Numbers are numbers and must be taken with all their strength (and also relative volubility). But they tell us interesting things, especially in moments when emotions mix and souls heat up. This is why the latest SWG data speak of an Italy divided perhaps as never before, an Italy tried by the pandemic and now frightened by war, an Italy that by a large majority condemns the Russian military aggression but which at the same time looks with anguish. to a more massive national involvement.
In this Italy that tries to understand what will happen on the battlefields and in the next electricity bill, the not simple collective relationship with political leaders becomes evident, a relationship that however ends up rewarding those who manage to take clearer and more consistent positions. with their own electorate.
That is, the figures of Conte on one side and Letta on the other emerge, even in the almost grotesque condition of being probable allies in the polls but divided on the most important political event of recent times. Conte likes it because he stands out by trying to deny the consent of the M5S to the increase in military spending (which has also grown with his government), while Letta likes it because he keeps the Democratic Party on a rigorous attitude of harmony with NATO and the Union European.
More difficult is the position of Meloni and Salvini, also allies (quarrelsome) in the polls but in a complex relationship with their constituents, probably unsatisfied with the “pacifism” of the leader of the League and the prudent Atlanticism of the president of FdI.
In fact, Meloni, who while maintaining very high confidence in “his” people “, ends up behind Conte and behind Letta when judged on the position held on the war in Ukraine: the same happens to Salvini.
The opinion on the leaders, however, would be a “lame” figure if we did not put it in connection with the more overall one for the period, a judgment that we can summarize thanks to the data on the government’s action.
Here we see that there is only a robust minority supporting the Draghi executive, because the majority of Italians say they are dissatisfied, thus putting all the anxieties that move in the heads and hearts on paper. Anxiety that is probably also explained by a certain “coldness” of Prime Minister Draghi, an authoritative figure of central banker / man of institutions of absolute prestige, but with a certain “empathic” distance from the citizens.
Distance also found in a fourth data available, in some ways the most interesting.
In fact, Conte is the most popular thinking of Palazzo Chigi after Draghi, despite the conspicuous decline of the M5S in recent months. So the former premier is now much more popular than the movement he leads, a situation that could encourage him on the road to founding a new movement (even though he has never said a word in public on the subject).
In this hypothetical race both Meloni and Letta are still doing well, then there is a good result from Calenda. Bad, all in all, Salvini, who at this stage struggles to find the key to the problem.
