For a month he was the only candidate for the presidency of the Lazio Region. He will no longer be one today, when the center-right makes his name official. But Alessio D’Amato practically did not campaign. The day after his appointment, instead of taking advantage of the fact that the opposing camp was still empty, the regional health adviser had to hold very long coalition meetings, freezing the table due to the insistent requests of the allies to reopen the dialogue with the M5S. Failed mission. Giuseppe Conte explained several times – last Saturday – that at Lazio he will not ally with the Democratic Party and the Third Pole.
Even the demonstration with which Enrico Letta presented D’Amato and the candidate Majorino in Lombardy turned out to be a sensational failure. In Piazza Santi Apostoli, on Saturday, the government maneuver was supposed to be contested, but a few hundred people arrived. At the same time, Giorgia Meloni had a full house in Piazza del Popolo.
An own goal for the Democrats and an alarm also for the candidate for governor of Lazio, who knew how to touch on all the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, also discharged by the unions. CISL did not participate in the mobilization against the budget law. The secretary of the CGIL Landini has been in dialogue for some time with the leader of the M5S Giuseppe Conte and also the UIL, like the CGIL, does not spare harsh criticism of the Nazarene, but also of the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri and the outgoing regional registered administration Pd.
In short, the Democratic Party and D’Amato lose both the unions and the left. And this also has repercussions on alliances in view of the regional elections to be held next February 12th and 13th. The divorce between Verdi, by Angelo Bonelli, and Sinistra Italiana, by Nicola Fratoianni, has been consummated for days in Lazio. The first with D’Amato, the second with Conte. A separation “only at the regional level” that does not harm the national political project. We will see.
The relationship between D’Amato and Sinistra Civica Ecologist is also difficult. The gubernatorial candidate proposed to MEP Massimiliano Smeriglio the position of president or coordinator of the electoral commission. An offer politely declined. Sinistra Civica Ecologist prefers to advance some qualifying programmatic issues in the electoral campaign, such as regional basic income or the circular economy. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has so far insisted above all on the issue of the waste energy recovery plant, which was also the subject of some election posters that appeared in the capital in recent days. In short, the Democrats seem to have chosen other topics and, without adequate guarantees about the appreciation of the left, its values and its programs, the hypothesis of an agreement between D’Amato and the Sce seems complicated. It is not certain that in the end the agreement will not be reached, but the pressures of Giuseppe Conte himself would also be very strong on Smeriglio.
“We haven’t decided anything, there is no immediate marriage”, explained Andrea Catarci, exponent of the Sce and councilor of the Capitol, after last Friday’s meeting with the presidential candidate. «There are so many common points that give us hope to be able to deepen and be able to play an important role as an ecological civic left. We found ample response in our 10 programmatic points. We continue to call to expand the coalition until the bitter end.
Even with regard to 5 Stars, a unitary offensive must continue above all on the part of the candidate», explained Catarci. D’Amato will certainly have to do without the political forces that make up Coordination 2050, oriented towards choosing the M5S. “In the coming days we are going to bring together the political forces of the left and environmentalists, the social and civic energies that have shown here a convinced interest in participating together with the M5S in the electoral challenge for Lazio”, explain the promoters Stefano Fassina, Loredana De Petris, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Paolo Cento, Giuseppe Libutti and Claudio Grassi, who faced Giuseppe Conte on Saturday. The assembly was attended by the regional councilor Valentina Corrado, the secretary of the Italian Left Lazio Massimo Cervellini, Andrea Gargano of Art 1, the regional councilor of LeU Daniele Ognibene, the regional secretaries of the CGIL and UIL, Natale Di Cola and Alberto Civica, the president of Arci Roma Vito Scalise, the spokesperson of the Third Sector Forum of Lazio, Francesca Danese, the coordinator of Italia in Comune Alessio Pascucci, as well as local representatives of Lega Ambiente and other environmental associations. For now, only the greens remain for Alessio D’Amato, in addition to the Democratic Party and the Third Pole of Carlo Calenda (the true king of the gubernatorial candidate) and Matteo Renzi. As for the relationship between Dem and M5S, at Lazio they seem irrecoverable after Conte’s accusations against D’Amato over the tax loss of 300 thousand euros established by the Court of Auditors to which the commissioner appealed.
«Giuseppe Conte is guaranteed day in, day out. We all remember when, in order not to lose the post of Prime Minister, he did not say a word about the Lega 49 million scandal. Conte’s use of the question of justice is truly ignoble and obscene, thunders Andrea Casu, Democratic Party deputy and secretary of the Democratic Party of Rome. Controversy that will end up benefiting the right, relegating D’Amato and the M5S to a dispute for second place. Which will be worth little: just the election to the regional council of the candidate for president who will come after the center right. Cold consolation.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
