“For me the chapter is closed. I’ve had a League membership card since ’91, I’ve seen many who haven’t kept their word – said the deputy prime minister and leader of the League Matteo Salvini -. For Vannacci it’s humanly disappointing, but it doesn’t worry. After a while it passes. We opened the doors to him. The thanks was ‘I’ll keep my job’. Finished, chapter closed. The League is the League. It exists and today it’s stronger, the membership has increased from yesterday to today. I don’t hold a grudge, I hold onto my community.”
Per Luca Zaia l’Vannacci’s exit from the League does not question Salvini’s secretariat. The president of the Veneto Regional Council explained it to 24 Mattino on Radio 24: “We are talking – said Zaia – about a person who had a great opportunity, it was a wrong investment, we turn the page and move on”. Regarding the hypothesis of Zaia being a possible secretary of the Northern League, the Northern League representative excludes it “it is absolutely not on the agenda; we have a secretary elected less than a year ago. Today – he observed – we must be focused on what our future is, there are commitments with citizens which are pillars of the Government and pillars of our program which are the justice reform, the premiership, but I also remember that of Autonomy which is a pillar in which we believe because autonomy means getting this country out from a cone of shadow represented by a centralism that created the two Italys”.
Returning to the Vannacci affair, Zaia recalled that “in the League I have seen better periods and I have experienced worse ones and this happens in all parties. Thinking of an escape from the League is definitely not, I really can’t imagine it. There could probably be some isolated cases – he concluded – but this will not change the history of the League given that we have very clear ideas and we know where we want to go”.
ANSA AgencyLuca Zaia reiterates his criticism of welcoming Roberto Vannacci into the League and after calling him ‘a foreign body’ yesterday he underlined that it was “a mistake to bring him into the League”. “History – he said – cannot be evaluated with hindsight, let’s try not to be enlightened: the truth is that it was a mistake, because the epilogue confirmed it”. For Zaia “secretary Salvini made a choice, which was to include a new subject, who could become a political subject in the future. But the truth – he specified – is that this story translated into a willingness on our part which was repaid with a betrayal, which was evident and before everyone’s eyes. Vannacci left, but he left in an organized and planned manner”.
“Then it must also be said – he continued – that it was a meteor, because this whole Vannacci story lasted 9 months from the moment he was a candidate for the European elections and his exit. Let’s say that if it hadn’t been for our help, our participation in our congresses, our willingness to nominate him today, history would probably be very different”. According to Zaia, “Vannacci was an investment that was made. Evidently, this whole story teaches us that the old method is always valid: no preferential lanes, apprenticeships and verification of sharing of ideals. Because a party as structured as ours is a party that has decades of history and still provides for a sharing of ideals. You cannot arrive in a movement like ours and think of dictating the law, or even worse, of changing the line. After all, Vannacci on leaving said: ‘The right that I have there is another right in mind’. And I am convinced that he is right, because we are for a liberal right and not for a liberticidal right.”
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