After a long silence, partly due to the European elections, partly – or perhaps above all – to the vain search for a hoped-for single candidacy, the provincial Democratic Party congress phase reopens and heads towards its grand finale. Objective: have the new secretary, or the new secretary, by the end of October. And for this reason a calendar was drawn up, made official yesterday, with a press release, by the commission for the congress. «In the past few weeks the guarantee commission has certified the congressional audience – we read in the note – and the commission for the congress has defined the dates for the presentation of candidacies for the position of provincial secretary and for the provincial bodies».
The calendar is full and deadlines are imminent: Applications must be submitted by 8 pm on Sunday 22nd, the commission must complete the verification of documents by 24th September, then the club assemblies will take place from 28th September to 20th October, before entering the key phase, that is the provincial congress assembly, which will be held on the weekend of 25th-27th October.
“Therefore, the last stretch of a congressional path awaited by all the members and militants of the Messina Democratic Party officially begins – the commission’s note continues -, to give the party a new leadership group capable of facing all future challenges with renewed credibility and determination and be the promoter of a political project to relaunch the capital and the entire provincial territory”.
So, is the path mapped out? Perhaps. Because within the party there are those who would not disdain a postponement, even a short one. Above all because the stalemate that had already been created in the spring, with the two candidacies “in pectore” of Armando Hyerace and Domenico Siracusanohas not been unblocked. And in this context comes the proposal that can shift the inertia: “Let’s have open primaries.”
The one who launched it was the only MP of the Pd from Messina, the regional deputy Calogero Leanza. Who explains to the “Gazzetta”: «Elly Schlein herself was elected with open primaries. I am convinced that this could be the way to resolve this stalemate. I always hear people say “enough with the card-holding gentlemen”, that a party open to civil society must be created, that the old logic must be overcome. And so let’s give this important signal, also for the province, in line with the national directives of the party». According to Leanza, the impasse was created «because the political situation in the province of Messina is very complicated, we are coming from a period of electoral defeats. The point is that the city is asking us for answers immediately, even the doubts that arose after the appeals to the guarantee commission must be overcome. With open primaries all these doubts would disappear. If everyone votes, not just the card-holding members, then a secretary will be elected who is able to dictate the line with greater authority, even on political issues on which no one has yet taken a stand».
