at the last minute – to the left, a good part of the Greens to vote for her. “If Meloni had voted for her, she would have had to announce it. And this announcement would have caused an avalanche. It would have increased the snipers, already reluctant to support Ursula, and scared away the votes of the Greens, on whom she was counting”.
To have the support of 24 MEPs of Fratelli d’Italia, von der Leyen would have put at least 80 at risk: the Greens are 53, the anti-Melonians many more. It was a very risky game, with a negative sum. Therefore the two stateswomen would have reached an agreement: Fdi votes against and will declare it openly. “The opposition in the chamber and in the Commission – continues the reconstruction of the Italian sherpa – will not be intransigent but constructive, it will weave a dialogue even better than the one Ursula will have, precisely, with the Greens”. I look to the left but I kick the ball to the right, in short.
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2024-07-23 16:41:55
