It is not a simple moment for Italia Viva: «The problem is that we don’t know where we are going». A part of militants she appears genuinely disoriented. The choices of Matteo Renzi, who today presents his candidacy for the European elections in his native Florencegenerated a series of grumbles.
There is not only the Nicola Danti affair, the Tuscan coordinator of the party who withdrew from the lists for the European elections after Renzi’s descent into the competition. Quietly, the discontent of the Catholics can be seen, who have badly digested the alliance with more Europe on the electoral list to overcome the 4% barrier. «This is not the time to talk about it out loud, because now we have to run. Although unfortunately we don’t know in which direction.” specifies another Renzian, explaining the difficulty of starting a debate now on the future of the party born almost 5 years ago – precisely in Florence – from a split with the Democratic Party and which ended up allying itself with the centre-right (winning) in Basilicata.
In this sense, yesterday signals arrived from Jacopo Cellai, coordinator of FdI in Florence, for a possible dialogue in the run-off that would make many people turn their mouths. It’s up to Renzi’s sergeants to raise their shields. «Matteo Renzi’s candidacy for the European elections is good for Tuscany, for Italy and, above all, for Europe – says regional councilor Stefano Scaramelli – There we need authoritative, capable and competent figures in foreign and fiscal policy. Renzi is. His candidacy gives depth to the list of the United States of Europe and can contribute to the effective realization of our political dream, the creation of a truly supranational state.”
Renzi’s leadership is not in question – without him the party would not exist – but it is equally clear that many, even in Florence, are unable to digest the confusion about the role of the party in relation to the elections. The race for Palazzo Vecchio by the vice president of the Region Stefania Saccardi outside the main parties will probably lead Iv to act as the balance of power in the ballotbut beyond a few single attacks it is complex to carry out a fight against the Democratic Party, when in the Region and in Palazzo Vecchio the Renzians and the Democratic Party govern together.
“We have remained the same, they are the ones who have changed” is Renzi’s mantra himself. Which can explain, but does not resolve, the discomfort of a city election campaign with these premises. There was talk of a “subdued” race on Saccardi’s part, but he doesn’t agree at all: «It is the media that gives attention only to the candidates of the two possible main camps, polarizing the competition. I understand it, but here we work hard to get to the run-off, anything but subdued. We fought – continues Saccardi -, I don’t have a free minute, we campaign house by house, it’s a question of style”.
These are times of “civicness”, but Iv shows its symbol under the name of the candidate for mayor: “The three symbols (Iv, Socialists, LibDem) are very well represented. I don’t see symbols however – says Saccardi – in Sara’s campaign (Funaro , ed.) nor in that of Schmidtwhich competes to distance itself from that center-right which then accompanies it regularly.”
