But the managers who arrived in Reggio Emilia to hear from their "stubbornly united" secretary have been thinking about something else for a few hours. Because in the morning Giuseppe Conte's voice on the issue of weapons for Ukraine rose louder than usual: «It is clear that we will have to clarify some fixed points in advance because it cannot be that Schlein or another candidate wins the primaries tomorrow morning and at that point weapons are sent galore to Kiev for a military escalation that is leading us to the third world war day after day. The M5s cannot sign up to a program that plans to continue doing what Meloni does in foreign policy."
A real bomb, the one launched by Giuseppe Conte after receiving the applause of the dem audience in Reggio Emilia on Saturday evening. As persuasive and smooth at the Festa dell'Unità as he was peremptory and threatening in front of "his" audience at the Fatto Daily party, the reference newspaper of the M5s, at the Versiliana. Concave and convex Conte, ready to win votes for the primaries in all directions, it will be said. Conte wants to steal the front page headlines from his rival Schlein on this first cool Sunday after a torrid summer, it may be said. But the leader of the M5s seems for the first time to have gone a little beyond the normal competition for the premiership: he has configured a scenario whereby if the opponent wins the battle of the gazebos, the coalition could collapse. Or, perhaps an even worse alternative, a scenario in which the primaries could be skipped if the yes to sending weapons to Ukraine remains.
And that yes, in agreement with the entire family of European socialists, remains: «We have supported and will continue to support the people unjustly invaded in Ukraine by Putin's military offensive which continues to move forward», Schlein chants from the stage. Which doesn't even leave Conte the issue of the EU's diplomatic role: "We asked Europe to make a diplomatic and political effort, to take an initiative, to choose a European negotiator." A clarification, that of Schlein on Ukraine, as dutiful as it is appreciated by the leader of the internal reformist minority Lorenzo Guerini ("I fully agree").
But fears and suspicions in the Democratic house remain. «The insistence with which Conte reiterates his rambling positions on Ukraine, when he knows full well that the Pd, IV and Più Europa vote to continue supporting the invaded country, suggests that he does not want the unity of the coalition. He is not an ally but a saboteur": Lia Quartapelle says so, but many people think so, including the leaders of the Schleinian majority. «Either pass my line or I'll leave», essentially Conte's warning appears to the Dems, evidently convinced that he can win the primaries when he maintains that the "count" must be done as soon as possible because the winner must have time to build his people ("the primaries cannot be held close to the electoral campaign because, if there is a political community disoriented by the victory of a leader who is not their own, it will take months to explain, to understand and to arrive at the elections united and strong").
«He wants to take over the Democratic Party and if he can't manage to run away with the ball, or he wants an excuse to blow up the primaries», someone ventures on the Campovolo lawn. In short, seen from Reggio Emilia, Conte's words seem like a way to prepare a possible escape plan. And there are also those who remember the precedent of the only common primary experiment: July 2022, for the choice of the candidate for president of Sicily. The Democratic Party candidate Caterina Chinnici won, beating Five Star candidate Barbara Floridia, but then at the vote - thanks to the split at national level which led to the fall of the Draghi government - the M5s presented itself alone. Two years later, in April 2024, the primaries scheduled in Bari for the choice of the mayoral candidate were instead skipped even earlier at the hands of the M5s due to a judicial investigation for vote swapping which had involved some exponents of the Democratic Party. In short, the suspicion is that Conte will raise the bar to keep his hands free.
