PISTOIA. Matteo Renzi has won back the people of the Pd. This is the most significant fact of his performance at the communal Festa dell’Unità that welcomed him not as a prodigal son, but as an integral part of its family album.
Interviewed by the director of Il Tirreno Cristiano Marcacci, Renzi covered all topics of national and foreign politics, expressing himself in a direct, almost conversational manner, with a Florentine accent that helped make everything lighter. The common thread of Renzi’s thought (today) was the unity of the left. A genuine chimera, a sort of phoenix whose pursuit always and in any case has its charm.
To make it clear with a practical example that he, perhaps more than Schlein, is stubbornly united indeed, Renzi reminded the cheering comrades that the “knight’s move,” that is the dethroning of Salvini during the Conte one government, was conceived precisely at the Festa dell’Unità of Santomato in 2018: «I removed Salvini from the Viminale and brought Mattarella to the Quirinale».
And applause from an audience that, for over an hour, erased from the convolutions of the brain that, after all, Renzi not only left the Pd slamming the door, but also founded a competing and competitive party. Of that party, that is Italia Viva, he claimed the essential role for a victory in the 2027 elections that the left truly believes in: «I claim the role of the “qb,” that is the just enough. We reformists can and want to be decisive for the coalition’s success. Where we were not wanted, like in Liguria or Basilicata, the qb factor went to the right’s advantage.»
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But how do you change Italy, asked the director, to put the Renzi mantra into practice? «The honeymoon between Meloni and the country – said Renzi brandishing the microphone – is over because, as certified by Istat, the recession is quantified with a shrinkage rate of 8.1 percent. Not because we were good. She is in trouble because people see at the gas pump or when they look at the shopping receipt the effects of her total failure. Last time she won with 26 percent because we were divided into three. If this time it should happen – he predicts ironically – something like that, the left’s people would chase us with pitchforks.» And laughter from the whole audience, which however immediately darkened when Marcacci brought everyone back to harsh reality: «In Saxony – said the director – the right, the extreme right, is over 44 percent.»
This fact was enough to bring the debate onto tracks of absolute seriousness. «The problem is all Meloni’s. If she agrees with the general (Vannacci, editor’s note) she will never set foot in Europe again. If she doesn’t, she almost certainly loses. But the point is another. Vannacci’s voters must be listened to, not underestimated or treated as fools. If we don’t listen to what the electorate wants to tell us, there will always be a Vannacci who does,» replied the leader of Italia Viva.
But to listen, a commonality of intent is needed, and here lies one of the knots that entangle the opposition. «But how can you talk about unity if you always emphasize the difference between the broad field and the center-left?» Marcacci then pressed. «You can and must be united while being aware of the differences – Renzi replied – because one thing is us, another is a preferential axis with the 5 Stars».
Finally, for Renzi, the future involves accepting the challenges of the future, not regretting a twentieth-century lifestyle that can no longer return. «We must be the ones to pull the strings of the algorithm that also guides the moves of artificial intelligence, we must not be passive entities».
And still on the subject of intellect, Marcacci concluded by addressing Renzi directly. «What Bonaccini said about the cultural level of right-wing voters you would have said in better words.»
Big smile from the former Dem secretary, who prefers to gloss over the subject: «We must listen to the voters, not judge them».
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