Double black smoke yesterday in the House and Senate for the election of the presidents of the two branches of Parliament but Friday 23rd could go down in history as that of the center-right's grave. Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini, who is ready to vote for a representative of the Five Stars for the presidency of the Chamber, are in rags. And the next few hours can be decisive.
The casus belli, which had been brewing for days, was the tearing away of the League with the decision to vote for the prozist Anna Maria Bernini for the presidency of the Senate, thus disavowing the line of Berlusconi, who insists on the candidacy of Paolo Romani, and instead supporting Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the Five Stars who are willing to vote for a forced man in Palazza Madama but not for Romani because he was convicted of embezzlement in the first instance.
After the vote of the Northern League, Bernini withdrew saying that she could not accept an election at Palazzo Madama without the votes of Forza Italia, but Berlusconi became enraged against Salvini and declared that "the alliance with the League is over: our candidate for the Senate remains Romani”. Then Berlusconi increased the dose by calling Salvini "a traitor" and anticipating that Forza Italia "passes over to the opposition" of the future M5S-League government that is taking shape.
During the night the pontieri of both sides got back to work to mend the center-right alliance but, in the current state and barring surprises in the voting which resumes today, a compromise seems very difficult, the reckoning is near and anything can happen, with effects not only on the presidencies of the two chambers but also on the future government.
What is certain is that yesterday's outcome after the split of the League in the center-right, suggests an increasingly close agreement between Salvini and Di Maio which could bring a grillino to the helm of the Chamber for the first time (in pole position there is Riccardo Fraccaro) but above all paving the way, Quirinale permitting, for a neo-populist M5S-Lega government. Unless the Pd enters the field to upset the cards and could act as the needle of the balance even if it still appears stunned by the electoral blow and the useless post-voting divisions.
On paper, Lega and Cinque Stelle have the numbers (170 senators in all, of which 58 from Lega and 112 from M5S) to read for themselves the new president of Palazzo Madama and, if this is really the case, the race for the government of the two populisms it will become unstoppable. Unless new surprises.
