«I am at the service of the progressive project, regardless of who wins the primaries. If it’s Schlein, we’ll support her. Not to do so would be inconceivable cowardice.” M5S president Giuseppe Conte stated this in an interview with La Stampa.
«For me there are no alternatives – he adds – if I agreed to identify the leader in another way, my parents would spit on me. For us it is the first time in a political coalition, we must make our base feel involved. You say that if I lost the primaries, many of our people would not go to vote in the elections, but I guarantee you that if I stepped aside to let Schlein or any other candidate run, it would be worse.”
So, no risk that the primaries will split the coalition? “They must be prepared well – Conte continues -, it’s not like we vote one day and stop, we need a path to create the right conditions”. “For me – continues the M5S leader – Renzi makes us lose votes, taking him into the coalition is a mistake – he underlines – but Elly decided from the beginning to keep him in and we will have to deal with it”. «His movement of administrators (that of Alessandro Onorato, ed.) has more expansive capacity, unlike Renzi – he reasons – it can make us recover some of the abstentions» concludes Conte.