What's happening in Veneto Zaia's Lega is back in control of the retreating Cinquestelle consensus
The paradox of lists full of Salvinians but driven by the popularity of the governor and the long wave of the referendum for autonomy. The Pd in play only in Venice
He had not yet climbed onto the dais under the loggia in Piazza dei Signori in Treviso that Matteo Salvini was already telling his favourite campaign story: 'Today I drove into Treviso. I found the first Treviso man after a quarter of an hour'. Down came applause. "Then I went to the station and asked myself: but are we in Treviso?". More applause. Who knows how many times they have heard it, the same little story and its thousands of variations, here in the land of Gian Paolo Gobbo, the historic leader of the Liga Veneta, twice mayor of Treviso, and his successor, the sheriff Giancarlo Gentilini. Incidentally, on the immigration front, the moment is not particularly hot, on the contrary. In the most prosperous areas of the Veneto, where the recovery can be seen with the naked eye, the integration of tens of thousands of (legal) immigrants has been working very well, ever since 15 years ago, when the entrepreneurs of Dosson, Preganziol, Casier and Casale, together with public institutions, financed the construction of housing for foreigners employed in the companies. Today, the areas of hardship are concentrated around the hubs that receive asylum seekers: the Serena barracks in Treviso, the Zanusso barracks in Oderzo, the former base in Bagnoli and Conetta, between the Bassa Padovana and the province of Venice. But we are talking about a few hundred refugees for each of the hubs, and the figures in the last year have fallen considerably compared to the peaks of previous months. Then there are the urban areas with a high concentration of immigrants, such as the Arcella district of Padua, next to the high-speed train tracks. But it was precisely in Padua, less than a year ago, that an illustrious name in the League such as Massimo Bitonci was beaten in the ballot by the centre-left candidate Sergio Giordani, who was 11 points behind in the first round. With arrivals falling and crime statistics steadily declining, in short, immigration does not seem to be an emergency. Just as the economy and employment are not (any longer) an emergency.
