It was at a crossroads between Third Pole and centre-left until a week ago. Now, for Italy Alive the time has already come to open a new phase through the De Gasperi “centre that looks to the left”. The approach march of Matthew Renzi to the old traveling companions of the Democratic Party continues at forced stages, apparently heedless of the attempts to pull the emergency brake put in place by Joseph Conte: “In recent years Renzi has boasted of having sent me home, he attacked me on the management of the pandemic and now he says that I am a privileged interlocutor. To his statements I simply respond that for us in the 5 Star Movement, politics is a serious thing”, responds the president of the 5 Star Movement.
The leader of Italia Viva has the ‘pass’ in his pocket Elly Schlein who, in the name of the most stubborn unity that he wanted to impress on the Democratic Party, keeps repeating that the Democratic Party, in the construction of the progressive field, “does not impose vetoes and does not accept them from anyone”. But it was above all the European vote who has certified a fact through numbers: political theater does not include supporting actors between right and left. “I think the result of the European elections is very clear”, explains the former scrapper: “The country is much more fond of bipolarism than we were”, Renzi now admits.
In Renzi’s party, according to what is reported by parliamentary sources, there are many who appear satisfied with the new phase announced by the leader, especially those who come from a “center-left” or even “left-left” background. Those who do not show particular enthusiasm are Luigi Marattin. The Iv deputy, in particular, points the finger at the way in which Renzi has chosen the path to take: it will not be the members who choose, but the national assembly “whose members are all appointed by Matteo”, writes Marattin on social media. On the merits, then, the exponent of Italia Viva shows that he does not appreciate the role of “reformist balancing” that Renzi has chosen with respect to those “who want the wealth tax, leave NATO, abolish the Jobs Act, etc. In the ‘broad field’ with Conte and Fratoianni”. For this reason Marattin asks the Iv president to clarify “right away that he will propose to the Assembly to have this decisive choice made by the entire community of Italia Viva, through a calm, transparent and fair congress. In which to have all members choose the political position of the party”.
On the other side of the progressive field, the Dems and their secretary Elly Schlein first and foremost, are convinced that the path of maximum unity remains the only one to try to beat the right. And given the upcoming electoral deadlines, with Umbria and Emilia-Romagna going to the polls, there is no need to be picky. Losing Emilia-Romagna is a lunatic hypothesis for the Dems. But the internal ‘scuffle’ within the center-left has already shown that it makes even the darkest of scenarios possible. Umbria, then, represents a unique opportunity to wrest a region from the right at a time when the “cracks” within the majority are becoming more evident to the Dems. This was seen with the passage in the Senate of the waiting list decree, when the League – aligned with the Regions – asked and obtained to review article 2 of the provision so as to remove direct control over the work of hospital companies and ASL from the Ministry of Health. And it was seen, the Democrats still observe, with the vote on the second mandate of Ursula von der Leyen.
For all these reasons, the door remains open to Nazarene. “Schlein has never vetoed anyone and is not willing to suffer any. And this is the position of the Democratic Party, there will be no vetoes for anyone and no one can veto them”, he emphasizes Francis Boccia president of the Democratic senators and protagonist of countless exchanges of foil with Renzi. “Unity is good, but now it must be practiced. We need to see it in the Regions. We will go to the vote in Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and hopefully in Liguria soon. The political forces that see themselves in the unitary project of the progressives must be consistent”, concludes Boccia.