The breakup is now official. The law for the third mandate passed on Tuesday 5 November in the Campania regional council. In the Democratic Party there was only one abstention, councilor Bruna Fiola. The others all with Vincenzo De Luca against the indications of the secretary Elly Schlein. Among the Dem parliamentarians there is talk of nothing else in Transatlantic. In the smoking corridor you can also see the secretary, silent for the moment with the reporters. Igor Taruffi speaks for the Nazarene and makes it known that President De Luca’s show of strength “does not shift the position of the national Democratic Party by a millimeter on the limit of two mandates for monocratic positions. Therefore, beyond the vote in the council, Vincenzo De Luca he will not be the presidential candidate supported by the Democratic Party in the next regional elections.”
A wall against a wall, very hard and obvious. To Schlein who had finished his third term, as was the case for Stefano Bonaccini or Antonio Decaro, and asked for a renewal, the response of De Luca and the Dem group in the regional council sounds like a door in the face. Are the councilors more ‘loyal’ to their president than to Schlein? “It’s always been like this, it’s nothing new”, comments a member of parliament from Campania who recalls how at the congress the Dem leaders of the region supported Stefano Bonaccini as a whole. Everyone except Marco Sarracino, current head of the South of the Schlein secretariat.
The Dem doubts
In Transatlantico, however, there is a transversal perplexity about the ongoing clash, opened by De Luca from which Schlein did not shy away. For the ways and for the times. In Campania we will vote in a year, while in 10 days Emilia Romagna and Umbria will vote. Bonaccini says it like this: “We will vote in a year and it’s not up to us to decide on the candidate now. I would focus on Emilia and Umbria now”. But for Schlein, who had promised to end things with the ‘caciques’ since her first speech at the national assembly of the Dem as new secretary, things needed to be clarified here and now. And the promise of renewal this time, unlike other Dem leaderships in the past, was kept.
“We had asked to postpone the vote until after the regional elections, to discuss it calmly. It was De Luca who decided to speed up. He went straight and the secretary couldn’t help but react, she made things clear”, they say from the Schlein area. And those who were personally involved in the discussions with the president of Campania report: “We have tried everything, including Schlein. But when you find yourself facing a wall, faced with those who tell you ‘I’m running anyway’, the mediations are to zero”. And now? “There is time and a way to recover, we cannot afford to hand over Campania to the right”, Debora Serracchiani said yesterday, reiterating the concept today to those who question her in the Chamber.
And Bonaccini again: “There is a national law that prescribes the limit of two mandates. As is known, I would have also changed it. But it is obvious that the laws are respected. Enormous work has been done in recent years by of the De Luca council and I am sure that it is in everyone’s interest to enhance the results together with the entire coalition. Then, in due time, we will sit down and find the right solution for the next elections”.
Indeed, there is no shortage of time. Mario Casillo, group leader of the Democratic Party in the regional council of Campania, elected with 41,000 votes, immediately returns to calling for dialogue after today’s ‘revolt’. And this did not go unnoticed by the upper levels of the Nazarene. Casillo says: “De Luca hasn’t said that he wants to run because the president has recognized that the path of the candidacy will go through alliance reasoning. I absolutely hope that there will be dialogue meetings in the right ways and at the right times. The elections regionals here will be in a year, we have plenty of time and we are convinced that there will be a path that can lead to reuniting two positions that at the moment seem distant”.
The government and De Luca’s unloaded gun
Moreover, De Luca’s ‘gun’ could ultimately turn out to be empty. It is not certain that the rule on the third term will be implemented. The government could challenge it. The undersecretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, Alfredo Mantovano, simply replies with “now we’ll see” to reporters who ask him if the government will challenge the Campania law.
Edmondo Cirielli is clearer: “Given that I speak not as a representative of the government but as a politician because I don’t follow the matter, I think that the government will challenge this law because it is a “regional regulation clearly in contrast with the national one”, he says the deputy foreign minister and Fdi deputy to reporters in Transatlantic.
Forza Italia also speaks out with a joint note from group leaders Maurizio Gasparri and Paolo Barelli: “We are astonished by the obstinacy with which De Luca is pursuing a lost cause. He is passing legislation in an illusory attempt to give himself a third mandate at the helm of Campania , going in clear conflict with the rules in force. We are certain that the government will challenge this text and that very clear decisions will be taken by the Constitutional Court”.
