Magi and Tabacci’s group has been scuppered: the prospect of a grand coalition recedes

Rome. A dramatic turn of events in the Chamber of Deputies’ library. With 9 votes against and 6 in favour, the Presiding Committee of Montecitorio, late in the evening, rejected Riccardo Magi’s request to form a new parliamentary group under the name ‘Più Europa-Centro Democratico, Stati Uniti d’Europa’ alongside his colleagues Bruno Tabacci, Luca Pastorino, Benedetto Della Vedova and Aboubakar Soumahoro. The votes against from the majority proved decisive, whilst the opposition voted in favour of Magi’s request, with the exception of the (deliberate) absentees from Azione and Italia Viva, MPs Roberto Giachetti and Antonio D’Alessio. “All the requirements for forming the group were met, but the Bureau decided to play electoral politics,” Magi commented immediately afterwards. “In October 2022, the Noi Moderati group was authorised – a list that had secured 300,000 votes; Più Europa secured 800,000, but someone, for political reasons, chose to go against parliamentary practice,” added Tabacci.

On the one hand, the rejection nips in the bud the first glimmer of a possible unified centrist list with Più Europa and Ernesto Maria Ruffini’s Più Uno (which counts on the support of Tabacci’s Centro Democratico); on the other, it puts both parties in an awkward position. Without the parliamentary group, both Magi and Ruffini – who are likely to be working together at this stage – will have to collect signatures to submit their electoral list. As Più Europa has members in the Mixed Group, the requirement will be ‘reduced’ to 1,500 (instead of 6,000) per constituency. This is the same number of signatures that Onorato’s Progetto Civico and Maraio’s PSI will also have to collect; the M5S has ‘lent’ Senator Luigi Nave to these parties to ease the burden.

In short, with this vote, Matteo Renzi confirms his lead over his centrist rivals. IV, in fact, does not need to collect signatures. This imbalance makes Ruffini’s desperate efforts even more complicated; for days he has been trying to convince everyone to form a united list. He checks his phone and calls Renzi, Onorato, but also Vincenzo Spadafora and Enzo Maraio. But to no avail… Certainly, the vote by the Bureau reinforces the IV leader’s conviction that he is worth more than all the other centrists. At this stage, the former prime minister prefers to join forces with Onorato rather than “side with those who are fielding Ingroia as a candidate and make punitive justice their banner”. Let the others decide which side to take. On the other hand, even those in Progetto Civico are convinced they can go it alone. “The polls don’t pick us up because ours isn’t a vote based on public opinion, but on the preferences of local administrators,” they murmur in those circles. In private conversations, Onorato even claims he can reach three per cent on his own, thanks to strong results in Lazio, Campania and Sicily. In Lazio, he is banking on his ability to bring people together; in Sicily, on the presence within Progetto Civico of Ismaele La Vardera and his Controcorrente movement, which polls on the island put at 20 per cent. Finally, in Campania, he is counting on the support of the Mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, who in recent years has snatched many top vote-getters from the former governor and mayor of Salerno, Vincenzo De Luca (the latest being Giovanni Porcelli, who, in the last regional elections, on De Luca’s own civic list ‘A testa alta’, garnered over 20,000 votes). In short, this situation also sees a battle within the battle for votes in Campania. Whilst Onorato is banking on Manfredi’s votes, the leader of IV is counting on the thirst for revenge of the man who, in recent years, has felt let down by the mayor – Vincenzo De Luca, to be precise – a most welcome guest at the Leopolda, whom Renzi has already said he sees as the best person for the Ministry of the Interior.

In this contest to see who comes out on top, Magi and Ruffini – who have also been affected by the group’s rejection – may now find themselves having to choose which of these two centres to join, because, as AVS leader Angelo Bonelli remarked yesterday as an outside observer: “In the end, I believe there will be two centres.”

Gianluca De Rosa