D’Alema puts the brakes on the Schlein-Conte showdown and rallies the sceptics at the polling stations. Manfredi: “Let’s avoid the primaries”

The path now seems clear. Giuseppe Conte and Elly Schlein are racing towards the polling stations, challenging each other from a distance and in the polls (two new ones were published yesterday, with conflicting results). Yet there is still a small group hoping for another solution: the mayors, the ANCI ‘no primaries’ faction, and those sceptical of a headcount, such as Gaetano Manfredi, who sends a direct message to the contenders: ‘It’s better if we avoid them’.

Massimo D’Alema brought them together yesterday in Rome, at the Campidoglio, for the launch of the magazine *Italiani europei*. The former prime minister held a private meeting with all the local councillors. Then, in his speech, he first sought to clear up any misunderstandings: “There is no ‘party of mayors’. That’s nonsense, just as it is nonsense to suggest that we support Conte”. But D’Alema did not hold back, in his own way, from criticising the ‘broad coalition’. “We need to turn that ‘no’ from the referendum into a ‘yes’, into a project for Italy. It’s an endeavour that hasn’t even got off the ground yet.” After all, he is convinced that in the current situation, with certain divisions, focusing on the primaries is “madness”.

Speakers at the event range from Manfredi to Roberto Gualtieri, the most eagerly anticipated figures, who have long been regarded as potential unifiers. Some still believe in them. However, also absent from the centre-left line-up are Matteo Lepore, Vittoria Ferdinandi and Massimo Zedda, as well as Beppe Sala. The latest issue of the magazine is entitled “Governare le città, governare l’Italia” and features contributions from mayors, including Sara Funaro from Florence and Vito Leccese from Bari, offering insights and ideas to the centre-left. Notes for Schlein, who in recent days has been sending signals to her local government officials and, not coincidentally, turned up at the Campidoglio yesterday. Manfredi, one of the first successful experiments in a left-wing alliance and the architect of the broad coalition in Campania, says: “Primaries? It’s better if we avoid them.” He fears a settling of scores and rules out any such temptation. “I certainly won’t be taking part.” And if they asked him to act as a unifying figure? “I won’t answer that.” Then there’s Lepore, who has been through the campaign process in Bologna. “It’s fine to avoid them if we can find a leader some other way.” Sala, whose term in Milan ends next year, is also of the same mind: “Primaries shouldn’t be a dogma.” And could there be an alternative among the mayors summoned by D’Alema? “At the moment, the talk is of Manfredi, Gualtieri and Salis. Three excellent names, I can say that.” Otherwise, without a consensus, primaries will be “necessary”. In that case, “I will undoubtedly vote for Schlein”, adds Sala, who is keeping his distance from the controversies within the party, from Renzi to Onorato. Does he have any preferences? “It’s important to have a liberal-democratic force, but I’m not in the running. I feel closer to the PD”. Even the other mayors present, however, would prefer an alternative to coalition primaries. And whilst the mayor of Cagliari, Zedda, says that the party structure must not be “a dogma”, Ferdinandi, who leads a very broad coalition in Perugia, warns: “The programme comes first. The primaries? A trap we’ve fallen into”. And now there is the risk of a backlash, the rifts that the Conte–Schlein contest may bring in its wake. We had a taste of this last weekend regarding Ukraine, but also yesterday when the M5S leader reiterated: “If we keep sending weapons to Kyiv, how are we any different from Meloni?”. In a few days’ time, the M5S will be in Milan with Nova, and the tone could become even more heated.

This is the fear circulating among the Democrats, even though yesterday Stefano Patuanelli (on La7) tried to calm things down, saying that primaries now seem inevitable, but there is always the regional model. “If it is deemed possible to identify an external figure, the M5S is open to it.” But it must be the PD secretary who takes the first step – backwards. This scenario is becoming increasingly complicated in light of Schlein’s remarks at the close of the Festa dell’Unità: she is convinced she will win. This is why the Democratic Party machine has been set in motion. Even the ‘correntone’ faction is making its move, officially promising to back Schlein. But the big unknown remains as to when the vote will take place: this will determine the choice of date for the polling stations. Meanwhile, the faction led by Franceschini, Speranza and Orlando has decided to postpone the Montepulciano event – which all the leaders of the broad coalition are expected to attend – to 23–24–25 October. It was initially scheduled for the first weekend of that month, but Renzi’s Leopolda conference is taking place then, and the Melonellum bill is due to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies. Hence the change of plan.