The first day of Alessandro Onorato’s new era at the General Assembly of Progetto Civico Italia

It is not X Factor, even if it might seem so given the crowd, the sounds, the applause and the triumphant march with which ‘the team’ from Progetto Civico Italia – as its leader Alessandro Onorato describes them – takes to the stage to the beat of the music (a Rino Gaetano track fading into a solemn pop-rock melody). It is not an American convention, more ‘blue-Democratic’ than ‘red-Maga’ (Progetto Civico’s merchandise – mugs, T-shirts and caps – plays on the mantra ‘it can’t be done’, which, as we shall see, is to be read conceptually in reverse: ‘we will do it’). Nor is it Matteo Renzi’s Leopolda or a Forza Italia event of yesteryear, even if the enthusiasm shown by the delegates who have gathered for the General Assembly towards Onorato – called by name – combined with the waving of flags, may bring to mind previous self-motivational political atmospheres (then comes the substance, and the context is quite different).

Not to mention the promotional video, produced by the Onorato team using AI and inspired by a Ridley Scott advert for Apple set in the Orwellian year of 1984: here, front and centre, are the centre-right leaders – from Giorgia Meloni to Matteo Salvini, Antonio Tajani and Roberto Vannacci – seated in the audience alongside Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, representing the collective status quo; and here is a child taking a run-up with a hammer in his hand. He runs, runs and runs towards the glass screen bearing the words ‘it can’t be done’, and yet he does it: he hurls the hammer (any resemblance to the mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis – a ‘great friend’, as Onorato will describe her – is purely coincidental). Finally, Onorato himself appears, playing the role of the one who accompanies the child towards the screen of the new truth: ‘When they tell you it can’t be done, that’s when you make it happen,’ it reads. But what can be made to happen?

All will be revealed on Sunday, when Onorato sets out the ten policy points with their allocated funding. Meanwhile, the music beckons the local councillors – who have descended from all corners onto the remote Shangri-La hotel – down to the basement (the taxi driver has a brainwave as he ventures into the heart of the EUR district, a neighbourhood far removed in spirit and place-names from Elly Schlein’s Portonaccio: Ah sì, ma è quello dei cinesi!"). But the Chinese – name aside – are nowhere to be seen in the recesses of the conference bunker, and the bunker metaphorically gives way to the hall where Onorato reels off the figures – “In four months,” he says, “856 people from our workshops have produced over 400 proposals”, and the workshops will continue to work right up until the closing speech, when the aforementioned ten points will be revealed one by one.

During a reality check, the reporters ask: what do you make of ‘Più Uno’, the political project of the former director of the Italian Revenue Agency, Ernesto Maria Ruffini – the man who said two days ago that a single list is needed for the centre of the centre-left? “No bandwagoning,” says Onorato. And what if, in the end, you’re the only ones left going it alone? “If only,” comes the quip. MEP, Democratic Party president and former governor of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini, a wise guest, warns: it would be disastrous to go to the polls split into three factions. But it is the Sicilian orator Ismaele La Vardera, founder of “Controcorrente” and now president of the PcI, who reiterates: “Progetto Civico can run on its own.” Enzo Maraio, leader of the New PSI, a new member of the PcI and joint holder of a future electoral ‘master key’ thanks to the generous gesture by Senator Luigi Nave of the M5S (see: ‘no to the excessive collection of signatures’), says: let’s start with Onorato to ‘unite and innovate’. And the primaries? “Onorato would be an excellent candidate.”

A blast from the past: "Si può fare, si deve fare" was the title of a pamphlet containing a speech by Bettino Craxi to the Central Committee of the PSI, way back in 1982. Another blast from the past: former Republican leader Giorgio La Malfa makes an appearance. The discussion centres on teenagers and safety, on the eve of another Saturday of street protests, and on the suburbs – Onorato knows those of his native Ostia well. Discussion turns to a wealth tax (position: “neither here nor there”), a culture of action, and sex and emotional education, with actress Elena Sofia Ricci speaking with painful sincerity and tackling the glass ceiling head-on (Meryl Streep earned less than Robert De Niro) alongside the socially-conscious comedian Chiara Becchimanzi. “It’s not easy to engage in politics with public money,” says Onorato, perhaps subliminally responding to those at the Shangri-La who are wondering about potential funders. Carlo Puca, a journalist and councillor for the Democratic Party mayor Gaetano Manfredi, who is attending the convention today, describes Naples as having “become optimistic”. The co-leader of the AVS, Angelo Bonelli, however, is not optimistic.

Tomorrow it will be the turn of the Democratic Party mayor Roberto Gualtieri and the Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, but Elly Schlein will not be there. Giovanni Malagò is also expected; Health Minister Orazio Schillaci was due to attend but will not be appearing. The first evening of the new era – the era of "it can be done" – draws to a close.