Elly Schlein: “We the only levee to the right, the EPP betrays its history”

From the correspondent in Strasbourg – The conviction that the Socialists will not lose ground and, indeed, will gain some. And a call to order for a European People’s Party (EPP) that is part of a pro-European history, yet today so forgetful and confused that, should the ballot box produce what the Socialists predict, governing Europe without the Social Democrats will not be possible. Elly Schlein looks to the Europe to come. The Democratic Party secretary travels to Strasbourg to “work with the group” ahead of the European Socialist Party congress scheduled for March 2 in Rome.

The European Socialist family will finalize its electoral and especially post-election strategy. “First the project, and then the team, with lists and names,” summarizes Schlein. Declarations of concreteness that serve to circumvent the question of her possible candidacy, not explicitly ruled out in the circumstance. A sign that reservations are not dissolved and intentions are all to be determined.

If the names are not there, or at least not being said, the program, on the other hand, is already outlined, albeit in broad strokes. Health, jobs, minimum wage, abolition of free internships, ecological transition “that takes the most vulnerable families and businesses by the hand.” The PD secretary charts the course for the path to be followed by the European Socialist Party.

The Socialists’ goal is and remains that of a “huge success, thanks in part to our contribution,” at early June elections, with Schlein assuring that this “will be the case.” In the name of Europe and Europeanism, the real one. “We are the only levee to a majority between the right and the extreme right,” she strongly emphasizes, in open criticism of the dialogue between popular (EPP) and conservative (ECR). Unconscionable alliances. “It is shameful to see the Populars, with their tradition as a political family that helped found the European Union, running after nationalists and anti-Europeans. It seems to me a betrayal of their history.”

Schlein throws down the gauntlet, which is not just electoral. It is cultural and visionary. “We are the levee to this drift that is already taking place, right in Italy, in the true face of Italy,” once a founder of the current European Union, and a staunch supporter of the integration project. The PD secretary attacks Meloni, again, because of her friendship with Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister at the centre of criticism and censure for his conduct. And she clarifies, “There will be no such majority” with EPP and ECR allies. Through the work that opens in Strasbourg, with the meeting between the Democratic Party secretary and group allies, the goal is “to reject in the most absolute way this eventuality.”