At 37, the deputy, the first woman elected at the head of the Democratic Party, presents herself as the reverse mirror of the Giorgia Meloni far -right head of government.
By Olivier Bonnel (Rome, Correspondence) and Allan Kaval (Rome, correspondent)
“We have won, it’s a small great revolution.” With a broad smile, Elly Schlein thanked her supporters in the evening of Sunday, February 26, after winning the primary of the Democratic Party (PD, Center left) . For the first time since its foundation in 2007, the formation brought a woman to her head. At 37, Elly Schlein succeeds Enrico Letta, who had announced to leave her post, two years after taking control of the party, following the latter’s rout in the legislative elections of September 2022 won by Fratelli d’Italia ( extreme right), the party of Giorgia Meloni.
Nothing suggested Elly Schlein’s victory after this primary which mobilized a little over a million sympathizers across Italy. With more than 53 % of the votes, the deputy beat Stefano Bonaccini, the president of the Emilie-Romagne region (North) of which she was a right-handed time in the regional administration. This one, with its popularity in its region of origin embodied a more centrist wing, while its rival has clearly positioned itself on the left, emphasizing equal salary, climate justice or civil rights . “Yesterday [Sunday] around 2 pm, we saw a big crowd in cities compared to the provinces, and we thought that the miracle was taking place,” said Francesco Boccia, PD senator, who coordinated the campaign for the new secretary.
A consecration for this native of Lugano in Italian -speaking Switzerland, an American father of Ukrainian Jewish origin and an Italian mother, both professors at university. It is in Bologna, laboratory of the left in the country, that Elly Schlein is studying law and forges her political activism. In 2008, then 2012, she flew to the United States to volunteer for the campaign of Barack Obama. The following year, she made a name for himself by becoming the spokesperson for the “Occupy-PD” movement. The young people then protest against the “betrayal” of PD parliamentarians who have made the election of Romano Prodi fail to the Presidency of the Republic. At the time, the activist Schlein already carried a project to renew the leaders of the party.
“The face of the rupture”
A reforming will always intact, and which has even become the engine of its campaign. “This party has become the image of a closed ruling class that does not open the door to young people and women,” she confided to the world on February 14, the day after the local elections in Lombardy and Latium, where The PD has been widely preceded by the right and far right coalition in power. Today, his campaign has attracted the youngest and city dwellers in the peninsula.
You have 49.37% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.