In the end they decided to show their face. In fact, I shoot it. Strictly four-man, defined to the millimeter to avoid last-minute centrist infiltrations. Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli immortalized themselves together and threw down the gauntlet to the Meloni government directly from their social pages: «To work. To change Italy. Note these dates: 8 and 15 July. We will see each other soon!”.
An announcement with great fanfare which marks the end of underground diplomacy and the beginning of the public phase of the self-styled “progressive camp”. The declared objective is two major initiatives with citizens to fine-tune programmatic priorities. But the real political message, not even too subliminal, is addressed to Palazzo Chigi.
“The majority is imploding”
The president of the 5 Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, intercepted by reporters at Palazzo Montecitorio, explains the strategy. No improvisation, assures the former prime minister, but the natural continuation of a table that has been going on for some time, albeit far from the spotlight: «This is a way of reiterating that we are working, to tell the truth it wasn’t the first meeting. Even if this time we made it known.” The two events in July will be geographically and politically targeted: «An event in the North and an event in the South to illustrate that we are not starting from scratch». On the table is the balance of the parliamentary work carried out so far in this legislature, with the intention of “summarizing and enhancing the path taken” and adding “something new”, while the individual parties carry forward their respective congresses or internal paths. But why speed up now? For Conte, the timing is dictated by the – terrible – state of health of the centre-right: «After the referendum and also with the Vannacci case, the majority is imploding. When dates are defined we must be ready to present an alternative political project to the country. We are structuring ourselves for this, not for artificial acceleration. Simply, now it’s our turn.”
Calenda’s irony and Renzi’s “spectre”.
As expected, the photo of the progressive idyll immediately caused an outpouring of bile in the centrist area, which remained out of the frame. The first to tweet, half seriously and half jokingly, is the leader of Action Carlo Calenda. The former minister republished the shot of the four leaders, commenting vitriolicly on X: “But was Renzi under the table?”. A joke that perfectly captures the nervousness of those who watch as spectators the attempted axis between the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and the Green-Left Alliance. It remains to be seen whether the joint program will stand the test of the streets on 8 and 15 July. For now, there is a photo.
Renzi’s entry? “It’s not a given”
“No”. Thus the president of the M5S Giuseppe Conte, interviewed on the YouTube channel by Andrea Scanzi, responds to those who ask whether he takes Matteo Renzi’s entry into the progressive camp for granted. «The first objective – he adds – is to change Italy. There is certainly a problem of reliability of travel companions. We must not create a hodgepodge, a caravanserai, because otherwise we win the elections and then we melt like snow in the sun.” “We need to build a project – he continues – and then see whether to extend it to whom and how, but with guarantees and limits if it were to be expanded. Today’s photo tells us that at the moment the project is in the hands of forces that are prepared to work together. I don’t take everything that comes for granted, I will be the first to ask myself the problem of the duration and stability of the government”.
The IV leader: “In the photo there is the left-left but to win we need an agreement”
«All afternoon journalists have been calling us asking if we are angry because we are not in the photo of Schlein, Bonelli, Conte, Fratoianni. And why should we be angry? We are not in that photo because we are not part of this left-wing group that has an important consensus in the country, but insufficient to win and insufficient to govern.” Thus Matteo Renzi on X regarding the wide field initiative. «We are something else and we think that without a reformist component the left will never win. However, faced with the Meloni-Salvini-Vannacci government, we think it is right to build a programmatic alliance. We will try, until the end. We will never be like the protagonists of this photo but we can make an agreement on the contents to prevent the worst right that Italy has ever had from winning again”, he concludes.