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From the shores of Lake Como Elly Schlein tries to dictate the agenda on contents, leaving the total leader at the bottom of the page. Just over a kilometer from the living room of Villa d’Este, the dem leader chooses the stage of the Altra Cernobbio and lines up climate, industry, healthcare, school and peace. But leadership continues to claim space. Giuseppe Conte insists on the primaries and tries to make them a guarantee for the stability of the alliance: after a popular investiture, he highlights from the Unity party in Bologna, “it is more complicated” to bring down a leader. First, however, there is the program: “At the end of the month we will begin to meet and immediately afterwards we will decide together” on the gazebos. The third voice of those who, in the center-left, continue to be referred to in a whisper as the federation, do not bet their chips: “Conte or Schlein? I give a hand to anyone”, assures Pier Luigi Bersani. The important thing, in the vision of the former dem secretary, is not to repeat 2022, when “we gave him the victory, losing ourselves. Not this time.”
First come clear words on the common project. Then, he jokes, the leader can be chosen with “primary, secondary, tertiary”: even “wooden”. “We are in the midst of a climate crisis which already has a profound impact on our lives, on our health and that of the planet”, writes Schlein in a letter to Repubblica, launching five proposals “to change course”. 14 billion on the table, in addition to the cut in taxes on electricity. In the counterpoint to the Teha Forum in Villa d’Este, the dem leader invokes “the courage of the alternative”: no “small adjustments”, but a vision that brings together “social justice, climate justice, peace and democracy”.
The convergences to look for on foreign policy
And the government is aiming, between zero growth, industrial crisis and the “run to the right” of Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini towards Roberto Vannacci. On foreign policy – and above all on Ukraine -, however, the convergence with M5s and Avs has yet to become a common line. Schlein denounces “dangerous winds of war and the logic of power” and calls for “going back to building paths to peace”. Conte reassures that the front will hold up: precisely in foreign policy, he claims, the oppositions are “much more convergent than” the majority. The calendar, meanwhile, runs between Unità celebrations – awaiting the big stage in Reggio Emilia next weekend – and the Avs event on 8 September. The absence of the PD secretary from the Dem party in Milan does not go unnoticed, where the post-Sala period risks anticipating many of the puzzles of the national broad field. The name of Mario Calabresi has already stirred things up, the pool of possible candidates in the primaries is expanding and Pierfrancesco Majorino, considered the name closest to the Schleinian area, remains silent. Calabresi’s availability testifies to an “attractive” centre-left, observes Matteo Renzi from the Milanese party, betting on gazebos also at a local level. On a national level, Alessandro Onorato shows the way: electoral law, program and then primaries, with Progetto civico Italia ready to field a candidate.
The polls and the Vannacci unknown
Behind the scenes, moreover, the toto-names does not stop. Silvia Salis, despite repeated nos – even in Genoese dialect – remains in the mix, together with Antonio Decaro, protagonist with the mayor of Genoa and Stefano Bonaccini at the Modena Unity party. The polls, at least for now, encourage the center-left. In the latest EMG survey, without Futuro Nazionale the centre-right would stop at 42.1%, compared to 43.8% for the centre-left. The Vannacci variable disrupts the majority’s accounts, but leaves the opposition too narrow a margin to divide. «If Meloni doesn’t go to the elections with Vannacci he has already lost», warns Renzi, inviting the broad camp «not to cause a mess» and relaunching election day. Outside the perimeter, however, the Calenda unknown remains: the Action leader is working on an alternative house to the two sides and also calls +Europa.