Sposetti: “Schlein is like Berlinguer. She’s under attack from male chauvinists. Conte? Plucked from the street”

Rome. “Elly Schlein reminds me of Enrico Berlinguer, my secretary, and a secretary deserves respect and encouragement. If necessary, I’ll collect signatures for the primaries; if necessary, I’ll go door to door, working tirelessly.” And then, what will Ugo Sposetti – the Communists’ treasurer, the senator and friend of Napolitano and Macaluso, the guardian of the PCI’s legacy – do? “If necessary, I’ll defend her against the sexists. There’s sexism directed against her.” Will he also defend her against Il Fatto Quotidiano, which is attacking her following the interview she gave to Il Foglio? “It was a marvellous interview, befitting a prime ministerial candidate – clear and straightforward. Perfect. She’s being torn to shreds by those rooting for a stalemate, those who want technocrats, the saviours of the nation.” Will you also defend her against Giuseppe Conte? “They plucked him off the street – nobody knew him – and told him: ‘Be prime minister.’ So much for democracy. He’s been president with both the right and the left. When I think of Conte, I wonder about the word ‘consistency’. I also wonder what the word ‘reformist’ means.” Is Lorenzo Guerini a reformist? “Who? The Andreottian in Lodi? It sounds like a novel by Arbasino. Every time I meet him, I think of pandas – a protected species. The Andreottians of my day were the Sbardellas.” And Prodi? “Every criticism he makes of Schlein is one more reason to vote for her.”

On the second floor of the Gramsci Foundation, next to the bust of Karl Marx, there is a money box bearing the appeal ‘Workers of the world: contribute’. Sposetti points out to me the three drawings by Guttuso, the photo with Elly Schlein, the secretary, and another, a photo of starving people: ‘To always remind me of hunger. I also have an old poster from the Apulian CGIL, an appeal to donate wine for the workers.” I ask him whether he corresponds with Schlein, whether they speak to one another, and why he defends her – the only one among the party’s elders to do so. Sposetti, who has two old Nokias, just like Gianni Letta, recounts the first time he met her, in Bologna: “There was a book launch with Occhetto and Bersani, and Schlein was there. She had something about her. I went back to Rome saying she would take the party forward, that she was a breath of fresh air, a new chapter. I still believe that, just as I believe she could become Prime Minister. And let me be clear, I have nothing to ask of her; I don’t need a seat to be allocated to me.” Aren’t you exaggerating when you compare her to Berlinguer? “She’s stubborn, and ‘stubbornly’ was a word Berlinguer used.” Sposetti, Prodi’s arch-enemy, one of the mavericks. Is it true he was among the 101? “I explained to Schlein: look, I don’t see things the same way as you do on Prodi; I know you defended him, but I …”. Shall we praise the ‘franco tiratore’? “I dream of a great eulogy for the ‘franco tiratore’. Thanks to the ‘franco tiratore’, we had Einaudi as President of the Republic, instead of Count Sforza. The ‘franco tiratore’ saves democracy.” What’s the difference between a ‘franco tiratore’ and someone who’s defected from the PD? Sposetti, with his white moustache, puffed up like a paintbrush, hands over a book about Teresa Mattei, the partisan and secretary of the Constituent Assembly, and recalls: “She gave up her seat. Both Togliatti and Terracini wanted to put her forward as a candidate, but Teresa Mattei preferred her own battles, for the sake of dignity. It’s a book I’d like to send to the five women in the PD who have left the party.” Is it perhaps an act of treason to challenge the secretary’s line? Sposetti settles back in his chair and replies: “If you leave a party, you go home. Better to be wrong with the Church than to be right on your own. I’m not saying you can’t challenge a secretary; I’m saying you take to the streets to fight a battle, openly. When I read an interview with a reformist, I immediately skip to the culture pages. Anyone within the PD who challenges Schlein today does so only to secure their place on the list, to remind people: ‘I’m here.’ Nothing more.” And what about the “third man”, the unifier? Has he heard of Silvia Salis, the mayor of Genoa? And Bersani? Would Sposetti vote for the ‘third man’? Sposetti then says: “If you’re going to be mayor, be mayor. In this country, whenever the ‘third man’ has been chosen, it’s ended badly. After Monti came Grillo; after Draghi came Meloni. I’m a railwayman and I still believe we need a driver – just one – otherwise we’ll crash. They’ll criticise Schlein for not being clear on Ukraine, ahead of her interview with Il Foglio, but what’s wrong with using the word ‘peace’ a bit more, instead of the word ‘weapons’? There are too many leaders in the PD who want to sell weapons.” Sposetti won’t accept the claim that the left doesn’t care about security and “sent a warm hug to Lepore, the mayor of Bologna”. He opens another of his books, Gianluca Fiocco’s biography of Togliatti, and stops at page 405. We read together Togliatti’s questioning of Reichlin: “Dear Reichlin, can you give me some figures on these matters? How many people sleep in a room in Cerignola? What is the average rent in Bari? What does a farm labourer eat?” For a moment, she brings to mind Barnaba, the caretaker from Daniele Del Giudice’s short story ‘The Museum of Reims’. Like Barnaba, Sposetti also makes her way amongst monuments, chests and treasures, and every time she leans out, she warns: ‘It’ll be here, but don’t make me look for it, it’ll be here…’. On the table I count five print newspapers. Would you like to read L’Unità again? “Let’s not kid ourselves. A party can no longer afford a newspaper. A party must, however, be able to afford a high-calibre leadership. Barcelona is a great team not because it had Messi, but because after Messi came Yamal. People criticise Schlein, but what is the calibre of the PD’s leaders? How many of them would be able to answer Togliatti’s questions? The standard of our leaders has fallen just like that of the daily newspapers. At 31, I was secretary of the Italian Communist Party in Viterbo, and public order was a shared concern. I knew the prefect and the deputy police commissioner. In the evenings, I’d get into the car with them myself. There was a spirit of cooperation that prevented disorder.” In Turin, did the left side with the No TAV protesters? “In that valley, I saw law enforcement officers who were unable to defend other law enforcement officers. I lived through the years of terrorism. I won’t let anyone say that the left is siding with them. If I were Guerini, the chairman of COPASIR, I’d ask how it was possible for a bunch of misfits to infiltrate the ranks, and I’d ask Meloni to investigate where Vannacci’s money is coming from.” Is it perhaps ‘Moscow’s gold’? “I’ve heard that Vannacci’s books are being bought abroad. The right focuses on physical violence and forgets the money that can do more harm than physical violence.” And what does the left forget? “That it can win if it stops harming itself. To say that Meloni mustn’t go to the Colle is a truism. Meloni won’t reach the Colle if the left has the electoral college votes. She won’t get there if the left says that Vannacci is rubbish, that the public square cannot be the fourth level of judgement when it comes to Roggero.” Sposetti stands up and shows the front page of L’Unità, “Addio” – the one that was displayed above Berlinguer’s coffin, with millions of signatures. He reveals: “The ‘D’ in ‘Addio’ bears Alessandro Natta’s signature, but that’s a secret.” And another secret? “Meloni wanted to borrow Guttuso’s La Battaglia di Ponte dell’Ammiraglio because she didn’t like the old painting at Palazzo Chigi.” And why? “You could see the horse’s hindquarters above the podium where she spoke as president. It wasn’t elegant. It was only right to lend it out.” That is how Sposetti took Chigi by storm, just like Ulysses.