Schlein challenges Conte on primaries: "We will win them" — and warns Meloni: ready for early elections
An estimated 10,000 people filled the concert area at Festa nazionale dell'Unità in Reggio Emilia to hear Democratic Party (PD) secretary Elly Schlein deliver her closing address. Over nearly two hours, Schlein issued challenges to both her prospective allies and the governing centre-right.
A dispute over method — and timing
Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) president Giuseppe Conte has pressed daily for primary elections to choose the opposition's candidate for Prime Minister. Schlein answered directly: "First the programme," she said, but added that if primaries are held, "we will win them. We have no fear of voting, ever, because we are the PD."
Schlein also signalled readiness to face Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the ballot box whenever she chooses to call elections. Observers note the current government has been in office for nearly five years — an unusually long stretch by Italian standards — and Schlein argued that "the sooner the better for the country."
Ukraine splits the potential alliance
The most significant policy divide emerging from the weekend concerns military support for Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Conte stated the M5S would not support continued arms shipments to Ukraine — a position Schlein did not echo.
"We have supported and will continue to support the people unjustly invaded in Ukraine," Schlein told the crowd, explicitly blaming Vladimir Putin's ongoing military offensive. The disagreement underscores the difficulty of uniting a "campo largo" — the broad progressive field — when foundational foreign policy questions remain unresolved.
Building a programme, not just a coalition
The M5S concludes its online platform for policy proposals this weekend, part of its "NOVA — Parola all'Italia" participatory process. Once complete, Conte will bring approved proposals to a coalition negotiating table.
Schlein urged acceleration, warning that a programme "requires values, not just a sum of concrete proposals." She positioned the PD as the "indispensable pivot" for any alternative government.
Whether Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva joins that table remains contested. Conte has expressed reservations about Renzi's limited electoral appeal, but Schlein took a different line: the alliance can and should "expand, not narrow." She welcomed Progetto Civico, the civic list favoured by M5S, while leaving the door open to Italia Viva's inclusion.
Schlein stakes her claim
The PD secretary directly addressed speculation about the coalition's leadership: "I am here, ready, together with you, to face the challenges of the coming months." She framed her tenure as evidence of stability — "they bet I wouldn't last six months, and instead this is my fourth closing speech" — noting she is the first secretary in recent memory to complete her mandate.
Polls show the PD holding steady at approximately 21%, trailing Fratelli d'Italia but leading a broad centre-left coalition that, in some September surveys, edges ahead of the governing centre-right. A YouTrend Supermedia places the "campo largo" at 43.9% against 40.7% for the centre-right.
However, when pollsters ask voters who would make the best challenger to Meloni, Schlein trails Conte, with Genoa mayor Silvia Salis also registering prominently. The numbers reflect a fluid contest still taking shape.
Schlein closed with references to PD history — invoking Enrico Berlinguer and Emma Bonino — and framed her identity as an asset: a woman, aged 40, "free and non-conformist." The challenge now is translating that distinct profile into a unified programme capable of defeating a centre-right still polling as the largest single force.
What happens next
The coming weeks will test whether the progressive parties can agree on substance before fighting over leadership. Conte has made clear that stopping arms shipments to Ukraine must be a "fixed point" in any joint programme — a stance some PD members sympathise with, but which Schlein's words did not embrace.
Without agreement on that question, the broader alliance may struggle to form a credible government platform before the next election, due in 2027 unless called earlier.
