He also celebrated, on Tuesday afternoon, at the Chamber of Deputies when the scoreboard officially announced the stumble of the Meloni government on the amendment of preferences in the electoral law, mainly due to the sabotage by a large group of snipers, presumably belonging to Lega and Forza Italia. And it was he, Nicola Fratoianni, secretary of Sinistra Italiana and leader of Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra, who was at the center of the impromptu demonstration outside Montecitorio to demand, together with Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte and Angelo Bonelli, the resignation of the Prime Minister and new elections.
Secretary Fratoianni, you must not be feeling well with this heat in a swamp…
«With the due respect owed to the figure of the Prime Minister, I would like to tell Giorgia Meloni that the term “swamp” is insulting, not only towards the opposition but to the entire Parliament. Meloni herself must finally come to terms with the fact that we are still a parliamentary republic. It is true that she tried, through a new electoral law, to introduce the premiership, but Parliament should be respected, even when it votes against her indications, and it should be all the more respected by someone who holds such a great responsibility as the Prime Minister. This is an element that Meloni struggles to deal with, and it is not the first time she has addressed Parliament in this way. It seems very serious to me.»
But you in the opposition were not in favor of reintroducing preferences? Have you changed your mind?
«We are facing a situation completely different from how Meloni herself and her “bandaged” majority describe it. First of all, because what happened on Tuesday is very clear and politically indisputable. In Parliament, there was a vote of no confidence against Meloni. She had put her face and the weight of her signature on this amendment, had imposed on the government to give a favorable opinion, but her majority voted against her. The opposition, all united, had already declared that they would vote against, for two essential reasons. One general: the new electoral law, in our opinion, is unconstitutional and therefore unamendable; there are no preferences or other amendments that can make it better. If we want to go into specifics, it should be remembered that before that vote the opposition had expressed support for several amendments that provided for the reintroduction of preferences. Some provided for proportional single-member constituencies, some for the system of real preferences, while the right-wing amendment, by Meloni, provided for fake preferences: locked top candidate, preferences that only count from the second place. Anyone who knows the electoral law and the electoral system of this country knows well that this mechanism, for example, results in preferences only counting for parties above 12%. This would mean that, in the current Italian scenario, preferences from the second place would only have an effect for the Democratic Party and Brothers of Italy. In short, an attempted fraud on which the majority has shipwrecked with the parliamentary vote.»
But with a broad left field that one day expands and another shrinks, how would you win and govern, since you have asked for early elections?
«We are ready. We do not expand and we do not shrink, we have now built the framework of an alternative that lives not only in the unity of the political battle (as for example in these hours on the electoral law), significantly grown in recent years with the joint presentation of bills, jointly convened demonstrations (I think of the one against the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza). We, in particular Pd, Avs and the Five Star Movement, have voted the same way on 99.9% of the measures that come to Parliament. So, our alternative is already in the field. It is above all a constitutional alternative. We have said it many times, we want to build a proposal that has at its center not yet another breaking of the Constitution, but its application and its revival. It seems to me a good program.»
Not long ago it was said that the alliance set up for the regional elections in Tuscany could represent a real political laboratory to be proposed again for the 2027 general elections. But in Tuscany there is also Renzi in the majority. Do you want him?
«We have never placed vetoes on anyone. We have never done it as Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra, in fact let me say that sometimes the opposite has happened: someone tried to place vetoes on us. And it did not go very well for them. We do not do it and neither do Giuseppe Conte nor Elly Schlein. We have always said that we are willing to discuss with all those who consider it urgent and necessary to offer the country an alternative to the worst right-wing in the history of the Republic. The point, however, is that we are convinced that it is useful to have a non-self-sufficient, non-arrogant approach, willing to confront anyone to broaden the coalition. But above all, it is necessary to put forward a courageous political proposal capable of indicating and designing real change. There is nothing worse than presenting voters with an alternative that is barely recognizable compared to reality. So, if we win we will invest in the public health system and not in private healthcare, in public schools, research, ecological transition, wages, stuck while inflation continues to rise, in the redistribution of wealth, currently in the hands of very few. We would like to avoid the distortions of international law, because the world that resigns itself to war and the law of the strongest and richest that Donald Trump wants to impose is certainly destined for the abyss. On these issues we have already reached a broad convergence and are therefore ready to confront everyone.»
On one side you have a fragmented majority, as demonstrated by the vote on the electoral law, on the other you are threatened by Futuro Nazionale and former general Roberto Vannacci. How will Meloni get out of what currently appears to be a dead end?
«I would say badly, in any case. Because this competition with Vannacci shifts the public debate and the government’s initiative to a front that is all propaganda, to the detriment of the problems of Italians. This is demonstrated precisely by the fiasco of the electoral law. It is not normal that in the face of the war reigniting in Iran and bills continuing to rise, the government pins Parliament down in a discussion on the electoral law, all designed to lock down a majority that today is politically in evident difficulty… Whatever the outcome of the affair opposing the majority and Vannacci, the political cycle of this governing right is at its end.»
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