MILAN — Matteo Salvini survived the leadership challenge he called himself, winning reelection as League leader at the party congress in Milan on Sunday. He took 465 of the votes cast by the 705 delegates, roughly two-thirds, against 146 for Senator Massimo Garavaglia, his only challenger, Reuters reported.
LaPresse reported the new term runs to 2030 for Salvini, 53, the deputy prime minister who has led the League since 2013.
“This afternoon marks the start of a new journey,” Salvini said after the vote, according to LaPresse.
Salvini called the extraordinary meeting himself in September. Analysts saw it as a bid to shore up his authority ahead of the general election due next year.
His first job is at home, he said. First on his agenda, he said, is Italy’s 2027-2029 budget bill, which comes up for approval on Tuesday.
Then comes Ukraine. Salvini said the economic situation was difficult and it was time to question whether Italy should keep sending money and weapons to Ukraine. Reuters reported he had vowed to press the government to stop financial support for Kyiv.
The League is part of Italy’s ruling coalition, so the pledge sets up an argument inside the government rather than with the opposition.
His party is not where it was. Recent polls put the League below 5%, behind coalition ally Forza Italia. National Future, a new far-right group formed in February by League dissidents, is approaching 9%, Reuters reported. That is a long way from the 2019 European Parliament election, when the League won a record 34% of the vote.
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