Renzi alla Leopolda: 'Enough arguments in the centre-left, let's discuss ideas'

"Clint Eastwood said: 'If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster'. Politics isn't based on personal relationships, it's done on the basis of ideas. So I say to Conte and everyone else: if you want to be on substantive discussions, we're here. Maybe with a German-style contract. Continuing to argue in the center-left means giving the country to Meloni and giving the Quirinale to Meloni." Matteo Renzi said this on the sidelines of the Leopolda. "I will not be complicit in the fact that Giorgia Meloni goes to the Quirinale - he added -. I brought Sergio Mattarella to the Quirinale, I did not bring Matteo Salvini to the Quirinale. So I don't need to give guarantees: I need to bring the votes into a bet that has clear stakes for everyone, and therefore that no one can afford to go beyond these stakes".

"After four years of Meloni's government, families are poorer, people are leaving, there is less money in their pockets, bills and mortgages cost more, if the centre-left starts arguing and loses the elections they should be locked up. So we are the ones who say: let's worry about the problems of families and we'll leave the skirmishes between leaders aside. I'm in a centre-left which is the alternative to the centre-right". "This is why at this moment I think that, before thinking about who will lead, who will decide the primaries, it is important to think about ideas - he added -. I want a reformist, guaranteeist centre-left, then it is clear that whoever has the most votes will lead.

We'll see if it's Conte or if it's others, but that's the least of the problems. We can't start from who is driving if we don't know where we're going." For Renzi, "therefore the problem is not who is leading. After that, personally I am one of those who thinks that never before has there been a need for great attention to the issues of guaranteeism, reformism, the living conditions of Italians, not the Conte-non-Conte chatter, which I personally believe is absolutely not important compared to the debate we are experiencing".