From honey to «rags». The Al Bano and Romina syndrome on the Calenda-Renzi-Corriere.it couple

«Keep yourself free for Monday evening in Milan. Historic “reunion” scheduled. Details will follow.” At 9 am on May 16, 2019, Charles Calenda decides to give some sparkle to the awakening of his many followers on Twitter. Not even the time to wonder which rabbit would have come out of the top hat surprised her in person, ready to go back on stage with him in Milan, namely Matthew Renzi, broke the suspense, always on social media. «Even a historic reunion? And what will it be, Al Bano and Romina?”. Comment from Calenda: «I am Al Bano».

Fans of the cheap supernatural will say they “got it on their own”, scholars of political anthropology will say that “everything was clear right away”, lovers of grandmother’s proverbs will bring up the famous “two roosters in the henhouse”. But what matters is that they were right together on at least one thing: Calenda and Renzi (the order is alphabetical so that no one is offended, this would be even if they were listed with first names) ended up like Al Bano and Romina, even if with an artistic career – so far – decidedly less long-lived. In rags, with dirty laundry politically washed in public, even better if on Twitter; and political projects, such as the sole entity of the Third Pole, which may even arise, with the foresight to foresee a divorce lawyer in the political secretariat.

Their story begins when Renzi calls Calenda to become Minister of Development in place of the outgoing Federica Guidi. And for a while they spin in love and in accord, with the latter recognizing that he has been the former «the best prime minister since the time of De Gasperi» and even pins a sort of gold medal for civil valor on his chest «for having challenged Putin in his presence in St. Petersburg and having received more applause than him».

Then the spell is broken. They occupy the same political space, both consider themselves black belts in reformism and liberalism; they condemn themselves to being in the same spot but basically no, they don’t like each other. And the fuse burns out. When Renzi abjures the commandment «never with 5 Stars» giving the green light to the Conte bis operation, Calenda is there waiting for him: «He wanted to be Macron and ended up like Mastella».

The overpaid international outings of the former prime minister in the lecturer version they offer new powders to the fire of the Action leader. Renzi goes to Saudi Arabia by Bin Salman? «Unacceptable, immoral, dangerous». Take a stroll on Wall Street? “Wrong”. For a year, between 2019 and 2020, they stop talking to each other. Then the birth of Draghi government is the Cupid who shoots the arrow of a possible dialogue and the Municipal authorities of Rome, with Calenda running for mayor against Virginia Raggi and Roberto Gualtieri, put the band back together, like the old Blues Brothers who found themselves united because they were “on a mission on behalf of God”.

Mutual distrust, however, is always lurking. “Let loose!” is the Renzian battle cry, which came out of the smartphone of the leaders of Italia viva every time a social campaign was organized against Calenda. The latter once took a whole day to face Iv’s elites, managers and even simple sympathizers alone, with bare hands, post after post, tweet after tweet, fight after fight. And from quarrel to quarrel, from cold war to cold war, we have arrived at the present day, with the risk that the baptism of the third pole child will find the two political parents in the throes of divorce, with that crescendo of mutual accusations in which it is hard, as in the bloodiest separations, to understand who is to blame, who started first, who did this or that and basically also why. Maybe because good things end without starting, for the story of the two roosters in the chicken coop, for the Al Bano and Romina syndrome. Even if it can happen that you make peace when no one expects it anymore. Perhaps.