Between Lazio and Lombardy. Majorino’s candidacy for Pirellone reveals all the uncertainty of the Democratic Party

He says he is “excited and honoured”. It is the indication that comes from the territory, the Lombard Pd chose it: Pierfrancesco Majorino will be the centre-left candidate in the race for Pirellone, against Attilio Fontana and Letizia Moratti. It was feared that yesterday’s umpteenth meeting in search of the right name would end with black smoke. Then the turning point the left turn on the MEP, former councilor in Milan with Giuliano Pisapia and Beppe Sala dealing with reception and migrants, before flying to Brussels. He has been in politics since school and has gone through the various acronyms of the centre-left. Identity and deployed profile.

“We can beat Attilio Fontana’s right”, Majorino said yesterday, emphasizing the candidacy. From today he will be at work “to build, according to shared methods, the strongest possible proposal to change the page in the Region”. In addition to the Democratic Party, it will be supported by +Europe, the Greens, the Italian Left and civic leaders. But it is a choice that somehow also leaves the door open for the 5-star movement. “We know his story: he has always fought for social policies,” Dario Violi, Lombard coordinator of the grillini and regional councilor, told Il Foglio a few days ago. And he added: “We can talk to Majorino, not Maran”. Maran, the other Pierfrancesco, had come forward, running as a candidate and asking for the coalition primaries: he hoped that yesterday’s meeting would approve his proposal. It didn’t go as he hoped: “When they forbid playing the game, winning is impossible”, he said today, speaking of a “serious mistake” and “current logic” and in any case guaranteeing support for Majorino. But in the meantime, someone among the dem, in Lombardy and also in Rome, would still like to try to make an attempt to further expand the coalition.

This is certainly what the Italian Left is asking for: “Satisfaction with the choice of Pierfrancesco Majorino, we are sure that his candidacy can also open up dialogue with other political forces such as the M5”, he says Paul Matteucciregional secretary of the party. But in this case, it is the answer that comes from the other allies, there would be no More Europe: “With the centre-left only if there are no 5 Stars”, he specified Benedict DellaVedovawho has never made a secret of considering Carlo Cottarelli the most suitable name and, in short, would have preferred a choice with less leftist connotations.

However, Majorino’s, although it arrived after a long stalemate, has the merit of being a clearly alternative candidate to the other two in the field, and allows the Democratic Party to rediscover a recognizable profile at the local level. But it is also a decision that reveals the party’s confusion, especially in relation to what is happening in Lazio. Up until the end Carlo Calenda – and many of the Democrats themselves – tried to seek convergence on Moratti with the Third Pole, which in Lombardy exceeded 10 per cent in the last general elections and which, according to polls, would have had a good chance of success. And Moratti herself revealed that she had contacts at the top levels with the Nazarene. With Majorino, the road will be another and more difficult, even possibly keeping the door open to the grillini.

In Lazio however, the Pd seems to have chosen the alliance with the Third Pole on the profile of Alessio D’Amato, thus definitively closing the rossogialla experience of the Zingaretti administration. The obstacle represented by the waste-to-energy plant in Rome is insurmountable, as Giuseppe Conte reiterated yesterday evening, despite the fact that someone at the Nazarene is making one last attempt at reconciliation. Paradoxes and inconsistencies dem, which risk leaving the field open to the center-right also in the upcoming local disputes. As Calenda warns, who obviously doesn’t trust him: “Now avoid messing up Lazio by continuing to beg the 5S. Let’s try to win at least one”.