Many people and a lot of enthusiasm on Sunday 5 May at the Festa dell’Unità in Vecchiazzano for the rally of Elly Schlein, who came to Forlì for the European elections and to support Graziano Rinaldini’s candidacy for mayor. At the end of the rally, there was much applause, smiles, pats on the back and even a bit of emotion in the audience. Two ladies behind me comment to each other: “It’s been a while since I heard such a beautiful speech” says one; “She was good, she spoke from the heart, I was moved” the other replies.
In short, Elly Schlein touched the right chords and warmed the hearts of the thousand people who came to listen to her and thus gave the PD a boost in the difficult open game with the right to conquer the government of Forlì. On a beautiful sunny day, on her birthday (on stage they then give Schlein a beautiful bouquet of tricoloured, red, green and white flowers) the PD secretary arrives a little late and is immediately welcomed by the local Dem leaders Gessica Allegni and Michele Valli and the mayoral candidate Graziano Rinaldini. Hugs and applause upon arrival. Then a very short 2 minute press point to say in favor of the cameras that she came to support the battle to wrest Forlì from the right and that he will sign the CGIL referendum for the restoration of article 18, in coherence with his battles, of the present and of the past.
Then everyone on stage: Elly Schleinthe regional secretary of the Democratic Party Luigi Tosiani, Gessica Allegni territorial secretary, Michele Vallicity secretary, Graziano Rinaldini. Also in the audience were two candidates for the European elections – Alessandro Zan And Antonio Mumolo – and the head of the Dem women Roberta Mori. Behind them are all the candidates on the Pd list for the municipal elections. The public calls Elly Elly, Graziano Graziano!
Opens Gessica Allegni: “Together we can do it, we must win the challenge to return to giving good governance to the city of Forlì” and then talks about “choice between those who say that Mussolini is a statesman and those who are anti-fascist”; he closes with air by saying “it’s time to send them home, they deny the Constitution they swore by”.
Luigi Tosiani launches a series of rhetorical questions from the stage to the mayor of Forlì Gian Luca Zattini: “Do you share Vannacci’s positions on disabled people and Mussolini? Do you have anything to say about Meloni who is a no-vax candidate in the North-East at the European elections? And does he have anything to say about the lack of post-flood reimbursements? We have not yet heard words of clarity from him to distance ourselves from certain things.”
Graziano Rinaldini he begins with a broad smile and with these words: “There are many of you, you give us the strength to win.” It mainly addresses the theme of the flood and its aftermath: “We want to recover from the entire flood disaster in Forlì, help people, because nothing of the promised reimbursements has arrived. We will create a reconstruction department and we will take care of reducing pollution because Forlì is among the most polluted cities in Italy.” Then he talks about greenery and the need to plant trees: “In Forlì we only have 46 trees for every 100 inhabitants, in Modena the figure is three times higher. Our goal is to plant at least 50,000 trees.”
Now it’s up to Elly Schlein who after the flowers and smiles spares nothing for Zattini and the right: “Forlì deserves redemption after five years of darkness and closurein which the right isolated and managed the city without a vision.” The dem secretary invites everyone to mobilize from below (“You make the difference, not me”) and to fight against three adversaries: the right, abstentionism and indifference. “Many no longer believe in politics and we have partly lost them along the way” he said, inviting us to go and ‘recover’ those who have been lost along the way.
Then a series of political issues on healthcare, work, abortion, school. “No more cuts to public health and the creeping privatization of the right, – he thundered – the tale of the wonderland that Meloni and the right make every day must be debunked, it’s all lies. And it is serious that Meloni herself has put a no-vax vote on the list for the European elections in second place (Sergio Berlato, number 2 of Fratelli d’Italia in the North-East, ed.).”
The dem secretary recalls the health law proposed by Bonaccini’s Emilia-Romagna Region, a law that aims to raise the annual funding for the National Health System to 7.5% of GDP: “a law that we make our own”.
Then Schlein talks about the right-wing government’s cuts in funding for disabilities while singing the praises of volunteering, insisting on the issues of social justice that goes hand in hand with environmental justice. And here’s the thrust on the flood: “Let us not forget the empty promises of those who came to put their boots in the mud. The money has not arrived so far, except for 30 families and 30 businesses.”
Then the work chapter, recalling the battle for the minimum wage (“to which Meloni didn’t even have the courage to vote against”) and the collection of signatures to bring the proposal back to Parliament “because below 9 euros an hour it’s not work it’s exploitation: the battle for the minimum wage is a battle of civilization.”
On women Elly Schlein spares Meloni nothing: “We can’t do anything about a female prime minister who doesn’t care about the rights of all women”. Then he talks about the cuts to PNRR funds aimed at nursery schools and services for children aged 0-6 and thunders against the choice to let anti-abortionists enter the counseling centers for “questioning women’s right to choose”.
Then he adds: “There is one thing that literally drives me crazy, the right fills its mouth with the issues of the birth rate decline and then cuts nursery schools, opportunities for women and young people, knowing full well that if you don’t have children it’s because there is too much precariousness among young people and for young couples”.
After a passage on the attacks on the Constitution coming from the premiership wanted by Meloni, the last thrust is on the school and on Minister Valditara’s proposal to put a cap on the presence of students of foreign origin in classes. “In schools I don’t see Italians and foreigners, I see boys and girls who have the same rights to education. And the foreigners who were born here and speak Italian for me are not foreigners, they are Italians.”
The applause drowns out the words. An ovation at the end for Elly Schlein and many handshakes. To which she responds with prodding “let’s go win”, to instill confidence and enthusiasm in his team, in view of a very difficult challenge. In Forlì, and also in Europe.
