ROME, Sept 21 - Besieged by internal rivals and with poll ratings declining, Matteo Salvini has unexpectedly called an extraordinary congress of his co-ruling League party, a move analysts see as an attempt to shore up his authority ahead of elections due next year.
Recent polls put the League below 6%, behind coalition ally Forza Italia and National Future, a new far-right group formed in February by League dissidents that is polling at around 8%.
Although Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy remains the country's largest party, the League's decline and the rise of National Future have weakened the broader conservative alliance, which now trails the centre-left opposition in recent surveys.
"We win when we are united, and the League is, and will be, more united than ever," Salvini told the party's annual rally in the northern town of Pontida on Sunday, saying the congress would be in October, just 18 months since the last one was held.
REINFORCE LEGITIMACY
Salvini, who has led the League since 2013, transformed a movement once centred on Italy's wealthy northern regions into a national far-right force, taking it to a record 34% in the 2019 European Parliament election.
However, he has long been overshadowed by Meloni, while critics including Attilio Fontana, governor of the Lombardy region around Milan, are increasingly questioning his leadership while advocating a renewed focus on the party's northern roots.
"By holding a congress now, Salvini has a chance to reinforce his legitimacy before the next election and limit the ability of his critics to campaign against him over a prolonged period," said Lorenzo Castellani, a politics professor at Luiss University in Rome.
"He is trying to exploit the fact that his (internal) opponents currently lack a frontman," he added.
The party board will meet in Milan on Monday to agree on the congress rules. It remains unclear whether Salvini's leadership will be at stake or whether delegates will simply be asked to approve or reject the political line.
Italy is due to hold elections in the second half of 2027, but Castellani believes Salvini's decision to hold a congress could be seen as another sign that Italians may be called to the polls earlier.
Last week, Meloni — who this month became Italy's longest-serving prime minister since World War Two — told reporters she aimed to remain in power until her term expires next autumn.
(Reporting by Angelo AmanteEditing by Keith Weir)
