The Democratic Party that resists in Milan: a trip to the southern suburbs in the polling stations for the primaries. Citizens in line: “We need ideological reform in the party. Youth and healthcare at the center

MILAN. “This is one of the few parties that at least allows the grassroots to express themselves so I’m also coming to vote for my two sons, two angry twenty-year-olds who feel ignored by politics”. Cristina is 58 years old, a life in the pharmaceutical sector and on this Sunday when we vote for the Pd primaries she is queuing outside a somewhat unusual polling station, a hairdresser, in the suburb of Giambellino, in the southwest area of Milan. “I’ve been voting here for many years, this is actually a historic polling station, I voted in this shop already at the time of Prodi” recalls Francesca, a 70-year-old veteran of voting for the Democratic Party. After all, the polls for the regional elections demonstrated that the city led by Beppe Sala is a happy island for the dem a few weeks ago. Despite the victory of the centre-right, which reconfirmed Attilio Fontana as governor, not even the Brothers of Italy managed to remove the first party scepter from the Democratic Party. At 1 pm in the city there were 30 thousand who voted, but in the chats of the presidents of the polling stations there is talk of a stronger turnout in the afternoon, so the hope is not to collect too high an abstention. Also waiting for her turn to vote is Letizia, a 38-year-old mother of two children who while away the wait on two scooters on the nearby sidewalk: «I am a public health service doctor and I see every day how things are getting worse and worse: many colleagues are leaving due to work rhythms and disorganization. The Democratic Party has to fight on leftist issues and we need to start again from health care and culture, without forgetting the environment. I think both candidates are better than the last secretaries we’ve had.’ There is a queue outside the polling station door: «We haven’t stopped for a moment since this morning – explains Giuseppe, a 67-year-old militant – by noon we had already 250 voters so as a polling station we are satisfied. It seems that the turnout is stronger in the city and more patchy in the hinterland but it is difficult to have a precise estimate until the polls close”.

The weather certainly did not facilitate the vote of those who wanted to express their preference and decide whether the next secretary of the Democratic Party should be Stefano Bonaccini or Elly Schlein: today is one of the coldest days in recent weeks (4 degrees on average), intermittent rain and wind, so much so that near the Giambellino Pd club, a stone’s throw from the Aler public housing “a gazebo flew away this morning, so for everyone’s safety we merged it with another polling station” tell the volunteers, who in the Milan area there are over 1,500, spread over more than 300 polling stations throughout the metropolitan area (112 in the city). According to data from the early afternoon, around 160 people had voted at the Giambellino club. Always remaining in the southern suburbs of the Lombard capital and moving to the Pd circle of the Barona district, which groups together four seats, the turnout is continuous. Lorenzo, 25 years old from Lecce but resident in Milan for 8 years, stops just before the stairs leading to the polling station: «I was a Pd member years ago but I haven’t registered for some time. Seeing the debate on TV, however, I wanted to give my contribution because in my opinion Elly Schlein is hitting the point: it’s not enough to be a good administrator, an ideological reform is needed in the party». Among the voters at the polling station in Barona there is also the multi-instrumentalist Mauro Pagani: “I hope that the Democratic Party will take clear decisions after this vote – says the musician – let’s hope for a backlash for the future also in Lombardy”. The comedian Giovanni Storti of the Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo trio also took part in the primaries and, at the moment, the oldest to have voted is 101-year-old Eda (born in 1922), who went to the polling station around lunchtime, accompanied by the son, to one of the seats in Magenta. The woman explained that since the founding of the Democratic Party she has always voted in the primaries and she did not want to miss it today. Elly Schlein is betting a lot on Milan given that, if at a national level the club congresses have rewarded her challenger Bonaccini (52.87 percent against 34.88), in the Milanese area she won by very little: 41.3 percent against the 41.2 collected by the governor of Emilia Romagna.