Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini has publicly challenged Milan’s Mayor Giuseppe Sala, urging him to “step aside” for the good of the city. Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Via Bolla area, Salvini stated that the primary issue for all citizens is a city at a “standstill.”
He reiterated his belief in the innocence of all officials under investigation but called on the mayor to decide whether to “drag the city through a year and a half of paralysis” or to let the citizens have their say, implying early elections.
Salvini then turned his criticism to the long-debated San Siro stadium issue, with a resolution on its sale to the football clubs expected to reach the city council in September. He lambasted the left-wing administration for years of indecision, comparing the process to a “game of snakes and ladders” that has cost the city a billion euros in lost private investment. “If the left is incapable of governing a city like Milan, which is about to host the Winter Olympics and needs to run, invest, and innovate… You cannot keep the most dynamic city in Italy blocked for a year and a half,” he declared.
On his party’s position regarding the upcoming council vote on San Siro, Salvini said that would be decided by the League’s councilors. Regarding the next mayoral candidate, he claimed his party’s lists are almost ready and competitive for a potential spring election. He stated he has “two or three profiles” clearly in mind for mayor and is “extremely available” to discuss them with governing allies, even “tomorrow morning.”
He was notably cooler, however, on the prospect of Forza Italia opening talks with the centrist party Azione, dryly noting, “Azione is on the left, no? If you’re on the left, you should stay on the left, I think…”