Mario All that's missing now is the official status. Mario Calabresi's candidacy for mayor of Milan, where there will be a vote in 2027, is getting closer and closer and the centre-left aims to confirm its leadership of the city after 15 years.
For the moment, the journalist has announced his farewell to Be Water, the media company which also includes Chora Media that he helped found, with his resignation from all positions and the sale of his shareholding because "I feel a strong call to follow a new path".
The former director of Repubblica and La Stampa feels the call of politics and after leaving Chora "he will dedicate himself to new non-editorial activities", explains Be Water.
"After six years and 420 podcast series, I am leaving Chora. Writing this sentence makes me struggle and makes a strong impression - says Calabresi on his social profiles -. I am leaving because I feel a strong call to follow a new path. Tomorrow I will look to the future, today I want to stop and think with emotion and gratitude about what we have built together".
A way of saying that today is not the time for the official announcement, but that it will arrive soon, perhaps as everyone expects at the Festa dell'Unità in Milan where he will be a guest on September 12th, or even earlier. Last July 22, the journalist had already broken the ice, at a PD party in the Milan area, explaining "I'm thinking about it. I'd like to do my part for Milan".
What remains to be understood is how the center-left and in particular the Democratic Party will move towards choosing the mayoral candidate. The Milanese party has always been oriented towards coalition primaries, the date and methods will be decided with the other parties in the coming weeks, but it remains to be seen whether Calabresi's availability will shuffle the cards and it will be decided not to go through the gazebos.
A solution that Action hopes for according to which the journalist "is an excellent reformist candidate for Milan. He should be supported immediately, without putting him through the meat grinder of the primaries", explain Carlo Calenda and Pina Picierno. For Green Europe "first we need to think about the perimeter of the coalition and the program - explains Tommaso Gorini, co-spokesman of the party in Milan - then about the names, even if Calabresi is an authoritative candidate".
On the centre-left there are various personalities, from the Democratic Party and others, who have expressed their willingness to run in the primaries. There is the leader of the PD group in the Lombardy Regional Council Pierfrancesco Majorino, close to the secretary Elly Schlein. Deputy mayor Anna Scavuzzo does not officially comment on Calabresi's step forward but those who spoke to us confirm that the feeling is positive, so the competition will be even more real and beautiful.
The councilor of Municipality 1 and Dem exponent Lorenzo Pacini, who launched the Revolution of Milan campaign some time ago, asks that the primaries be "called as soon as possible. Ours is a left-wing path. We'll see what Calabresi will say". The same goes for the activist Tommaso Goisis: "the center-left needs open primaries to regenerate itself, we hope they will be made official soon", he comments.
If the primaries are being debated on the left and the center-right is still debating a name for Milan. Vice Prime Minister Antonio Tajani rejects any hypothesis that the former director of Stampa e Repubblica could gain favor with Forza Italia: "We are in favor of supporting a centre-right candidate - the Italian leader makes it clear - we have our ideas, we have important names to submit to our allies, both civic and Forza Italia".
In the meantime, Carmelo Burgio makes his debut, the general candidate for mayor of Futuro Nazionale who has defined security as a "priority" criticizing Milan which has now increasingly become "a city for the rich". However, Vannacci's candidate has already explained that he would be willing to take a step aside if unity could be found in the centre-right.
