Elly Schlein tells Vogue: “I work a lot and in the evening I relax playing the PlayStation or watching The Crown”

«Elly Schlein did to politics what the Måneskin did to Italian music. He has rejuvenated, demasculinized and projected her into an international arena. Since she was chosen to lead the Democratic Party on February 26 – the first woman to hold this role – the 37-year-old former MEP, former vice president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, has not granted interviews to magazines. Yet (or perhaps precisely because of this) everyone wants it, everyone is chasing it, everyone wants to understand where the left will lead».

Thus begins the exclusive interview that Elly Schlein gave to Vogue. Yes, precisely Vogue, instantly earning acid comments like a “typical magazine of the working world” and displaces everyone by recounting her days entirely dedicated to politics but which also find room for an image consultant (her name is Enrica Chicchio).

And, perhaps just like the Måneskin, he loves to surprise and chooses to grant a face-to-face interview with the glossy magazine par excellence. Because Schlein has always, as she herself explains, loved to break down clichés. And she reveals certain peculiarities of her to Vogue, for example «how to make a game changer speech» capable of changing the rules of the game: «I simply try to take a good look at who I’m talking to when I speak. In general, I think we have to be able to connect with the people we want to represent and we have to do it with an inclusive language, which is aimed at everyone and everyone».

On extermism as a political drift
Schlein says: «Let’s pay attention: on what do the nationalists build their rhetoric? On a scapegoat, the origin of all evil is who in our societies has the hardest work. It is always the fault of a “different” person, a migrant, a LGBTQ+ person, a woman who is too emancipated for their tastes. These are the enemies they are trying to build an easy consensus against.

How do you accept failure
For the number one of the Democratic Party: «If I lose, I look the defeat in the face without denying it, on the contrary, I humbly try to understand how to improve, how to get back up. In the world of startups there are far more authoritative people than me who tell how failure is part of a path that leads to a new opportunity».

The risk of burnout
«There are risks when you have a job that absorbs you a lot and which perhaps also implies a responsibility towards others. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed. However, I try to always stay in touch with myself, to listen to myself, to understand when I’m pushing too hard and to defend some spaces. Then in the evening I try to decompress by watching a TV series or playing on the PlayStation». And she also “confesses” what her favorite titles are: “As a genre, I love thrillers with Scandinavian settings, mountain villages, woods… But I’m also a fan of cult series like Stranger Things, Vikings, The Crown”.