Ingroia on the broad coalition: “With La Vardera and Onorato, we speak to the people”

“The centre-left must start listening to the people again. Alessandro Onorato? He is following the path I had envisaged back in 2013.” Hold on a moment: Antonio Ingroia is back. And he has made a dramatic entrance onto the political scene. The former public prosecutor in the state-Mafia negotiations, now a lawyer, has chosen to join Controcorrente, the Sicilian regional movement led by former ‘Iena’ presenter Ismaele La Vardera, the architect of a civic-centrist bridge stretching from the Strait of Messina to Alessandro Onorato’s Civic Project in Rome. “The centre-left is going through a difficult period,” he explains to Il Foglio. “It is getting bogged down over the issue of identifying the prime ministerial candidate for the entire coalition.” The broad coalition is searching for a leader: Conte or Schlein? “It would be better to avoid primaries. I would prefer that the electorate not be faced with a choice between the two of them – which risks being divisive – and that there be new and alternative options,” says Ingroia. “We need a unifying figure, beyond personal agendas and internal divisions. And from this point of view, Onorato is someone I believe everyone within the centre-left should look to with confidence.”

After all, the up-and-coming Rome city councillor for Major Events (who would like to hold the primaries after September) is doing nothing new. “He is very effectively implementing the strategy I devised back in 2013 with Rivoluzione Civile”, the list led by Ingroia with the aim of “pursuing a civic-oriented project, on which, however, the centre-left and the M5S of the time refused to reach an agreement. And indeed, in that year’s election results, nobody won. But today we have the opportunity to forge a broad alliance capable of defeating the right,’ says Ingroia. As president of the Azione Civile movement and the Spazio Legalità foundation, he is backing the young Sicilian MP. “I have known Ismaele for many years. I have always admired his courage and have followed his movement with interest,” says Ingroia, “as it fights for an ethical and moral uncompromising stance which, in my view, lives up to the values of my mentors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.”

The three met at the general assembly of Controcorrente and Progetto Civico Italia, held on Saturday and Sunday in Agrigento. “A civic movement can breathe new life into the broad political spectrum. I am offering my contribution.” According to Ingroia, we need to reach out to those who abstain from voting, and there are those who are already doing so. “Vannacci has filled the gap left unguarded since Meloni, as prime minister, abandoned positions that were more purely right-wing,” says the former public prosecutor. “That is why we must not be populist but popular. At the moment, the centre-left lacks the ability to speak to the people, and so the ranks on the right are swelling. Not only in Italy but throughout Europe.”