Calabresi’s push: “Primaries in Milan? The timetable for the process needs to be clarified”

"The primaries" to determine who will be the centre-left candidate for mayor of Milan "will go ahead; we are waiting to see how the national picture develops". This was stated live on Radio Popolare by journalist Mario Calabresi, who has said he is willing to stand as a candidate in the centre-left primaries for mayor of Milan. “I would make a distinction between the rush to hold them and the rush to say when they will take place,” he added. “We need to clarify the timetable for the process; one could even say they will be at the end of February, and that wouldn’t be a disaster. But we mustn’t be left hanging on to who knows when.” 

“I made a choice dictated by this,” he went on to explain, speaking of his decision to stand as a candidate, “I left my job with no guarantees, thinking I’d take part in the primaries, and if things go badly for me, I’ll no longer have my company or the job I used to do. I did it not because I’m looking for something, or because I’m interested in a political career; I’m interested in working for Milan, and now I’m staking everything on this. With the idea that either you make a difference in people’s lives, or doing this is completely pointless,” he continued. During the interview, Calabresi went on to express his hope for an alliance with the M5S: “In my view, it would be important for them to be part of the Milanese coalition, something they haven’t been in the past.” For Calabresi, it must be a broad-based Milanese coalition, expanded “to include those who are on board and those who share the project”. He added: “It’s not as though you need a party membership card to be involved in politics; politics is a vision, a conviction. I think I’ve been more involved in politics as editor-in-chief of La Repubblica than I ever would have been if I’d held a party membership card.”

“If I become mayor of Milan, I’ll sit down with the teams to talk. In light of what’s happening, certain matters need to be discussed again,” the journalist added. “The mayor got quite angry,” he admitted, referring to Giuseppe Sala’s reaction to his criticism of the new San Siro stadium. “I said three things: firstly, that we must be concerned about the neighbourhood’s well-being, the environmental impact of building the new stadium and the demolition of the old one. We are at that stage today.” The second point “is that the neighbourhood must not pay a price without receiving any kind of benefit or return,” he added, “and I say this without meaning any disrespect; I simply want to have my say.”