The “redemption” against “experience.” Being a “woman,” young, “free,” against the alpha male, middle-aged, heterosexual. Having challenged established powers, predetermined plans, against those who have been co-opted by those powers and have always been at the center of those plans. This is the framework, the storytelling, that Elly Schlein will use in the battle against Giuseppe Conte, in those primaries for which only the date is now missing. And the symmetry with Giorgia Meloni, the ultimate underdog, the first Italian female prime minister who made her story as a girl from Garbatella, who reached Palazzo Chigi by her own efforts, her strength, is not lost.
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THE PLAN
It became clear on Sunday, during the torrential speech with which she closed the National Unity Festival in Reggio Emilia, that this is the new game plan of the PD leader. A list that was too detailed, at times boring, of proposals, priorities, topics. But the novelty came at the end in two passages. “So,” Schlein said, “we move forward because this is the challenge of redemption for all those to whom they have always said they couldn’t make it, that they were not adequate, that it wasn’t for them, that they were too much or too little, that they should dedicate themselves to something else.” And shortly before, she had claimed her being a woman, young and free, ironically calling them “personal aggravating factors.” This is Schlein’s response to the offensive Conte started in these summer months, proposing himself as the most competitive candidate because of more experience. The gray suit against the sneakers, the resume of a former prime minister against hers, certainly more sparse. And it is a framework that Conte keeps emphasizing.
Yesterday morning, for example, the day after Reggio Emilia, the M5S leader appeared on social media with a video where he visits, alongside the mayor, a primary school in Isernia, renovated thanks to PNRR funds, those that Conte claims to have brought to Italy. The video, as always well made, begins with the M5S leader at the blackboard writing a sentence: “No to rearmament, yes to safer schools.” Then, alongside the mayor, he tours the renovated classrooms, listens to the story of what, with PNRR money, has been done to improve the lives of real people, to solve one of the problems that most unite Italians, namely the places where their children spend most of their day. The message is clear, simple, and effective: look, touch with your own hands, what I, as prime minister, have done. These are not words, they are facts. They are images that combine two assets Conte claims in his race to lead the progressive coalition: experience and concreteness, the fact of having already dealt with governing the country and a post-ideological pragmatism inclination.
During these summer months, however, Schlein has not been idle. She studied Conte’s moves, tried to organize a response. It is no coincidence that new skills have also arrived in the PD secretary’s staff. On the communication, social media, and video front. Much less naive than many imagine, Schlein is determined to do everything possible to conquer Palazzo Chigi.
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THE KNOTS
Certainly, problems remain in the forming alliance. Even before the candidacy for prime minister, some knots concerning the coalition’s construction must be resolved. One is Ukraine, on which distances remain very wide and the speech in Reggio Emilia did not shorten them. Schlein spoke of “support,” not specifying whether it includes sending weapons (which Conte opposes) or something else. Then there is the issue of who will be part of the coalition.
Yesterday Chiara Appendino, M5S, reiterated the veto on Matteo Renzi: “It’s not a matter of vetoes. Renzi’s presence in a coalition is a subtractive factor for the progressive camp.” Words to which Silvia Fregolent, of Italia Viva, responded: “To beat Meloni, more votes are needed, not more vetoes. By deciding who must be excluded, Appendino chooses to condemn the country to another right-wing government.” From the PD, Stefano Bonaccini had already spoken: “You cannot disregard voters who, unlike me, will never define themselves as left-wing in their life, but who do not want to be with this right.” In the morning, Renzi himself spoke: “The Five Stars know that a veto on us is inexplicable, especially after we got more votes than them in some regions like Tuscany and still helped Fico in Campania with 7% or Tridico in Calabria with 5%. We are here.” This knot will also have to be untied.
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