The party of Ruffini and Gabrielli is born, it is a challenge to the center

The party is there. Now the signatures are missing. With an assembly at the Salone delle Colonne all'Eur in Rome, Ernesto Maria Ruffini and Franco Gabrielli named Più Uno, a new center formation that looks to the left. In truth, the area is quite inflated, with Progetto Civico, with Italia Viva and Più Europa. To streamline, a federation would be needed, but the project is not on the horizon, given the relationships between the leaders.

The last raise was that of the secretary of Più Europa, Riccardo Magi, who asked for guarantees for Matteo Renzi's possible involvement in the coalition that will challenge the center-right. In short, work in progress. First of all, however, those to guarantee the newly formed forces to participate in the elections, given that the new electoral law requires a heavy commitment in collecting signatures.

To make it more affordable, we need the help of some long-standing party, which lends symbols and parliamentarians. The M5s lent a hand to Alessandro Onorato's civic project. For Ruffini, Bruno Tabacci took the field with his Democratic Center. But there are still a couple of deputies willing to join the project, at least on paper.

"There are 15 days, have faith", reassured Tabacci. The appeal is to Più Europa and the reformists of the Democratic Party. But for now the answers have been cold. Meanwhile, Plus One is on the field. "The next elections will be a watershed between those who respect the Constitution, the Resistance, everything that has accompanied us for 80 years, and those who are indifferent - said Ruffini - If the perimeter of the alliance is the Constitution, it will find many citizens" willing to vote for it. In truth, at the moment the centre-left alliance has to deal with the issue of the leader. A duel is looming in the primaries between the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein and the president of the M5s Giuseppe Conte. But Ruffini would like a different solution: "I hope there is one last burst of generosity and responsibility" to identify a third name. "If there is a primary then it is obvious that we will have to be there."

Più Uno was born from the union of two leaders with a powerful past behind them: Ruffini, former director of the Revenue Agency and Gabrielli, former chief of police. And in fact, among the detractors, there are those who have christened them: "The tax collector and the cop". Gabrielli rejected the joke using another joke: "Always better than the tax evader and the criminal." The common roots are the DC: Ruffini is the son of Attilio, who was minister of Giulio Andreotti and Francesco Cossiga. And Gabrielli proudly remembered his "past with the young Christian Democrats in red Tuscany". The mentor is Romano Prodi, who signed the preface of Ruffini's book: "It is not a blessing" to the party, Ruffini clarified, because "Prodi is a point of reference for the entire centre-left".