European League: Matteo Salvini’s switch to Team EU

ROME — Last spring, with Europe’s governments at a stalemate over measures to help the most pandemic-ravaged countries, Matteo Salvini denounced the European Union as “a den of snakes and jackals.”

Less than a year on, the leader of Italy’s right-wing League has promised the populist party’s support for a new government to be led by one of EU’s staunchest defenders, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

Draghi agreed to try to form a government of national unity to steer the country out of the pandemic, after the ruling center-left coalition collapsed.

Over the years, Salvini has sounded like a committed Euroskeptic, blasting EU fiscal rules, taking aim at Brussels, flirting with leaving the euro and railing against migrants. He fronted the League’s 2019 European election campaign with a slogan starting “Stop Bankers, Stop Bureaucrats. Stop Do-Gooders, Stop Boats.”

He once called Draghi “an accomplice” in the “massacre” of Italy’s economy, for having saved the euro.

But this week, in a glaring U-turn, Salvini affirmed his willingness to support Draghi and his plans for greater European integration.

“Right, left, Europhile or nationalist are just labels,” Salvini told Italian Radio24. “I am a very pragmatic person.”

In this case, Salvini’s pragmatism is directly linked to having a say in the spending of €209 billion in grants and loans Italy expects to receive from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

“I prefer to be in the room where we decide how the money is to be spent, well or badly,” Salvini said after consultations with Draghi last week.

League officials claim the party is acting in the national interest. Jacopo Morrone, a League MP, said Salvini had taken “a courageous important decision, made out of a sense of responsibility and concern for the country’s economic difficulties.”

But the League’s sudden conversion to a pro-EU path also appears to reflect a cold political calculation.

If Draghi fails to form a government, there is a strong chance a general election would bring Salvini’s right-wing alliance to power. But stranding Italy without an effective government in the meantime, as it emerges from a pandemic responsible for the highest annual death toll since World War II, would be unpopular with many voters.

Support for the League in polls increased slightly following the decision to join Draghi in government.

Salvini’s show of faith for Draghi seems to represent a long-term bet that the party will be better off by shifting from the nationalist Euroskeptic far right towards more moderate, center-right ground.

Salvini’s populist-anti-immigration message carried the party from a small separatist group to highs of 34 percent in the 2019 election. But, having forged associations with the likes of Donald Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, the party also suffers from a lack of trust among many voters.

When Draghi opened talks to establish a new government last week, Salvini initially hesitated. But moderates in his group, particularly deputy leader Giancarlo Giorgetti, saw an opportunity for the League to detoxify their image by governing with Draghi, creating a respectable identity, worthy of office.

Salvini also had to take into account the wishes of business leaders in the League’s northern power bases, who indicated the party should go into government and help distribute the recovery fund spoils.

Draghi effect

The appetite to return to power reflects Draghi’s revered status in Italy. After Draghi was asked to lead the government, the stock market shot up, and the cost of borrowing fell immediately.

A better qualified person to steer the country out of a crisis that saw the economy contract 9 percent last year would be hard for any party to present.

“Draghi is perceived as Italy’s strongest weapon, the Everest or K2 of competence, and to set themselves against that would be more damaging than looking inconsistent with voters,” said Pierluigi Testa of the Trinità dei Monti think tank.

League supporters have also justified the party’s shift by arguing that a figure with Draghi’s authority could be a boon for Italy’s position in Europe, giving the country more sway in EU decisions.

“As someone in favor of national sovereignty, as soon as I saw this possibility, I said: It is the best choice we can make in favor of national sovereignty,” said Claudio Borghi, an economic adviser to Salvini.

But that argument may be a tough sell to some of the League’s far-right voters.

Draghi has told parties that the number one item on his government’s program is greater European integration, towards centralized EU budgets and tax-raising powers — something that would entail giving up some national sovereignty.

For now, the League say they are satisfied by reassurances from Draghi that he won’t implement unpopular reforms recommended by Europe such as a property tax increase, and is aligned with some of their policies such as boosting infrastructure and simplifying tenders.

They are also arguing that it’s not the League that’s moved closer to the EU, but the other way round.

“To say the league is anti-Europe because we said that some rules that govern Europe were wrong is nonsense. It’s not us that changed — it is Europe that came closer to our ideas,” said Marco Zanni, a League MEP who chairs the far-right Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament.

League MP Morrone said: “Europe is supporting Italy by investing, it is not the austerity of the past.”

Despite Salvini’s enthusiasm, the League’s entry into Draghi’s government is not yet a done deal and the 5Star Movement has expressed doubts about sharing power again with the League. But if Draghi does bring the League into government, the party’s bedfellows from the pro-EU camp say it’s the League that will need to change, not them.

Senator Emma Bonino, of the More Europe party, said Salvini would have to ditch some of his populist-slogan T-shirts: “It is him that will have to adapt. I will welcome him, I haven’t changed my views.”