«Painful but thoughtful choice. Pd? Never heard of Schlein»- Corriere.it

About a month after the break with the Democratic Party, Alessio D’Amato has formalized his adhesion to Action. The former Lazio health councilor and key man in the Zingaretti council (thanks to the success of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign) has definitively closed with the dem after he had already resigned from the National Assembly of the Democratic Party in recent weeks in controversy with the secretary, Elly Schlein, for her participation in the demonstration against precariousness organized by the M5S, during which Beppe Grillo had urged the participants to “form citizenship brigades and wear balaclavas”.

To welcome him directly the leader of Action, Charles Calendaduring a press conference in the Senate: “We are very happy to welcome Alessio D’Amato to Action”, began Calenda who expressed his esteem for D’Amato: “He is a person in whom we have not only the highest esteem since today, he represents the good administration of the centre-left and is the author of the best vaccination campaign in the country. He will enter the national secretariat ».

D’Amato said he was very satisfied with his decision: “I took action to give my contribution to strengthen the reformist front”. The reason? «I feel the need – he added – for a clear and concrete language. Pragmatism and concreteness that I have tried to show during the fight against the pandemic” because “the policy must be distinguished by the concreteness of the proposalsAnd”.

On the Pd chapter, D’Amato said he had publicly raised “a political issue with respect to a subordinate posture” of the dem leaders “towards the 5 Stars. Since then I have not received replies or calls from any member of the national secretariat”. This attitude has caused displeasure in the former Pd, since “evidently they believe that this criticism does not deserve attention. I don’t want to make controversy, I take note and my political commitment continues».

The closing of the conference was entrusted to the leader Calenda, who announced further entries into the party: «I believe there will be other arrivals in Action. It will be a long process of arrivals but it has started”, Calenda then reiterated, sending back to the sender the criticisms of an alleged “purchase campaign that we have never carried out”.

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