Why Meloni is trying to keep Schlein at the helm of the broad coalition

Let’s call it, if you like, ‘Operation Frozen’: don’t take down the opponent, but keep her, preserve her, make the most of her. There is a real, deep-seated concern that has been haunting Giorgia Meloni’s mind like a ghost for months. A concern that is perhaps even greater than the possibility that Vannacci might rise in the polls. The concern is not about her own camp but about the broad opposition. That concern is called Elly Schlein, and Giorgia Meloni’s fear is easy to understand: might the opposition make a move to eliminate her? For months, Meloni has been trying in every way possible to preserve Schlein as an alternative to herself. She engages in dialogue with her from a distance, avoids attacking her, avoids discrediting her, and tries to do whatever it takes to freeze her in place as leader of the opposition. There is also a trace of this strategy in the electoral law: the decision to include the name of the candidate for Prime Minister in the programme serves, naturally, to set in motion a process known as the primaries, within which Schlein may have a good chance of establishing herself as a candidate for Prime Minister. After all, Meloni’s strategy is clear and easy to grasp: if the government she leads turns out to be the longest-serving in the history of the Republic, the credit certainly lies with a majority that has managed, despite everything, to remain united and solid; but part of the credit must also be attributed to the opposition, which, through its battles, its ideas and its efforts to cultivate a vision that does not always command a majority, has enabled the majority to remain in power for so long. Why deprive oneself of this privilege? Operation Frozen.

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