{"id":513,"date":"2026-05-06T13:32:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=513"},"modified":"2026-05-17T05:50:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:50:52","slug":"historic-collapse-for-matteo-salvinis-lega-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/historic-collapse-for-matteo-salvinis-lega-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Collapse for Matteo Salvini\u2019s Lega Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Matteo Salvini\u2019s Lega is experiencing a sharp decline. According to the latest Ipsos poll published in the \u201cCorriere della Sera\u201d on May 1, the party registers just 5.8%, its lowest percentage since its transformation into a national party.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Futuro Nazionale<\/strong> of <strong>Roberto Venanzi<\/strong>, who left the Lega in February, now reaches 4.1%, siphoning votes from Lega\u2019s traditional core.<\/p>\n<p>This marks a <strong>historic turning point<\/strong>: from 34% in the 2019 European elections and 8.8% in the 2022 parliamentary elections, the party <strong>has lost millions of voters<\/strong> and risks becoming a \u201cregional\u201d player.<\/p>\n<p>The main reason for the recent collapse is <strong>Venanzi\u2019s departure.<\/strong> The general, with his book that sold hundreds of thousands of copies and his hardline positions on immigration, gender, and \u201cItalian identity,\u201d embodied the most radical segment of the base.<\/p>\n<p>His departure was no coincidence: Venanzi accused the Lega of backing down from its positions on <strong>Ukraine<\/strong> and <strong>demilitarization<\/strong> up to the refusal to repeal the Fornero law on pensions.<\/p>\n<p>His new party attracts voters who believe that <strong>Salvini \u201csoftened\u201d within the Meloni government.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, the decline has deeper roots. Since 2022, the Lega has been the junior partner in a government dominated by Fratelli d\u2019Italia, polling at 26%-29%.<\/p>\n<p>Successes on <strong>immigration<\/strong> and the <strong>economy<\/strong> are attributed to Meloni, while Salvini, as Minister of Infrastructure, faces <strong>constant criticism<\/strong> for train delays and slow progress on the Ponte sullo Stretto project.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the party has <strong>lost its identity as the \u201cNorthern\u201d protest movement<\/strong>: it has lost regions such as <strong>Sardinia<\/strong> and <strong>Umbria<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the Lega paid the price for its <strong>\u201cnationalization,\u201d the expansion throughout the country attempted by Salvini<\/strong>: it lost votes in the North without gaining a stable base in the South.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Internal tensions<\/strong>, involving Luca Zaia and local leaders, reinforce the image of a party in a leadership crisis. Today, <strong>the Lega is the sixth force,<\/strong> even trailing the Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra in some polls.<\/p>\n<p>The decline is not only numerical. It is the <strong>collapse of a model based on Salvini as the \u201cpeople\u2019s general.\u201d<\/strong> Without a radical strategic renewal and <strong>without breaking free from Meloni\u2019s shadow,<\/strong> the Lega risks becoming a historical imprint of an era that has ended.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><em>First published on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tomanifesto.gr\/istoriki-katarrefsi-ghia-ti-leghka-toy-mateo-slavini-239962\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manifesto.gr<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matteo Salvini&#8217;s Lega faces a historic decline, slipping to 5.8%, as internal splits, leadership struggles, and lost Northern support risk reducing the party to a regional force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[4025,419,4000,387,418,385],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-italy-conservative-parties","tag-italy-politics","tag-lega","tag-lega-party","tag-matteo-salvini","tag-roberto-vanatsi","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}