Schlein: Pd ready to vote, Meloni must decide when to go to the elections

We are and will be ready whenever we need to vote. It is Meloni who must tell us when he will take us to the vote, and given that the government has been unnecessarily long, the sooner the better for the country." This was said by PD secretary Elly Schlein at the closing rally of the national Unity celebration in Reggio Emilia.

"Now it's time to accelerate on the common program", he then urged the allies. "It's time to accelerate. We don't start from scratch. A sum of concrete proposals will not be enough, values are needed, we must offer the country a vision of the present and the future". And again: "First the programme, then decide with the allies: either the agreement or the primaries, but if we do them we will win those primaries together, we are not afraid of the vote, ever, because we are the Democratic Party".

Schlein says no to broad agreements. "We who started against the broad agreements make a commitment: we will only go to government by winning the elections with the progressive alliance. No more deals behind our backs," he explained.

Then on Ukraine. “We have supported and will continue to support the people unjustly invaded in Ukraine by Putin's military offensive that continues to move forward,” he said. "We asked Europe to make a diplomatic and political effort, to take an initiative, to choose a European negotiator. I think that the EU must have a single, strong foreign policy that represents all 27, otherwise we risk not being able to accompany the only just peace which is not surrender to the aggressor's reasons."

"We have pursued two fundamental objectives: the unity of the Democratic Party, which is the premise for the unity of the Progressive Alliance, which will finally defeat these right-wing parties. You deserve an alternative after Meloni's failure. We owed this unity to you. We are stubbornly united because you ask us to do so," said Schlein. "Today, after three and a half years, not only is there a progressive alliance that has presented itself together in all regions but which governs and governs well."

"The Democratic Party - he continued - is an essential pivot for the alternative. We want to make it generously available to a broader and more unitary project."

Finally she claims: "They bet that I wouldn't last more than six months and instead I'm making my fourth closing speech and we have to address the issue that it's the first time a secretary has finished his mandate. Today the Democratic Party is more united than ever."