Elly Schlein and Giuseppe Conte, the winding road of “it can be done” between squares and bars – Corriere.it

Lorenzo Guerini he watches them with severe eyes, Alessandro Guevara Di Battista with disgust in his pupils. So Giuseppe and Elly meet at the bar, with the excuse of having been sent to get milk. The Otter bar in Campobasso, which in English means otter, a sneaky, carnivorous animal with an amphibious nature. Both of them, Schlein and Conte, know how conflicted their relationship is. And they both know they don’t even look a bit like Romeo and Julietwho love each other in spite of their families.

Probably, in the secrecy of their bedroom, they’re there wondering how to stab each other, with a smile on their lips. They tried to stay apart and stay close, finally convinced that their electorates, somehow, don’t want to know that a call to the polls, that of the general elections, will come sooner or later. And still see them without the possibility of contention against the battleship of the centre-right. Maybe in some ways ramshackle, but always capable of joining forces when Hannibal is at the gates. However, they also know that, with scattered administrations permitting, the next real appointment, the one that will decide who is in charge, is called the European elections, where there is proportional representation and alliances do not count. And so they stand there, dominated by the self I would like, I would not like, but if you want, wondering how a rock can stem the sea.

Here they are, then. The waste-to-energy plant in Rome sucks, but would never say a definitive word against the mayor of his party, Roberto Gualtieri. The other even made it a passepartout, perhaps as an excuse, to take out Mario Draghi. Elly is in favor of the Mes, which however you read it is a passport that gives the go-ahead, with advantages but without discounts and second thoughts, to a double-stranded bond with Europe. Giuseppe is for the no, both from the times of Salvini and from those of Zingaretti. You want to turn off the cash taps to the Libyan coast guard, who stop migrants when they want to. He abstained in the commission, thus avoiding leaving only the center-right to put on a fierce face. Schlein stammers a bit in Europe, he doesn’t want to give up riding the banner of peace, but he would never vote against sending arms to Ukraine, splitting the continent and disappointing America. Conte, on the other hand, smells the difficulty of a part of Italy in staying on the front, and dismisses Zelensky even at the cost of appearing Putinian.

When again Five Star hadn’t seen it coming, Elly took them by enfilade. They were used to PD leaders booed, or even kicked out of demonstrations, and she appeared, dazed by the applause. Result: clear overtaking in the polls, like Pantani, which is still going on, perhaps on the wings of the incorporation of Article One. Revenge is a cold dish, and here she is in the square with the Contians, after saying no, then ni, then maybe. And there he had to digest not only Grillo’s balaclava and the anti-Nato square, but also the kiss of the sardine Jasmine Cristallo to Conte. He would have choked her with her hands. But it’s politics baby, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And so photo opportunity at Otter’s bar Campobassohoping that at tomorrow’s Regionals the candidate Roberto Gravina perform the miracle of beating the Melonian phalanx.

It would serve to say, like Gene Wilder when he assembles Frankenstein Junior, that «it can be done». And maybe then try to convince Carlo Calenda, in the future, to be in the game. Leaving off the schooner of the electoral comeback Long John Silver Renzi, the one-legged cook and pirate of Treasure Island, extremely skilled in the kitchens of Montecitorio and Palazzo Madama. The one, so to speak, with the parrot on his shoulder that keeps chirping: «Pieces of eight, pieces of eight».

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