Renzi, alongside Franceschini, returns to the Festa dell’Unità. The focus: challenges and strategies (dreaming of Salis)

 “I’m very pleased to be here with Dario,” smiles Matteo Renzi. Dario is Franceschini, the former Minister of Culture, leader of the Montepulciano faction, the master strategist, with whom the former Prime Minister will share the stage this evening at the Festa dell’Unità in Reggio Emilia. For Franceschini, this will be his first public appearance since revealing his illness; for the reformist leader, however – whilst awaiting the Leopolda conference and his return to Ithaca – it will be another piece in his strategy, another step towards a broad coalition, despite certain reservations from AVS and, even more so, from the M5S, with Giuseppe Conte going round saying that IV costs them votes. What does Renzi think? “We’re moving forward,” he replies. But as for his presence in the coalition, Dagospia revealed (with a prompt denial from the M5S) that Schlein and Conte had discussed the matter at a meeting.

Renzi has been absent from the stage at the PD’s Festa dell’Unità since 2018; the secretary at the time was Maurizio Martina. Those were different times. Today, however, there is the staunchly unifying Schlein, and there is pressure from the ‘corrente’: “Vetoes are wrong and ahistorical”, as Marco Sarracino puts it. In recent weeks, however, the senator from Rignano has been a guest at various local Democratic Party events – with De Pascale and Bonaccini, for example – drawing applause and filling the auditorium, as in Bologna a few days ago. And whilst Conte is banking on Alessandro Onorato’s ‘Italia’ civic project, the thinking in the Nazareno camp is different. Strategies and electoral alliances, not least with a view to the primaries. Renzi is convinced – as he has been saying for some time – that victory is impossible without the centre. He is playing his part in mounting fierce opposition to Meloni, as was the case yesterday regarding the electoral law, speaking twice in the Senate on the sub-amendment that threw the governing right into disarray. He went on the offensive, pulling no punches, to take centre stage. He did so by aiming for a dramatic effect: instead of delivering his own speech, he read out a statement by Giorgia Meloni from 2014 during the explanation of vote, when the Prime Minister was campaigning for preferential votes and calling on her parliamentary colleagues to show ‘courage’. The very courage that Meloni herself lacked, seeing things through to the end. Shortly before, in the transatlantic hall of Palazzo Madama, he explained to journalists that today “the PD, IV and M5S have worked well together”. He then added that “the Prime Minister is afraid of Vannacci” and “has every interest in voting after the local elections”. But also, according to Renzi’s prophecy, without an agreement with the General, the outcome is practically a foregone conclusion: the right will lose. “Unless the left shoots itself in the foot, which could well happen”. On the other hand, the senator adds, “I haven’t seen a single poll in which, without an agreement with Fn, the centre-right is ahead”. As for the rest, the maths is simple to reach that fateful 42 per cent: “The PD is at 22, the M5S at 12 and AVS at 6. We’re 2 per cent short: there it is.” Italia Viva brings that 2 per cent to the table. “But we can even go beyond 3 per cent.” It was a sort of preview of what he will say today in Reggio Emilia. Although his main showcase will be the Leopolda conference in Florence in early October, the springboard for the election campaign. Work is under way on the programme and the guest list; invitations will be sent out shortly. And then there are – or rather, there would be – the primaries: for Renzi, the temptation to enter the fray himself remains in the background, but another solution is always being sought. The hope remains Silvia Salis. Renzi has said as much in recent hours: “I’d vote for her.” But the mayor of Genoa still wants nothing to do with it; she is opposed to a head-to-head contest amongst allies and reiterates to her aides: “I won’t take part in the primaries – I’d be putting my reputation on the line.” Will she be at the Leopolda? “As things stand, it doesn’t look likely – her diary is packed.” There is also a book scheduled for release, with a tour of 7–8 dates. Gori’s name had also been mooted as a Renzi-backed candidate for the primaries, but of late the MEP seems to be more in tune with the Nazareno faction.

Renzi’s assessments are ongoing, and movements are also continuing in the centre, within the other reformist-liberal camp that is attempting to take shape at present. Today also marks the start of the Festa dell’Avanti, organised by Enzo Maraio’s PSI, in Campobasso. Conte, Schlein, Fratoianni and Bonelli will be together once again. Among the guests are also Alessandro Onorato, Riccardo Magi, Ernesto Maria Rufini – ‘Più uno’, which will soon become a party – and Bruno Tabacci, who is clocking up kilometre after kilometre on his bike. He is training both his body and his (political) mind: “The future of the country is at stake; we’re working towards that.” To shape the alternative centre, without the leader of IV. In these parts, there is another name that could make a name for itself: Franco Gabrielli. To each his own.