In the Senate, the redde rationem between Renzi and Calenda, with a view on the Europeans

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«The prospect of a liberal-democratic pole capable of uniting the reformists, which despite everything many of us deem necessary, seems definitively shipwrecked amid shouts, insults and broken dishes (a parenthesis: outside the restricted circle of insiders , nobody understands the quarrels between Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda. Indeed, they will only confirm two prejudices and stereotypes: whoever thinks that Calenda is messed up will have found confirmation in what happened and the same will say whoever has always thought that Renzi cannot be trusted).

The Third Pole never born: the story of an announced separation

The analysis, published by Linkiesta, it, is by Alessando Maran: ex Pd and Civic Choice, he was the unfortunate candidate of the (defunct?) Third pole in the recent regional ones in Friuli Venezia Giulia. The point is that even the expert in these hours is finding it difficult to decipher the political thread of a separation that is starting to crystallize in the actual divorce of the parliamentary groups (21 in the Chamber, of which 11 of Action and 10 of Italia Viva, and 10 in the Senate, of which 4 from Action and 6 from Italia Viva). Renzi’s admission in an interview with La Stampa can help us: «Carlo seems to have developed an obsession with me and this is rather curious. All I know is that I appointed him deputy minister, minister, ambassador. I supported him as mayor, MEP and leader of the list together… I have the impression that he was an excellent deputy minister and that he would have been an excellent mayor but that perhaps the leadership of a party is not the most suitable job for his characteristics . In any case it is a problem of Action. We with them, with Italia Viva and with the many who will be there, want to make a list for the Europeans that is an alternative to Meloni and Schlein. I look at the two of them as opponents, not at Calenda ».

Calenda and the knot of denied leadership

Here, the point seems to be precisely the leadership of the Third Pole. In April, Calenda, when he suspected that Renzi did not believe in his leadership and was aiming for an open congress to oust him, anticipated his partner-opponent by blowing up the single-party project which should have been born at the end of the year. “I don’t take money from dictators and assassins, I have never received a guarantee notice”, were the heavy words spoken by Calenda in reference to Renzi’s paid consultancies in Saudi Arabia and the ongoing investigations into him. Slightly too heavy words, for which Calenda later apologized, but which hide a basic conviction of the former minister: the cumbersome shareholder scatters more votes than he brings, might as well continue with only Action’s legs in the construction of the liberal-democratic pole.

Renzi’s either-or: if you don’t make a single list for the Europeans, separate groups

The assembly of the groups in the next few hours, first in the Senate and then in the Chamber, was convened at the request of Italia Viva and as a relevant political point it has the European elections of June 2014: once the single party project has been skipped, it is still alive at least the project of a unique list? Because if everyone goes on his own – this is the argument of the Renzians – then it makes no sense to continue in Parliament with the single groups. And if in the Chamber it is possible to count on an exemption from the president of the Chamber to form two groups, in the Senate the bar of 6 members would condemn Calenda and his members to join the Misto. On this point, Calenda has been vague in recent days: first he declared that everyone will go to the Europeans on his own, then that we can also go together as long as the attacks by the Renzians against him stop (and likewise, that the attacks stop, he naturally also asks Renzi).

Surveys that comfort Calenda in case of separation

The polls comfort Calenda: Action seems to be above the 4% threshold set for the Europeans while Italia Viva would not reach 3%. «What is the use of the single list? To get the Renzians elected with the votes of Calenda…. And in any case, the single list is not mandatory, there can also be two lists that belong to the same European family », is the refrain of the Calendians of the narrow circle. It is therefore probable that in the coming days we will go towards the separation of the groups. With all due respect to the two and a half million voters who believed in the project in the policies of last September 25th.