Calabresi is in the running. So what about the primaries now? He is joined by Pisapia’s former chief of staff

Primaries: yes or no? For very different reasons, the late-summer dance taking place beneath the Madonnina is not so dissimilar to the waltz stirring up the broader national political scene. As reported by Il Foglio, Mario Calabresi has put an end to the delays. Yesterday, during a meeting with the editorial team at Chora Media, he announced that he would be stepping down from his role as editorial director and relinquishing his shareholding in the company that produces podcasts and social media content (Be Water). Shortly afterwards, he confirmed on his social media profiles: “I’m leaving because I feel a strong calling to embark on a new path”, “one that is not editorial”. Calabresi does not say what that path is, but by now everyone has realised: it is the path leading straight to the highest office at Palazzo Marino. And yet the decision not to spell this out does not seem coincidental. Speaking to Agenzia Dire, Calabresi clarified: “There will be no announcements on 12 September either.” That was the day everyone had circled in red on their calendars: the day on which the former editor-in-chief of *Rep* is due to speak at the Festa dell’Unità in Milan. Yet he is already in the race. So why not speak plainly? Those who know him explain that holding back and leaving a hint of ambiguity is a strategy: to present himself to the broader political spectrum as a candidate, giving Schlein and the other leaders the chance to forgo the primaries or, if they do insist on them, to have the opportunity to dictate his own terms.

Carlo Calenda and MEP Pina Picierno made this position clear yesterday: “The united centre-left should back Calabresi without a primary.” However, his main rival, Pierfrancesco Majorino, remains in the running. And he wants polling stations. As the city’s most established politician, he is convinced he can win. In that case, however, the centrists from ‘Azione’ and ‘Spazio pubblico’ will stand alone. But that is not all. One need only look at who is backing Calabresi to realise that there could be significant moral suasion at play urging the regional councillor and member of the PD’s executive committee to step aside. In fact, it is not only the centrist parties – from Calenda to Picerino and Italia Viva – that are backing the now former director of Chora. But his most trusted adviser in this contest is Maurizio Baruffi, the long-standing chief of staff to Beppe Sala’s predecessor, Giuliano Pisapia, the former mayor of the ‘orange left’ who was Majorino’s political mentor. Some sources even claim that Calabresi has proceeded this far because of a telephone conversation with the PD’s secretary, Elly Schlein—which both sides have consistently denied—that in fact did take place.

There is, of course, also a compelling narrative that could bolster his campaign. His arrival at Palazzo Marino would represent the closing of a circle, a balm for the city’s incurable wound: the murder in May 1972 of Luigi Calabresi, the head of the political affairs office at Milan Police Headquarters and Mario’s father. Furthermore, the former editor of Rep speaks the language that appeals to that moderate electorate – that hard-working middle class made up of respectable professionals – who determine who wins in Milan. A profile like his would be capable of attracting those votes even in the face of a right-wing candidacy from a centrist such as the leader of Noi Moderati, Maurizio Lupi.

Those supporting Majorino, however, see things differently. All the polls show the centre-left clearly ahead of the centre-right, regardless of the candidates. Why, then, should the PD not only forgo selecting its candidate from among its own leaders, but even refrain from holding primaries in order to back a civic-minded and moderate figure such as Calabresi? If primaries are to be held, however, it is understood that they will be a single-round contest and are expected to take place in February. Alongside Calabresi and Majorino, Sala’s deputy Anna Scavuzzo and the Milanese Mamdani hopeful Lorenzo Pacini will also be in the running. It was Pacini himself who was the first to ask her yesterday: “Sono inevitabili, convochiamole al più presto.” Among his detractors, there are those who swear that his candidacy is specifically designed to siphon votes from Majorino on the left, thereby helping Calabresi’s potential bid.