“Oh, but how is De Santis going to Puglia?”. Transatlantic, afternoon. In the PD group, deputies consult the preferences of various candidates. Meanwhile, walking along the corridor of the missing stairs, Piero De Luca and Marco Sarracino pass by in pairs. Son of outgoing governor Vincenzo and confidant of Elly Schlein in Naples. Various kinds of reformers and Schleinians. For once, the Democratic Party appears to be pulling together, encouraged by the wins of Roberto Fico and Antonio Decaro. But the real question, the question that looms poisonously behind the curtain of harmony, is another question. It goes like this: “Why did the secretary immediately go to Naples to congratulate Fico and only then go to Puglia to Decaro?”. In the end, the question – in Nazarene territory – is always the same. It seems to critics and internal observers that the leader has done nothing but contribute to the Giuseppe Conte factory. Even if the secretary, in a press conference at the Nazarene, said that he was ready to challenge the center-right in politics, he spoke to the Avs about the planning table for the 2027 elections and announced: “I have said that I am willing for the primaries, to run in the primaries”. But doubt is not realized. “But which party is Secretary Schlein from?”, was another tendentious objection that emerged during the celebrations. And we are back to square one. In general, it seems that the post-grillino boss is in charge, not the secretary. Just gather the facts. Fico, in Campania, is a gamble for the M5. If the former President of the DPR loses drastically, reversing predictions, Conte’s beautiful song will arrive. Instead, now the former prime minister is claiming victory. All this happened even though Movement in Campania was below 10%. 9% to be exact. In the region with the most former recipients of Citizenship Income and has a five-star gubernatorial candidate, doc.
So, while the bridge-builders of the broad camp – the “stubborn” camp according to Schlein’s guidelines – were busy setting coalition tables and drawing up a joint program, Conte announced a building site “from below”, with members modeled after last year’s Nova assembly, for the M5 program ahead of the political elections in 2027. Schlein was not disappointed. Conte’s words about the program were “welcome”, he said at a press conference in Nazarene, “we must work to build a project for Italy and maintain this programmatic effort starting from the things we have shared”. And again: “Stubborn unity is paying off. We are ready to challenge the centre-right in the 2027 games.” Then he turned to the most painful issue, namely coalition leadership. The real goal of Conte, but also of the moderates in the Democratic Party, who want a civil face “à la Ruffini”, is to relegate the leader to simply driving the party machine. He seemed to challenge them: “A candidate for prime minister? Or we do what the right does: whoever leads the party that gets the most votes is the candidate. Or there is another method. I have already said that I am willing to run in the primaries, to run in the primaries.”
However, precisely from these regions, other potential competitors have emerged to lead an increasingly crowded field.
There is Decaro, who through a vote in Puglia, relaunched himself at national level and is already being withdrawn by an internal minority. Not a few also bet that regional legislatures will not be completed. It was two wins, for Schlein, but it looked like a trap.
