Elly Schlein he can’t (but to tell the truth he doesn’t want to) hide his satisfaction with the result. And in fact in the press conference called yesterday he began with a joke: «We suffered a bit but we never stopped believing…”. Are we talking about the elections? Not even by a long shot, as can be seen from the continuation of the sentence: «Thank you Zaccagni». It is the national football team that made the secretary suffer, not the wait for the result, which the Nazarene had already taken for granted for days.
The leader of the Democratic Party does not abandon her perky (and also rather mocking) tone when she addresses Giorgia Meloni who accuses the opposition of raising the level of tension. «It’s difficult to digest the defeat», quips Schlein, who is «happy with the 6-0 tennis score». The reference is to the fact that the Pd won in all 6 regional capitals who went to vote. Compared to the opposition prime minister’s accusations, the secretary is blunt: «I don’t know what film Meloni is watching. It’s not the first time he’s raised alarmism. I wouldn’t want it to be an attempt to distract attention from the results of the right.”
The prime minister seems “short of arguments” to her and the PD leader openly challenges her, reiterating (and reinforcing) the warning she had already issued to her: «Meloni, we’re just arriving. We will continue to win.” Schlein is convinced that the center-left will prevail in the next regional elections and sees victory in the next general elections too. Another woman at Palazzo Chigi in three years? Obviously, the secretary doesn’t say this in the conference, but at the Nazarene everyone is convinced that next time it will be her turn.
With journalists, the dem leader also attacks the prime minister on differentiated autonomy: «It is still the old secessionist plan of the League. FdI will have to change its name and call itself Brandelli d’Italia or Brothers of half of Italy”. But Schlein also has another target: Ignazio La Russa, who has made clear the majority’s temptation to change the electoral law by eliminating run-offs which, according to the centre-right, would encourage abstentionism. “It’s not that when you lose – replies the secretary – elections are abolished or you run away with the ball in your hands”. For Schlein, La Russa “has no sense of institutions”: “It is serious and inappropriate – she says – that the second highest office of the State speaks in this way”. And since you have decided to put the right in your sights, does not even spare Donzelli, che in an interview with Courier denied the success of the centre-left: «It overturns reality, I want to offer him Baruffi’s availability to help him understand how the elections went». And the head of local authorities of the Democratic Party, Davide Baruffi, who sits next to her, plays along, promising to help Donzelli with “an abacus”.
But Schlein, what today he will speak at Meloni’s Chamber for Communications on the European Council, is already looking towards the future. To the Bossi-Fini reform, which he will present next week. And to alliances, which, he underlines, “are not born on paper”: «Coalitions – he says – are not built closed in a room, but on issues». She and she is convinced that it will be easy to achieve it after what she defines as “a team victory”. In fact, the secretary is keen to recognize the role of each partner (“Conte is an important ally”, he specifies, after explaining that he heard from him in the morning). «The administrative method worked – he further observes – and it can also be done at a national level».
Now, to unite the opposition, the secretary is focusing on referendums and regional elections. The Dems are already considering the names to succeed Bonaccini. Among the eligible candidates Vincenzo Colla, Isabella Conti and Graziano Delrio.
Along their march of approach the leaders of Pd, M5S, Avs, +Europa and Rifondazione will compete next July 1st in Bologna, guests of the Anpi. But Schlein and Conte will meet first: on June 28 in Naples for a discussion in which Mayor Manfredi, probable next president of the ANCI, will also take part.
