Florence, selfies and smiles (a little tense) for the debut in the square of Elly Schlein, the “companion secretary” – Corriere.it

Ancient screams.
Where’s Elly?
Has anyone seen Elly?
Oh, where’s the secretary comrade? (documentary stuff: comrade secretary, they call her).
Calm. Conte and Landini are also arriving and in any case Elly is down there, submerged by that trap of photographers and cameramen, young and old militants with the Anpi handkerchief around their necks.

There are also workers and the unemployed, principals and teachers, precarious janitors, a leftist crowd with leftist faces, some with the old and worn flags of the PCI, of the Refoundation, and then there are mothers with rainbow scarves and fathers who have come to defend the Constitution and their children from the beatings of the new black squads: all shaken but also moved by a feeling of legitimate curiosity, a mixture of automatic affection and astonishment that has not yet died down, because it was not exactly obvious that they could find themselves, on a day like this, with a secretary leading the Democratic Party and even the procession.

Here, exactly.

“Better stop and wait for the other two,” he suggests full of political wisdom Dario Nardellawith the tricolor sash of mayor of Florence and that certain familiarity with Elly to make us suspect that, despite the fact that he sided with Stefano Bonaccini in the primaries, the talk about his imminent fate (will he be president or, rather, deputy secretary of the party?) have a solid foundation.

She, Elly Schlein, a little pale and perhaps a little tense in this popular debut, with the usual social center outfit, the usual extreme attention not to make mistakes, nothing left to chance, grimaces, words, caresses to the children , while everyone asks her for a selfie, because there is now this absurd fashion even in the parades, and if they asked Maria De Filippi for a selfie in front of Maurizio Costanzo’s coffin, let alone if they let Elly slip away. To the boys who sing “Bella ciao” to her, she says “Thank you and congratulations”, and then, suddenly, very theatrical, she disappears from view, letting herself be swallowed up by the mix and crouching down, cell phone to her ear and one hand to her mouth her.

We are standing on the Lungarno della Zecca Vecchia, under the Ritz hotel, under a suddenly hot sun: with the demonstrators parading towards Piazza Santa Croce, where the stage has been set up, but many of them cannot resist the idea of ​​lingering , and take a look. So Elly ends the phone call and stands up, reappears between pushes and elbows, everyone sways dangerously, there is one who falls, a blasphemy starts, the truth is that the CGIL security service seems to be made up of Trappist friars, nothing to do with the legendary thugs who arrived from the ports of Genoa and Livorno, guys who had biceps like tree trunks and hands like shovels.

Even the general secretary Maurizio Landini it is followed by a somewhat frayed stock. Nardella, tactician: «Elly, here he is…». And then she puts on a kind of fixed smile, and she walks over to him. He is one of those men unable to pretend, and if they pretend, you know it. First they asked him insistently, Pythonesque, if he was happy to find himself surrounded by the flags of the Democratic Party. “But this is everyone’s demonstration,” replied Landini, icily. The embrace with Elly is – shall we say – circumstantial. Good for the photographers, already a little less so for the cameras (many television reporters are furious, they will have to edit the services with crooked images: the fact is that Schlein is still on the move, practically, without a press office, without a communication staff; now: it’s fine to be interviewed and consecrated by the New York Times, but in the media it is here, in Italy, that it must work).

Better, however, the more involved, the hugs with party bosses and bosses. Affectionate with Cuperlo, Provenzano and Zingaretti. Gribaudo, with a look like: I’m very close to her, eh. More discreet Marco Furfaro (note this surname: quick, cultured, pure political talent). Great affection of the protesters for Robert Hope: «Thank you, Minister, for guiding us out of Covid». Then Debora Serracchiani arrived. Wonderful. She had bet everything on Bonaccini, but now she is struggling to be confirmed – all the same – in command of the group in the Chamber: and so here she is, bursting with joy, going towards the secretary as if she were her sister, «Elly, cheers!».

Slowly, we enter Piazza Santa Croce. Beautiful, full of anti-fascism. They say they have sighted Teresa Bellanova and the green gruppettara couple Bonelli/Fratoianni (always a little dejected, after having brought comrade Soumahoro to Montecitorio, the one from «I too have the right to elegance»). The appearance of Joseph Conte reassure the backstage. The great grillino boss who thought he could bite off the Italian left has come to mingle with his purest cashmere scarf, the «duvet», the undercoat of goats, a rarity (of course, it’s prickly). He even gives Elly a T-shirt with his signature (just Elly’s): “In defense of the school and the Constitution”. Then they withdraw, they talk. Rumor has it they made an appointment for next week.

A reporter says, bitterly, that one could have asked Senator Bruno Astorre for an opinion, who always had a key to understanding, a cunning, a political intelligence. But where is now the phone does not take, unfortunately.