The silence of Lega and PSD'az in response to Paolo Truzzu gives a sense of the situation. The mayor of Cagliari, chosen by FdI as a candidate for the leadership of Sardinia, has called for the centre-right to be united and stand with him. He addressed all the parties that support Giorgia Meloni's government, but in reality he was speaking above all to the unics who still do not agree - Lega and Psd'az - who instead want the confirmation of the outgoing governor, Christian Solinas.
It seemed that this weekend could be the one of the shock, of the end of the impasse.
Everyone expected Solinas to step back. That didn't happen. And in the meantime, Truzzu has made his first official appearance as a candidate for president of Sardinia. And he didn't beat around the bush: "Your place is here," he said, addressing the League and the Sardinian Action Party, "there is no other place where you could feel better, stay by our side." But on the other side not a hiss, nothing. Certainly, FdI does not intend to take a step back on Truzzu's name. Now Meloni's party is waiting for Matteo Salvini's moves. The belief is that the leader of the League has no intention of breaking the coalition. "But he has put himself in a corner," commented an FdI representative, "we have to see how and if he will be able to get out of it." In the event that the League renounces Solinas, it will then be necessary to understand what role will be reserved for the outgoing governor. The coming week will be decisive. The tangle will have to be unraveled within the next few days. There is time. And in politics, when things get tangled, the solution always comes at the last moment. There are no summits between the center-right leaders on the agenda, but on Monday Salvini will meet the Federal Council of the League in Milan, also to discuss the upcoming elections.
The match does not have Sardinia as its only playing field. The negotiation on the island also intertwines other issues. Such as the two-term limit, which prevents governors from running for a third term. The League would like to abolish it and has also presented a bill, with the main objective of allowing Luca Zaia to be confirmed in Veneto in the 2025 regional elections. But the allies are putting on the brakes. FdI claims the seat and, above all, does not seem willing to mix the issue of mandates with regional elections. Forza Italia is openly opposed: "In the government program there is no issue of the second, third, fourth term - says the deputy prime minister and secretary of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani - Parliament is sovereign, but I am not enthusiastic about the idea of changing the law to allow the third term". The reform would allow the re-nomination of presidents in eight regions to vote from 2025 onwards: Campania, Puglia, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto. And it would also open a front of confrontation in the center-left, especially in the Democratic Party: the Dem governors are pushing to abolish the limit of the two principals, while the secretary Elly Schlein is in no hurry to change the rules.
Then there remains the issue of the balance between the center-right forces at the helm of the regions that go to the vote this year. FdI has two candidates: Truzzu in Sardinia and Marco Marsilio in Abruzzo.
The League aims for the confirmation of Donatella Tesei in Umbria. Forza Italia to that of the outgoing Alberto Cirio in Piedmont. Basilicata could enter the ongoing negotiations on Sardinia: because Forza Italia would like the coalition to still focus on Vito Bardi, but both in FdI and in the League there does not seem to be any intention to leave room for the Azzurri. And so, in the puzzle of the regions, Basilicata could become a terrain of great maneuvers between FdI and Lega. Meanwhile, Tajani reassures about the government's resilience: the negotiations on the regional elections have no effect on the majority that supports Meloni, "the coalition is very solid," says the deputy prime minister.
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