Centre-left, Conte pushes to close common programme within two weeks

Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni, Angelo Bonelli and Riccardo Magi came together on stage at the Manifesto festival in Rome to discuss the common programme of the centre-left coalition. The news currently stems from a single source — a review of the front pages of Italian newspapers — and has not, at this time, received separate independent confirmation.

Giuseppe Conte indicated a faster timetable than the one envisaged by the Partito Democratico, arguing that the common text could be finalised within a couple of weeks. The position marks a push toward acceleration compared with the timeframe that had so far circulated in the coalition’s internal debate, and comes at a moment when the various forces are seeking to show unity ahead of upcoming political appointments.

“I’ve been prime minister twice, a third time wouldn’t add anything for me” — Giuseppe Conte, president of the Movimento 5 Stelle

However, two difficult issues remain unresolved. The first concerns the position on Ukraine, where the Partito Democratico and Più Europa hold a different line from that of the Movimento 5 Stelle and Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra: a divergence that runs through the coalition on one of the most sensitive issues on the international agenda and that has so far not found a shared synthesis among the parties.

The second issue concerns the method for choosing the coalition’s leader. Angelo Bonelli rejected the term “campo largo” to describe the alliance and said he was opposed to holding primaries to select the leader, a position that introduces a further element of friction into the discussion on the common programme, in a context where the leadership question remains open among the various components.

The meeting at the Manifesto festival comes as the coalition seeks to define a common understanding ahead of further political deadlines, but the distances over Ukraine and over the method of selecting the leadership remain, according to what emerged from the exchange on the Rome stage, the two main obstacles to overcome. The timeframe indicated by Conte, two weeks, remains for now a proposal and not a schedule shared by the coalition as a whole.