Schlein: "Ready to be the candidate for Prime Minister. With or without primaries"

 “I am here. Ready, determined, honoured and proud to be able to lead this extraordinary community” and to do so “as a candidate for Prime Minister, with or without a primary, and to stand alongside this extraordinary leadership team in a broad, inclusive manner, to change the very concept of leadership in this country – to which no other woman has chosen to contribute positively in recent years”. This was stated by the PD’s secretary, Elly Schlein, from the stage at the party’s national assembly in Rome. This afternoon, the Assembly is due to vote on extending Secretary Elly Schlein’s term of office, which began on 12 March 2023 and is due to expire on 12 March 2027. The vote is necessary to avoid any overlap between the party congress and the campaign for the general election.

“We are ready,” continued the PD secretary, “even as of now, to sit down with the other progressive forces to finalise a joint programme. Just this week, we drafted a resolution setting out 21 points of shared economic and social policy. But we must all be involved, not act alone; we need the entire progressive alliance that governs in the regions. We must broaden our base, not narrow it.”

Schlein also takes the opportunity to address the party’s reformist minority: “Our discussions,” she says, “are fundamental, but what matters afterwards is to present a clear and comprehensible stance to our voters. It’s not that we have to tread water so as not to upset anyone; we must also debate vigorously, but then work together to emerge from it, each of us proud of the contribution we have made.” The secretary then returns to an old adage: “The fact that there is a section of the establishment that does not want a progressive alliance governing the country is nothing new; it is the history of this country. Together with the forces of the progressive alliance, we have absolutely no intention of ever again doing the right wing the favour of allowing them to divide us.”

The PD secretary also speaks about the protests taking place in the streets these days, which are often quite over the top: “We have nothing to do with the violence and the thugs who perpetrate it – whom we have always denounced,” she says, “but it is unacceptable to use these incidents to silence the questions that have been filling the streets in recent weeks. These are genuine questions – diverse, but genuine – and they share a common thread: they call on politicians to take responsibility for concrete decisions capable of providing answers to students, workers and producers, as we heard this morning. The government is ignoring these voices.”