Northern League rebels open challenge to Salvini with push for party congress

A faction of former League figures has formally opened a new front against Matteo Salvini by creating a committee to convene a federal party congress. The move targets the traditional League rather than the current “Lega per Salvini premier” organization.

The committee was formed by former lawmakers and provincial party secretaries. Among its promoters is Gianluca Pini, a former League member and onetime friend of Salvini. The organizers want the older party structure to hold a congress, elect a secretary and contest future elections using its membership lists.

“

Hundreds of former League members who can no longer stand Salvini’s operations have already joined.

That distinction carries organizational and legal weight. The traditional League owns the electoral symbol and is currently managed by Igor Iezzi, a Salvini ally. The committee’s founders accuse Iezzi of blocking a congress they say they have sought for years and of transferring the League symbol to the Salvini-led organization in a way they describe as potentially unlawful.

“

We want to go to a congress, elect a party secretary and stand in the next elections, with the membership lists in hand.

The promoters also argue that the traditional League has prevented its members from engaging in politics and breached important provisions of its statutes. They point to the absence of a party president, a role once held by Umberto Bossi and described as having important guarantor functions.

The initiative brings together a northernist camp opposed to Salvini that includes governors Massimiliano Fedriga, Attilio Fontana and Maurizio Fugatti, former governor Luca Zaia and group leader Massimiliano Romeo. It is not yet clear who will formally join the committee, or what Giancarlo Giorgetti, the League’s economy minister, will do. His participation would give the effort additional political weight, the report says.

“

The failed Salvini and sovereigntist project must be clearly separated, while rediscovering the federalist League and good government.

The organizers say hundreds of former League members have already signed up because they no longer tolerate what they call Salvini’s political operations. Their stated goal is to separate the “failed Salvini and sovereigntist project” from a federalist League focused on good government. They argue that Salvini’s failure is cultural as well as political because he dismantled a shared northern identity. Whether that agenda is outdated, they say, will be decided by voters.

“

Salvini’s fault is not political in nature but cultural: he has disintegrated the shared understanding of the northern question, which is crucial to solving the problems of the whole country.