“I’m not moving to the left, but Vannacci needs to be reined in.” Calenda speaks out

Rome. Words matter, and not just to Nanni Moretti. And so, on a day when opposing amendments are being tabled on the electoral law, Carlo Calenda, leader of Azione and a former minister and senator, reiterates the words he wrote two days ago on X: “Vannacci is an avowed fascist and a mouthpiece for Putin. His inclusion in a governing electoral coalition would require an extraordinary and coordinated response from all democratic forces”. According to some media outlets, this statement was interpreted within Azione as a declaration of intent to make a move towards the centre-left. Calenda denies this: “I have not received a single message on this from within the party. I have said and I reiterate that Vannacci is an avowed fascist and a mouthpiece for Putin – whether he is paid or not remains to be seen – and that, for these two reasons, he stands outside the democratic sphere.” So, should the run-off go ahead, and if the centre-right were to use the second round to bring Vannacci on board, there would be “a need to stem the tide, full stop”, says Calenda. Meanwhile, the leader of Azione “will not join coalitions incapable of governing Italy”. So what will he do? “I will continue to fight to represent a liberal, reformist and European federalist centre,” he says, whilst on the subject of the electoral law he sees “the same undignified spectacle unfolding time and again: you cannot cobble together a law with a 42 per cent bonus because you think you’ll reach that threshold, yet you also want a proportional system, the prime minister’s name specified, the inclusion of the best runner-up and preferential votes. Then, as the preference votes get rejected, you introduce ‘half-preferences’ which have the sole effect of upsetting the female candidates. After that, you panic over polls based on a sample of a thousand people: Vannacci is too strong! And so we have a run-off. The result? The return of the extreme wings.” In what sense? “If, in the second round – in which, traditionally, fewer voters take part than in the first – Vannacci brings you ten per cent, you certainly can’t ignore him. And Vannacci’s presence in the centre-right, one way or another, would lead to the collapse of the Italian democratic system. And I don’t believe that FI can be part of a coalition, a government, a majority or an alliance with Fn.” Meanwhile, whilst everyone is wracking their brains over the ‘mess’ – the electoral law, according to Calenda – ‘Italians are returning from their holidays to find inflation running rampant. Is it conceivable that the government and the opposition are talking only about the electoral law and primaries?’ Incidentally, it seems that nobody wants them anymore, apart from Giuseppe Conte and Elly Schlein. “Everyone knows that the centre-left coalition is hanging by a thread and that a section of the PD and M5S electorate will vanish, depending on whether one or the other wins. As for the centre-right, it is taking an extreme stance to win votes, but if something serious happens, the country will have to be managed together. I say to Giorgia Meloni: at a time when Italian democracy is reaching a breaking point – given that someone has appeared on the horizon wearing the symbols of Avanguardia Nazionale and saying things you wouldn’t even hear in the worst variety show – wouldn’t a purely proportional system be better, even with a higher electoral threshold, and a government programme drawn up after the election?” The opposite of what they’re saying in the ‘broad coalition’. “And we, against a backdrop of extreme international destabilisation, will continue to do what we’re doing: offer an alternative to a deranged two-party system that achieves nothing. The Meloni government may well be long-lasting and may well have kept the deficit on the verge of 3 per cent, but in foreign policy it gets everything wrong.” Calenda would say these things to the PD too, but the invitation to the Festa dell’Unità hasn’t arrived. Neither last year nor (in good time) this year, despite the fact that, as he says, he goes wherever he is invited. This year, the invitation arrived too late, in the sense that the head of the Schleinian organisation, Igor Taruffi, wrote to the leader of Azione two days ago – regarding a local row between Azione and the PD – a sentence that sounded like a “well, if you want to come, that’s fine”. And Calenda thought: “Well, if that’s the case, then I’d rather not.”