Barring the road to the right by recomposing the unity of the pro-European forces. A goal within reach, however Elly Schlein who today addressed the PSE congress in Rome. The European socialists have crowned Nicolas Schmit as their candidate for president of the EU Commission. An investiture that says a lot about the posture that the party wants to take in the June elections. Schmit, as labor commissioner, was the one who committed himself more than others to the defense of jobs and wages. Therefore, a party of quality work, as Schmit himself said speaking from the stage, a party that moves in the wake of the fight against the climate emergency traced by Frans Timmermans in his experience as Climate Commissioner, under the Juncker presidency. To do all this, however, it is necessary “to stem the wave of the right” which risks overwhelming Europe, “turning back the hands of the clock” to that Europe of austerity that the socialists want to leave definitively to shoulders. Schlein focuses much of his speech on these slogans, up to the appeal addressed “to the friends of the EPP: do not open the doors to the ECR”, the conservative party led by Giorgia Meloni. «Do you really want to open the doors to the ECR by denying your values?», asks the PD secretary: «Meloni and Salvini brought Putin's friends, the extremists and nationalists, to Italy, these are their allies. We bring friends of the European Union and European interests to Italy”, she adds. “Let's work together to reaffirm our values, let's not leave internationalism to the nationalists.” The objective is to polarize the campaign for the European elections between pro-Europeans and non-pro-Europeans, between the forces that supported the integration process and those that opposed it in the past, to the point of calling for the exit of the respective countries from the EU perimeter. Schlein and the European leaders arrive at the EUR Cloud galvanized by the victory in the Sardinian regional elections. In all the interventions there is a place of thanks “to the Democratic Party and to Elly” for a victory that “demonstrates that the right can be beaten”, as underlined by the general secretary of the PSE, Giacomo Filibeck, and the president Stefan Lofven. The next objective, in chronological order, is now Abruzzo, where Schlein will go on 6 and 7 March with Pierluigi Bersani, same formation as the one seen in Carbonia, Sardinia. In other words: you don't change the team that wins. The team supporting progressive candidate Luciano D'Amico, however, is much larger.
«We see a window of change starting to open in the country, we see that the alternative exists. Change is possible, we have already demonstrated it and together we will demonstrate it in Europe in June. It will be a crucial electoral campaign for the destiny of our continent”, concluded Schlein.