The occasion was a centre-right rally in Bari in support of Luigi Lobuono’s candidacy for governor of Puglia. A tougher contest, considering that the polls unanimously predicted a landslide victory for Antonio De Caro in a region that for twenty years now – since Nichi Vendola’s first victory – has been in the hands of the centre-left. Therefore, the center-right leaders’ short election tour starts from Bari and then continues on Friday to Naples (Campania is considered at least “contestable”) and next Tuesday to Mestre (with Veneto widely assumed to win). Three rallies in which Giorgia Meloni, Antonio Tajani, Matteo Salvini and Maurizio Lupi staged a dress rehearsal of the permanent election campaign that will take us first to the spring local elections (we voted in Rome and Milan, among others), then to the career separation referendum and finally, in 2026, to the political elections.
Thus, the choice of the four center-right leaders to focus primarily on national issues, and leave room for more strictly Apulian issues – from the Xylella emergency to water supplies, to regional health services – does not appear random in the conclusions of their interventions.
In fact, from Bari, Meloni responded to the many criticisms that have been rained on the measure, not only from center-left groups and trade unions but also from Istat, the Bank of Italy and the Parliamentary Budget Office. “The fourth maneuver in three years – the Prime Minister explained – is worth 18.7 billion. This has been defined as a maneuver by the opposition, because they do not have enough money. But keep in mind that we could have done the maneuver if we did not have the 40 billion euros in credit from Conte’s brilliant super bonus.” And again: “The left tells us that this maneuver favors the rich because, according to them, anyone who earns 2,400 euros a month and possibly supports three children is the rich man to beat. It takes a lot of courage to support such a thesis.”
Meloni also did not hesitate to criticize Maurizio Landini and CGIL’s choice to call a general strike on December 12. “On a Friday, because – ironically – we never want to have a revolution on a Tuesday, which shows that workers’ rights are not a priority for some people.” Something that Tajani, Salvini and Lupi have also understood in their speeches before the prime minister’s speech. Who claimed the results obtained at Palazzo Chigi (“we are the third longest-serving government in Italian history out of 68”) and the fact that, after three years at the helm of the country, the latest survey “estimates Fdi at 31.4% of the vote”, “the highest level ever, something that has not happened since voting existed”. This is an opportunity to pay tribute to Pinuccio Tatarella, “a man of the people, who loved his homeland, who knew how to combine intelligence, vision, passion and irony”. And if the game for the Regional leadership was difficult, the goal of making the Fdi the first party in Puglia, overtaking the PD, was more within reach, something that had not happened since the season of ’94 when Tatarella’s newly formed AN triumphed in politics. Before leaving, Meloni attacked left-wing “suppositions” accusing center-right voters of being “stupid and uncultured.”
Salvini instead focused on security issues, announcing that he was working on ad hoc decisions and reviving his past tone towards migrants, “especially Islamic ones”.
“The problem – said Salvini – is not God, but demanding that those who come to our cities respect our culture, our symbols, our religion and the Constitution.
