Former industry minister Carlo
Calenda and former premier Matteo Renzi reached a deal Thursday
to team up their two centrist parties, Azione (Action) and
Italia Viva (IV), in a so-called 'third pole' of Italian
politics for the September 25 general election.
"For the first time today a serious and pragmatic alternative to
the 'bi-populism' of right and left, which has devastated this
country and ditched (outgoing premier Mario) Draghi, has been
born," said Calenda.
"I thank Matteo Renzi for his generosity. Now Italia Viva and
Azione are together in earnest for Italy".
"If you place your trust in this third pole we'll try to stop
the victory of the right and left on the basis of Draghi's
agenda," Calenda said.
Renzi posted a video of him passing to a soccer player who
scores a goal saying "assists are also useful in politics".
The former centre-left prime minister said "we have decided to
try, and on September 25 you will also find this possibility:
don't be content with the least worst, send people of quality to
parliament."
He said "now everyone must set to work to save Italy from the
nationalists and the populists....we succeeded with Draghi when
no one believed, so let's try again now," said the IV leader,
who was instrumental in bringing the former European central
banker to the premiership in early 2021.
Calenda, for his part, predicted that former allies the
centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the populist 5-Star
Movement (M5S), which started the push to bring down Draghi last
month, scotching its alliance with the PD, would get back
together "two minutes after the elections".
Calenda also commended hard right Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader
Giorgia Meloni, on course to becoming Italy's first woman and
first post-fascist prime minister, for condemning Fascism in a
video message to the foreign press on Wednesday.
The so-called 'third pole', between the opposing centre-right
and centre-left blocs, is currently polling at around 4% but
Calenda is optimistic about grabbing votes from ex-premier
Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, which
has a somewhat similar electorate.
Calenda on Sunday pulled out of an electoral pact with the
PD, which Renzi once led, after the PD teamed up with smaller
leftwing and liberal parties including Italian Left (SI) and
Green Europe (EV), spurring Renzi to take up the baton for the
potential third bloc in Italian politics.
"We are willing to join the team because the Third Pole would be
the great surprise of the elections and only a strong third pole
would be able to ask (former European Central Bank chief) Draghi
to stay on in the premier's office", said the IV chief, who has
been shunned by his former party the PD and its leader, the
former premier he brought down in 2014, Enrico Letta.
Both Calenda and Renzi are campaigning on continuing the
reformist agenda of Draghi, whose national unity government was
brought down last month by a rebellion spearheaded by the M5S of
his predecessor as premier, Giuseppe Conte.
The M5S boycotted a key confidence vote on a cost of living
decree filed by Draghi, because it contained a new waste to
energy plant in Rome that was anathema to Conte's group, leading
to Fi and the rightwing League also pulling support from Draghi
last month.
As a result, the M5S's budding partnership with the PD was also
scuppered, leading Letta to cast around for other potential
candidates for his self-styled "broad field" on the centre left
of Italian politics.
Renzi was never invited to join it but Letta was banking on
Calenda's centrist appeal and has now blamed him for, in his
words, "consigning the country to the right".
However, a post-election match-up between the centre left and
the third pole is still possible, while one with the M5S is also
a possibility.
IV is polling at around 3%, about 1% more than Azione now that
Calenda's group has split from former ally More Europe (+E)
after the latter decided to stick to the electoral deal with the
PD.
The third pole thus has around 5-6% of the vote, far behind the
PD's 23.4% which combined with the SI and EV's 3.4% would put
the current centre-left alliance on just under 30% of voting
intentions, including the extra 2%-plus from Foreign Minister
Luigi Di Maio's new Civic Commitment (IC) group, the latest
splinter from the once powerful M5S.
Even if the centre left were to team up in that unlikely
post-election alliance with the centrist third pole, or also
with the M5S, their combined score would still be short of the
opposing centre right alliance's combined current polling tally
of almost 45%.
That alliance, spearheaded by Meloni who has benefitted from
being the only major party leader who opposed Draghi, is tipped
to take power on September 25.
The coalition also features the far-right League of anti-migrant
former interior minister Matteo Salvini, which is currently
polling at around 12.5%, second to FdI's 23.8% and compared to
the 8% currently enjoyed by three-time ex-premier and media
mogul Berlusconi's FI.
A survey by the Cattaneo Institute Wednesday said the
right/centre-right bloc would get clear and easy majaoirties in
both houses of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate.
Salvini repeated Tuesday that Meloni would be premier if her
party gets one vote more than the League, which appears a
certainty right now.
President Sergio Mattarella is expected to tap the leader of the
winning bloc as premier-candidate.
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