Calabresi is ready: he will stand as a candidate for mayor of Milan.

Rumours had been circulating for some time. Now, however, there is more to the story: Mario Calabresi is set to officially announce his bid for the mayoralty of Milan. The former editor-in-chief of La Repubblica is CEO and editorial director of Chora Media, which produces podcasts and social media content for the Instagram page Will. He is not only director but also owner, as the journalist is the third-largest shareholder in Be Water, the company that publishes Chora and Will. In the coming days, Calabresi is expected to share his decision to enter the race with his colleagues, a necessary step ahead of the official announcement, which is widely anticipated to take place on 12 September – the penultimate day of the Festa dell’Unità in Milan – when the former editor-in-chief of Repubblica will be the guest of honour. After all, it was in mid-July, from the stage of another, much smaller Festa dell’Unità – the one in Vizzolo Predabissi, a town of 3,800 inhabitants south of Milan – that Calabresi first hinted at his intentions. “Me, a candidate for mayor of Milan? I’ll answer as I do when people stop me in the street… Yes, I’m thinking about it. I’d like to do my bit for Milan: it’s my city.”

It is likely that Calabresi will have to face the other mayoral hopefuls in the primaries. These include Beppe Sala’s deputy, Anna Scavuzzo, and Pierfrancesco Majorino, a former (unsuccessful) candidate for governor and member of Schlein’s secretariat, as well as the outsider Lorenzo Pacini, a municipal councillor who takes his cue from New York’s mayor Mamdani, alternating between insults directed at Enrico Letta and pro-Pal proclamations.