PD's Schlein sees scope for 'broad opposition convergence'

(ANSA) - PERUGIA, JUL 20 - Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein said Saturday that she was optimistic about the chances of Italy's opposition parties forming a 'broad field,' going from the Centre of the political spectrum to the Left, in order to challenge Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling centre-right coalition.
    "As the Democratic Party, we are stubbornly in favour of unity everywhere, we are even more so after the good result we saw at the local and European elections (recently)," Schlein told reporters on the sidelines of an initiative in Perugia against the government law bringing 'differentiated autonomy' for the nation's regions.
    "When there is a credible candidate and when a shared project is put forward based on concrete priorities, I am convinced that a broad convergence can be achieved among the parties that want to build an alternative to the right".
    A factor in the ease with which Meloni's coalition won the 2022 general election was the fact that the opposition parties were divided.
    The so-called 'broad field', featuring the centre-left PD, the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) and two centrist parties, Azione (Az, Action) of former industry minister Carlo Calenda and Italia Viva (IV) of former premier and ex PD chief Matteo Renzi, has been tried with some success at regional and local elections but not at the national level.
    On Friday, Renzi said that the only hope of taking on the Right was via cooperation with the centre-left after an attempt to build a centrist 'third pole' with Azione failed.
    IV and Azione ran together at the 2022 general election but they stood separately in June's European elections following a row and neither party obtained the threshold needed to have a MEP elected. (ANSA).