An appeal to the centrists and reformists of FI to join Italia Viva and the relaunch of Giuseppe Conte’s address with the request for three precise “guarantees” to consolidate the centre-left alliance. In a river speech at the end of his Leopolda, the party event, Matteo Renzi warned about the future of the country and reiterated the need for the center-left to be united: what is at stake «is to send Giorgia Meloni home and the only salvation for the center-right is for the center-left to divide. We must avoid it.” There are three “guarantees” that the leader wants to ask from Conte: “never again Salvini at the Interior Ministry, never again Giorgetti in the Council of Ministers, and that we will never – he was keen to underline – on Donald Trump’s side. I am asked for guarantees – he said again – in politics there are no guarantees”.
On the other hand, he added, lowering his tone, «the reflections that Conte makes are understandable and I would like to send out a branch of peace. However, Elly Schlein is the least suitable person to act as guarantor for me. A serious program, a German contract is the guarantee. And «just as we ask for guarantees, we are available to give guarantees – he assured -. But if you accept the logic of the primaries, you go all the way with the logic of the primaries. Then naturally we make a name and call the person closest to us to the primaries.” From the Leopolda stage, Renzi underlined that «the other time Meloni won because the center-left was divided into three: if we are united this time we will win».
Today, according to the former prime minister, Meloni “is at a crossroads: either she goes to the Quirinale or she goes home. I say this to those who think that the Italian debate is linked to the egos of the centre-left, the game does not concern us, it is a dry one. I work so that at the crossroads Meloni takes the direction to go home. At the moment I don’t care who is the Prime Minister, the minister”. Another request for guarantee is “to send to the Quirinale a person who is neither sovereignist nor populist, but pro-European. We give a guarantee on the primaries, on the Quirinale, on the fact that we will never lower the flag of guaranteeism.” Then Renzi addressed «all the centrists: my great appeal goes to the reformists, in particular of Forza Italia: leave the party and come with us, you cannot be with those who deny Europe. The doors are open and I am sure that some signals will arrive shortly.” And, he further assured: «Italia Viva will be there in the next legislature and we will be decisive for the election of the Quirinale and for the next Italian semester of European presidency. Let’s not ask M5s or Avs to take us to Parliament if we don’t get the votes and I won’t be in the majority prize with the safe seat.” The appeal for center-left unity, and to act quickly, was also invoked on several occasions by the president of the Democratic Party Stefano Bonaccini, who spoke today at Leopolda before Renzi’s conclusions. «To those who still have doubts in a challenge that will be either us or them – said Bonaccini -, to those who feel equidistant, I ask: do you think I’m worth Vannacci and Elly Schlein is worth Meloni? But what still needs to happen, beyond some differences, to unite us and send them home? We must win to avoid the risk of finding Meloni at the Quirinale and Vannacci at Palazzo Chigi. Now it would be good to stop talking about primaries for a few weeks, it’s time for the program, once we have written it, signed with a blood pact, then we will choose how to choose the leadership.”
Occhiuto: “Reformists never with a tax coalition”
The center is not a non-place. Indeed, judging by the crowds, it risks becoming the most crowded place in Italian politics. The only “permanent center of gravity”, however, assures Antonio Tajani, borrowing from Franco Battiato, “is Forza Italia”. Leopolda’s response to Matteo Renzi’s offensive is without nuance: “There is only one centre” and “we are not chasing it: we are the centre”. To those who, “in good faith”, had believed they would find a reformist and moderate house in the “Labour” spirit, the deputy prime minister immediately offers the keys to the blue one: “Our doors are open” to those who want to contribute to the “great popular and moderate project” of a guaranteeist, pro-European and Atlanticist party. The dispute, however, also closely concerns Giorgia Meloni, grappling with the challenge opened from the right by Roberto Vannacci. “The center is not a place to be halfway: it is a culture made of family, work, freedom and sense of the State, which we have put at the center of government action”, the prime minister had stated early in the morning at the conference on the political legacy of the DC in Saint-Vincent. Words welcomed by Maurizio Lupi, committed to reclaiming the “protagonist role” of the centre, a barrier to “sterile populism”.
Familiar music for Forza Italia, where however distinctions emerge on the width of the doors. Roberto Occhiuto opens them up and reverses the offensive: «I would like Renzi, Boschi, Calenda and Marattin in the center-right», provokes the Calabrian governor. “I have respect for Matteo Renzi, but he is completely wrong in his analysis of the current political scenario. The centre-right government of recent years, led by Giorgia Meloni – he continues – has nothing to do with sovereignism. It is a modern coalition, which has a clear pro-European and Atlantic position, which has kept the public accounts in order and which has been able to carve out a leading international role for Italy. For this reason, listening to the appeal of the leader of Italia Viva to the Forza reformists Italy, I feel like turning the question around: what should reformists and liberals do in a coalition led by Schlein and Conte? Because looking at the reality of the so-called broad field, I see a radical left that questions support for Ukraine, that talks about new taxes and assets, that promotes welfare and statism, that takes at least ambiguous positions on Israel and that too often seems to have the United States as its main political target. So, dear Renzi, perhaps you should be the one to ask yourself what you are doing in there. If you are still the Renzi who years ago tried to profoundly change the Democratic Party, that of scrapping, reformism and majoritarian vocation, you should explain to your interlocutors that in that field you risk being a minority among minorities, certainly not protagonists of a reformist season, I would like exponents like Renzi, like Boschi, like Calenda, like Marattin in the center-right, within our coalition, because this is where the ideas they believed in can find space and strength: less taxes, more freedom, more civil rights, more attention to businesses, young people and those who want to build and undertake. Our task is to make the center-right increasingly modern, liberal, reformist and pro-European, ensuring that these issues can find more and more space. We do not need to go back, but to have the courage to look forward: fewer subsidies and more opportunities; which creates the conditions for people and businesses to grow. This is the challenge we face. And I believe that many reformists, even those who today militate on the other side, know perfectly well which side is most natural to face it.” But the head of the Italian delegation in Brussels, Fulvio Martusciello, immediately places the bouncer: «A credible centre-right does not apply the logic of the transfer market», he underlines, recalling the old Berlusconi-Renzi clashes. And Maurizio Gasparri also closes: the former prime minister is the “king of the bankrupt”.