The anti-fascist Conte: another accolade from the left in Sant’Anna di Stazzema. Alignment with the ANPI on Kyiv

It is Giuseppe Conte with the red handkerchief, the anti-fascist. Not that the leader of the Movement had anything to prove in this regard, but tomorrow’s event will mark another occasion of great symbolic and political significance. The event is to be held in Sant’Anna di Stazzema, to commemorate the Nazi-Fascist massacre carried out in 1944: the former prime minister, in his official capacity, has been entrusted with delivering the official address that will bring the ceremony to a close. And this is no small honour, on the left.

On 25 April, it was Elly Schlein who spoke from the small hamlet in the province of Lucca. To mark the 82nd anniversary of the massacre, Mayor Maurizio Verona, of the PD, has invited Conte – who will take the floor after opening remarks by the mayor, the Democratic Party governor Eugenio Giani and Minister Antonio Tajani, representing the government (and this has not always been the case in Sant’Anna di Stazzema recently). Representing the Nazareno, alongside the Tuscan institutional representatives, there will be a delegation led by Chiara Braga, the party’s parliamentary group leader in the Chamber of Deputies.

Conte’s invitation, which dates back a month, did not go unnoticed. It has been reported that some at the Nazareno turned up their noses a little. But even on the ground, among activists, some controversy arose, culminating in a petition on change.org – which had gathered nearly 550 signatures by last night – calling on the mayor of Verona to ‘withdraw’ the invitation to the M5S leader. The reason? Conte’s stance on Ukraine, which is instead viewed by those contesting the Stazzema council’s decision as a new form of resistance to Putin’s “imperialist and authoritarian” aggression, which mirrors that of the Nazis and Fascists. The former prime minister, as is well known, no longer intends to support Kyiv with weapons: this is a conviction that in recent weeks – even amidst the internal divisions within the broad coalition, with Schlein ‘firmly’ pro-Ukraine and willing to use all necessary means – seems to have become even more pronounced. And tomorrow he will find renewed support in the ANPI, the Partisans’ Association led by Gianfranco Pagliarulo, which is much more in tune with the Movement on foreign policy than it is with the PD. All this whilst the Ukrainian issue, together with rearmament, is becoming increasingly central even in discussions regarding the scope and leadership of the broad coalition and in the run-up to the primaries – with roadmaps and regulations, more or less explicit, continuing to be speculated upon.

Yesterday, the M5S’s social media channels relaunched the call to sign up, at a time when leader Conte is extremely active, capitalising on every gap left by Schlein; the secretary’s August has been decidedly more subdued than that of her ally-rival. The two are expected to meet in Cernobbio in early September, but in the meantime the M5S leader has stolen the limelight this August, even going so far as to engage – following his hearing on the handling of the pandemic – in a war of words with the Prime Minister, to which a new chapter was added yesterday: “I challenge Meloni,” said Conte, recalling his appearance before the Covid committee – a moment with the aftertaste of a red-and-yellow coalition government for which even some in the PD feel a touch of nostalgia. “All I ask of you,” Conte pressed, “is the most basic transparency: produce Delmastro’s chat logs and all the documentation relating to the payment of 100 million to your friend Bianchi.” This concerns Jc Electronics, another case linked to face masks, over which the clash continues (Bignami and Malan, from the Five Star Movement, have gone on the counter-attack) and is set to continue in this vein at least until 14 September, when the second round between Conte and Meloni’s supporters is scheduled to take place, again in the committee of inquiry. In the meantime, the M5S leader will continue to prepare for the race for leadership of the broad coalition: the temptation of primaries, as we wrote in Il Foglio, seems to have caught on with Matteo Renzi too. But the real rivalry remains that with the PD secretary, and this could prove dangerous for the entire anti-Meloni coalition. Fratoianni is also convinced of this; together with Bonelli, he has been acting as a go-between for the two rivals for months, and is calling for “personal ambitions” to be set aside. Otherwise, as he explained to Corriere dell’Umbria, if the sole objective is to win the primaries, “it would become more difficult to make our alternative credible”. And the broad coalition would have no choice but to hope for a proportional representation system.