Più Europa: a party conference to back Renzi. Della Vedova: “Agreement with Hallissey and the majority”

“As for Più Europa, my political vision is the one I set out in Il Foglio immediately after the 2024 European elections: to create ‘a non-third pole’, a sort of Margherita – not in terms of content, but in terms of model – capable of uniting liberals and reformists and of exerting influence within a future centre-left government. This must be achieved first and foremost with the existing players, namely Più Europa and Italia Viva. I cannot speak for others, but with President Hallissey there is a substantial agreement to support this direction with the majority of the party.” Bendetto Della Vedova, a Più Europa MP, is fresh from the victory secured on Thursday evening during the party’s Assembly: by 52 votes to 34, members voted in favour of a new congress to determine the political line and elect new leadership. “We’ll hold it in early December,” he says.

But as well as claiming success, he is also putting forward another argument, one that has, at least so far, not been aired. Even the party’s president, 23-year-old Matteo Hallissey, essentially agrees with him on the prospect of an alliance with Renzi and the other centrists. “We have discussed it and, with the party’s new majority, we have agreed on this direction,” says Della Vedova. Riccardo Magi, the current secretary, has a different idea: to go ahead with the broad coalition, but without an alliance with the leader of IV, and instead, if anything, to form an alliance with Alessandro Onorato’s civic groups. “That,” says Della Vedova, “is a civic force, and we are thoroughly political. Furthermore, whilst I would be in favour of drawing up a list open to everyone, that is a force founded under the aegis of Bettini and Conte. We on the centre-left want to be a significant presence, and we do that by joining forces with those who share similar ideas to ours. The history of AVS shows that by uniting – in that case, even across different political families – we can make a real impact.”

However, Magi has already prepared an appeal against the new party conference. He considers what happened on Thursday to be unlawful, as certain conditions must be met to pass a vote of no confidence in the secretary and convene a new party conference. Yesterday, 45 assembly members supporting him sent a formal notice challenging the convening of the party conference to party chairman Hallisey, who, according to the party constitution, is responsible for convening it. The next step will be an urgent application for interim relief to the civil courts. What happens now? “The assembly, by a large majority, has confirmed that the secretary no longer controls the party. Now I hope they do not resort to the courts to block the party’s majority. To think that the judiciary could halt the democratic congress of a national party – which was approved by a clear majority of the Assembly and endorsed by the party’s Guarantee Committee on the basis of a hyper-restrictive, literal interpretation of the party’s constitution – seems frankly unthinkable to me. Everyone – concludes Della Vedova – should remember that, given the current deadlock, Più Europa would not stand in the elections because, under the party’s constitution, if the secretary and the president do not agree on the electoral proposal, the executive committee cannot vote on it. The party congress is the only sensible way forward.”