ANSA, 18 October: “La Lega has lost its soul.” Massimo Garavaglia, chair of the Senate Finance committee, a former minister. A week before the congress, he throws his challenge at Matteo Salvini. ANSA says: a duel with a known ending, to raise the hot topics. That is the paper’s frame. It is not a counted vote.

Corriere, 14 October: “There is a congress. I am in the League and I am standing.” Milan, 24–25 October. To stay on the list, 80 signatures from delegates, from four regions. A second candidate makes the ballot secret. Salvini, at the European Parliament: good that people stand, the members decide. The more, the better. It is not a surrender. It is a line from a leader who called the congress.

Garavaglia, ANSA and Il Sole 24 Ore, Omnibus on La7: he stood to unite, to bring instances that risk being left out. The League, he says, is not far right. Bossi made an open movement; what unites it is federalism. The young, their rights, listen more. Economy: liberals, between Borghi and Giorgetti, “tutta la vita Giorgetti”. First aim: talk to people again. He has met governors, MPs. A congress where you discuss calmly and go on together, hearing every bell, “is called politics.”

Igor Iezzi, a Salvini-area deputy, to ANSA: slogans. What does he want, in concrete, of the League. None of us thinks the League must be far right. But what does it mean not to be? That we cannot talk security? That we leave the Patriots and enter the EPP? We wait for him to say. That is the reply. It is not a trial.

The congress, ANSA says, will set the political secretariat and the new symbol. A restyling at the parliamentary tops, a rumour: Romeo for the senators, Molinari for the deputies. Nothing official. Garavaglia, to Sole: 58, a support to Salvini, instances from under the carpet. Corriere: Fontana, a friend. Maroni’s method, for Milan: speak little, listen a lot. The mayoral candidate, two souls of the city. A programme, not a list.

Palazzo Madama, 2021, is the Senate. Not the hall in Milan. Until 25 October, what remains is a line about a soul and 80 signatures. Who holds the League shows in secret, if the signatures arrive.

Image: Blackcat, Palazzo Madama, the Senate, 18 December 2021, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The Senate, not the Milan congress hall.

Sources consulted: ‘La Lega ha perso la sua anima’, Garavaglia sfida Salvini — ANSA; Lega, dal metodo Maroni per Milano all’economia liberale: così Garavaglia lancia l’Opa sul partito — Il Sole 24 Ore.