Less than a week before the most difficult electoral round, the lightning board meeting convened online by the regional secretariat of the League with the only point on the agenda, the “shortfall” of 290 thousand euros not paid by those with roles in the area (as reported by the Gazzettino), exploded like a bomb in a room already saturated with gas.
Few payments
The issue is, once again, the intermittent payments of those 1,200 euros of “liberal donations” (but mandatory as per the statute) for regional councilors. Normally there would only be 17 of them, Luca Zaia included. A film already seen on the eve of last year’s congress only to later discover that, in that case, there had been a technical hitch and that most of the payments were in order. During the regional board meeting on the budget statement presented by the party administrator, Massimo Bitonci, and voted on the other evening, the secretary Alberto Stefani would have said (it would not have been the first time) that with accounts like this or the arrears will be recovered ( aiming for 100 thousand euros) the quota will have to be increased of those who already pay regularly. By how much? We are talking about 25%, 300 euros more per month in order to align the Venetian payments with the average of other regions. More, it is hypothesized, rather concretely, too the closure of some offices decentralized party organizations which, given the few militants and fixed costs, become expendable. It is the case of Belluno, 80 members and, someone adds, a poisonous councilor (Gianpaolo Bottacin, who has long been critical of the party ed) which would have stopped paying. A bit like my council colleague Federico Caner. But this is where the versions diverge within a League more contentious than ever. For the regional leaders, the question would be purely practical: there are other electoral campaigns in prospect, primarily the crucial regional ones, and we need to replenish the cash.
The revolt
For the group of thirty angry regional councilors, however, the counts published online until April would once again be wrong. So the internal chat yesterday was seething with indignation and reproduction of bank transfers made and, in some cases, like that of Silvia Cestaro from Belluno, even automatic bank transfers. The “base” of the Northern League in the council is in revolt. «Whoever doesn’t pay knows for sure that he won’t be re-nominated – reasons a colonel – and on the others, the dutiful ones who have always paid, in the space of an election week two shingles fall: their name tarnished for the second time without reason and, in at least four cases, the threat of unjustified disciplinary proceedings . If it is not a scientific attempt to delegitimize the group linked to President Zaia…”. In short, once again the poison flows freely in the Lega house. with all due respect to those who hoped for a regrouping to repel the frontal assault of the Brothers of Italy.
The “zaiani” punished
The four names that have been talked about disciplinary proceedings for behavior that does not comply with the statute regarding the electoral campaign are Gabriele Michieletto (the only one, it must be said, on whom there is a serious possibility of expulsion for supporting Nais Marcon instead of Giovanni Battista Mestriner in Scorzè) and three Trevisos, Roberto Bet, Silvia Rizzotto and, above all, the head of the Lega intergroup in Palazzo Ferro Fini, Alberto Villanova, so to speak, Zaia’s lieutenant. Their case is different and will be discussed (together with that of deputy Gianangelo Bof) on Monday during the provincial executive meeting in which, the provincial secretary promises, some things will have to be clarified. For all the people of Treviso the “charge” would be not having supported the party’s candidacy choices. The theory that is taking shape within the regional council is that the “punishment” of Via Bellerio for Zaia, “guilty” of not having run in the European elections, involves the delegitimization of his group in the council. The only certainty: the newfound unity in the Northern League (if it ever existed) is already a pale memory.
