No more surplaces, tactical waiting and respectful silences about this and that. The secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein closed her speech in the party assembly by bringing out a phrase that had been stuck in her throat for a while: "I am ready to lead this community and lead it as a candidate for the presidency of the council, with or without the primaries". Until now he had made it clear openly, now he said it himself. And then, to avoid any misunderstandings with the reformist minority, the party leaders presented an agenda to make it clear that, if there are primaries, only Schlein will run for the Democratic Party: the assembly, meeting at the Nuvola in Rome, approved with 578 yes votes, 3 against and 26 abstentions. In short, Schlein sent two messages. The first, on the ambition for the race for Palazzo Chigi, was addressed to the president of the M5s Giuseppe Conte. Because he too cultivates the same aspiration. And who will challenge Giorgia Meloni is not decided by the Democratic Party alone, a discussion with the allies will be needed. The M5s wants to choose with the primaries. Which in fact now seemed obvious. Instead, with that "with or without", Schlein called them into question. On the other hand, for her the main option is another: lead whoever represents the strongest party. That is, the secretary of the Democratic Party. But now the primaries are knocking. And then Schlein also launched the second message. This time the recipient was the internal minority, the PD reformists who, with the MEP Giorgio Gori, had once again asked the party to present itself in the primaries not only with Schlein, but with more names.
To definitively dismiss the hypothesis, the organizational manager of the Democratic Party Igor Taruffi, Schlein's right-hand man, announced an agenda to put in black and white that "the national assembly designates the secretary as its candidate". So she just runs. The reformists remained silent, their leader Lorenzo Guerini took the floor to say that "support for Schlein to win the primaries is not a discussion", but announced his abstention on the agenda. And after the approval, Senator Filippo Sensi posted: "Unity yes. Unanimity no. There was no need for forcing". In truth, however, the assembly had been convened for something else: to extend the secretary's mandate, which otherwise would have expired in March 2027, in the midst of the election campaign. The modification of the Statute passed with the unanimous vote of all the factions of the party. The secretary gloated: "They bet that I wouldn't last six months - she said - and instead I'm still here. In fact, it's the first time that a secretary of the Democratic Party has finished her mandate". And then, on the elections: "We will be the surprise" even if a part of the establishment "does not want a left-wing person in Palazzo Chigi. 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".
That "I'm ready" at Palazzo Chigi was also a response to the federator's hypothesis of the third name that continues to circulate. "To those who support a draw and think of a leader who is more open to broad agreements, we say: never more broad agreements - said Schlein - we are here to win with our progressive alliance". So, now think about the program. And to broaden the coalition at the center. Maybe in IV. "There's a mile to go, we are ready immediately to sit down with the other progressive forces. 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." And then, to the reformists: "We are people who love each other even when we argue, even if sometimes they look at us strangely from the outside, they expect blood to flow."
