Edoardo Romagnoli
May 17, 2024
The Schlein Meloni debate will not be held on public TV so why not do it on private TV. La7 and Sky must have thought this. In fact, the invitation from the director of Tg La7 Enrico Mentana arrived first. «In agreement with the leaders of La7 I make official the proposal for two televised confrontations between the leaders of the lists competing for the European elections on 8 and 9 June. The comparisons will take place on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th June at 9.20pm: taking the last publicable SWG survey, that of 23rd May, we will reserve the evening of 6th June for representatives of the major lists. This is our proposal, we await the answers” Mentana wrote on Instagram.
An invitation immediately accepted by Schlein, Conte, Salvini, Tajani but also by the Bonelli-Fratoianni couple and the volcanic Bandecchi of Alternativa Popolare. Sky is also trying. The director of Sky Tg24 Giuseppe De Bellis addressed his personal invitation to all the leaders: «Sky Tg24 has always been the home of discussion, it has always hosted them since its birth, every time the protagonists of politics have expressed their will to do them.” The first format created by Murdoch’s TV dates back to September 2022, it was called “Ideas in comparison”, and allowed a virtual debate between the proposals of the eight most important political leaders. Then in January 2024, during the end-of-year press conference with Giorgia Meloni, a Sky journalist officially extended an invitation to the prime minister to participate in a face-to-face meeting with Schlein.
«Our will – clarified De Bellis – has always been to offer the public the opportunity to listen to the leaders’ ideas with clear, shared and transparent rules, also respecting the indications expressed on the matter by the Authority Communications Guarantor”. But where and when would the debate be held on Sky? On May 27th, live, as part of the Sky Tg24 Live event in Milan, the name of the format is already there: Il Confronto. It will be broadcast on channels 100 and 500 on the Sky platform, on digital terrestrial on TV8 and Sky Tg24 on channel 50, in streaming on the Sky Tg24 website and on YouTube and on all the social media channels of the newspaper which have around 8 million followers. The Comparison involves the same question topic for all participants, the same response time and the same number of replies each. The questions will be asked by the directors of the main Italian newspapers. In short, for a Vespa that didn’t make it, there are a Mentana and a De Bellis that are trying.
