The voices of the square of Bologna for Elly: “Raise your voice, make yourself heard”. Then the boos for Sbarra

“I want to go to the square for a bit,” Elly Schlein says to her collaborators at one point, after spending a good half hour shaking hands and taking selfies behind the stage in Piazza Maggiore. Many of her approach to greet her in her “his of her” of her Bologna of her, where the Pd secretary lived, studied, worked in her previous life. She greets her friend Maurizio Landini, but this time they only exchange two quick words, after all they had already met last Wednesday at the Filcams CGIL event at the Leopolda in Florence.
The dem leader stops to talk a little longer with the secretary of the Cisl, Luigi Sbarra, who embodies the union most in dialogue with Meloni. It is no coincidence that at the time of his speech from the stage, he was challenged by the slice of square hosting the CGIL members: boos, boo, even “stupid”, they shouted at him, while he returned to ask the government for “a strong signal for a confrontation permanent”. So much for the unitary platform and the three joint demonstrations convened in May (after Bologna, the next ones in Milan and Naples). Schlein does not notice it, tries to reach the barriers to go among the demonstrators, but is still blocked again: there is the Pd mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, there is the secretary of Sinistra Italia, Nicola Fratoianni, there is the labor manager of the Democratic Party, Cecilia Guerra. There is no Giuseppe Conte, engaged in the electoral tour for the administrative offices, but there is a small representation of the 5-star Movement: two flags, about twenty people, some municipal and regional councilors, the only parliamentarian is the Romagna senator Marco Croatti. There are, above all, journalists and TV cameras who want a statement and so the secretary returns to the attack on the May Day decree, “an unholy choice, which increases the precariousness and blackmailability of the workers”. A Cisl delegate grimaces when he realizes that Schlein is wearing a T-shirt with the Fiom logo, the metalworkers of the CGIL: in front of it is written “the fight always pays”.
The head of Organization of the Democratic Party, the Bolognese Igor Taruffi, who accompanies her like a guardian angel, hastens to explain: «It is a shirt linked to the battle of the workers of the Saga Coffe, on which Elly spent herself personally as vice president of the ‘Emilia-Romagna, a symbolic choice, nothing more’. A pensioner from the Uil, who evidently doesn’t feel offended, embraces the secretary for yet another selfie, a “memorable moment”, he laughs satisfied. But “now let me go to the square”, relaunches the secretary, between one kiss and another. And finally she makes her way, popping up among the Cisl flags, where she finds two doctors from the emergency room of the Bologna hospital, who call her and remind her of her commitment to protecting public health: “We have exhausting shifts, we’re on the run, not forget about us.” Then the Pd leader is immediately sucked into the red shirts of the CGIL, she greets everyone with “good fight”, patiently waits for the clicks of the cell phones, responds to requests. «Raise your voice, you need to make yourself heard more», a gentleman shouts at her. “More than this? All right…” she replies. But her recurring phrase is: “Do not disappoint us” or “you are the last hope”. There is also someone who seeks controversy: “You have to change your line on the war, so you can still recover consensus”, a boy shouts at her, but this time she lets it go and continues the crowd bath. Meanwhile, from the stage, Landini is warming up the square, so full as to demonstrate that “the union has consensus, while the government does not”. The “general strike” chorus rises, the CGIL secretary does not exclude it, but warns: “There is no threat, it is done”. Then a worker who arrived from Naples tries to press the dem secretary: “Elly, call the strike!”. Schlein smiles, hesitates, but a lady replies for her: “He’s not the leader of the CGIL”. True, even if he would have taken many votes here in Piazza Maggiore.