The PD assembly unanimously approved the extension of the secretary's mandate in the event that the deadline falls in a year of political elections. The decision effectively extends Elly Schlein's mandate at the helm of the party beyond the natural expiration of March 12, 2027. In the remote vote there was one abstention and one against.
"I am ready to lead this community and lead it as a candidate for the presidency of the council, with or without the primaries", said the Dem leader at the national assembly of the Democratic Party in Rome. "Now there is a mile to go, we are ready immediately to sit down with the other progressive forces to complete a common program. This week too we wrote a resolution with 21 points of shared economic and social policy. But we need to be all of us, not alone, we need the entire progressive alliance that governs in the regions. We need to broaden, not narrow." "To those who support a draw and think of a leader more open to broad agreements, we say: never more broad agreements, we are here to win with our progressive alliance".
"They had bet against us, they had bet that we would split. Remember in 2022 there was someone who had already written the obituary of the democratic party and instead we raised our heads again. They had bet that we would split", he added, turning to the president Stefano Bonaccini, "but today the democratic party is more united than ever. They had bet that I wouldn't last six months and instead I'm still here. In fact, it's the first time that a secretary of the Democratic Party finishes her mandate", he added.
"The surprise will be us, this time. And that there are those in those parts who don't want a leftist, Palazzo Chigi is nothing new, it's the history of this country. But we are here to surprise them. I can only offer my personal aggravating circumstances, Being a woman, being forty, being free and not really conforming to all the standards" continued Schlein. "But I want to give them some news: we are here to do exactly what our people expect from us. And if anyone doesn't accept that the Democratic Party is free, autonomous and responds only to its base of voters, they will be very right about it. Because if their standards were valid in the country, I would never have gotten here. And I think that this will be the challenge of redeeming all those who have always been told that they couldn't do it, that they aren't adequate, that they have to dedicate themselves to something else, that they are too much or too little. Bonino said, continue to be too much."
"I read that Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli turned to all of us allies to say that yesterday's beautiful, peaceful demonstration by the CGIL, in which many of us participated, also gives us the responsibility to build an alternative that responds to those expectations, those dreams, those needs" said the secretary on the sidelines of the party assembly. "And they ask us to consider doing it together, organizing a demonstration together on the cost of living, on wages, on social justice. We are there, we are absolutely available. The common program that we now have to refine and close, which lives on the many unitary proposals, lives even more if we make it live by intertwining it with the strong demand that there is in a part of the country to improve people's living conditions".
Delrio, I would hope for a series of candidacies in the primaries, including from the Democratic Party
In the primaries "I would hope that there would be a series of candidates, including from the Democratic Party, as Bersani did. But the assembly will decide, the regulations will be written". PD senator Graziano Delrio said this on the sidelines of the party assembly underway in Rome. "Today we made an argument to change the statute, because we all agree that there is no need for a congress now, but that Elly Schlein has a full mandate to participate in the primaries. So today is a day in which we have all expressed our availability on this point. I believe that it is not an obvious availability, but a availability that is the sense of responsibility, it is the sign of the responsibility we have", he added.
The national assembly of Terra Comune
"With the forces of the progressive alliance we no longer have any intention of ever doing the right a favor by dividing us. We will remain united and united to build the alternative, and not alone, but hopefully together with you". The secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein said this at the national assembly of Terra Comune in Rome. "The first thing you give us today is a method: as you said - he added -, here you don't all think the same way about everything, but you have decided to listen to each other, to make your differences a value, and to be able to discuss until you find a synthesis that allows you to take a step forward together. This is exactly the work we are doing with the forces of the Progressive Alliance". "We need to guarantee healthy food for everyone, with a policy to fight food waste and poverty. Here there are many associations that work against food poverty, environmentalist associations: let's join forces, we need to bring a different method to the government of the country, which is one that does not impose answers from above but listens to the best practices and makes them a policy that concerns the whole country", said Schlein. "I think we should also evaluate monthly food support - he added -, overcome the logic of the bonuses of which this government has become the champion and instead try to imagine a tool that also manages to encourage healthier eating behaviours, without paternalism however. We need to give concrete support to low-income families, and be able to build it with an increase linked to inflation. Here - he added in his speech to the audience also followed by Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni - the Avs comrades are rightly drawing attention to the fact that inflation in recent years has literally eaten up the incomes and wages of Italians while the government stood by and watched."
"The extraordinary demonstration of the associations of La Via Maestra and the CGIL, which yesterday peacefully filled the streets of Rome, sends us a clear and precise message: it is time for an alternative to a right-wing government that defends privileges and lobbies, does not provide answers to the country's malaise and problems and does not address the social emergencies of families and businesses. Its only concern is to fill the arsenals and not the granaries", as Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni of Avs said in a note. "Yesterday's demonstration imposes on all the oppositions the responsibility to launch a clear project for the alternative. For this reason we turn to the other oppositions: let's build together a large united demonstration against the high cost of living and to increase the wages of Italians. Let's meet to decide the date and the platform together. The program we have to write lives if it crosses the mobilization of the people. The time is now. We are ready", they conclude. "We will do our best to share a serious project that must not only be successful in the immediate future, because it is not enough to beat this right and send it home, which is absolutely the priority objective. We must change the country, therefore we must govern for five years", said the leader of the M5s Giuseppe Conte, at the national assembly of Terra Comune, in Rome, speaking of the progressive camp.
