Former premier and centrist Italia
Viva (IV) party leader Matteo Renzi on Tuesday urged former
industry minister and centrist Azione (Action) party leader
Carlo Calenda to team up and form a 'third pole' in the centre
of Italian politics for the September 25 general election.
Calenda on Sunday pulled out of an electoral pact with the
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which Renzi once led, after
the PD teamed up with smaller leftwing parties including Italian
Left (SI) and Green Europe (EV).
"Carlo Calenda and his supporters must decide whether to make a
deal with us or not, whether to form a single ticket," Renzi
told TV show Omnibus.
"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 (outgoing premier and former European
Central Bank chief Mario) Draghi to stay on in the premier's
office", said the IV chieìf, 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
populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) of his predecessor as premier,
Giuseppe Conte.
Renzi tiold Ombibus he was not concerned as to who should lead
the potential third pole, whether himself or Calenda.
"The leadership of the third pole is the last of my problems,"
he said.
Renzi told the Italian media earlier that "the door is wide open
fro Calenda to join" while Calenda said "the pact with Matteo is
not a foregone conclusion" and said his party would be the most
likely to take votes from the powerful rightwing alliance.
IV is polling at around 3%, about the same as Azione now it has
split from former ally More Europe (+E) after the latter decided
to stick to the electoral deal with the PD.
The potential third pole would thus have around 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 Civic Commitment (IC) group.
Even if the centre left were to team up in an unlikely
post-election alliance with the centrist third pole, their
combined 36% would still be a long way off the opposing centre
right alliance's combined current polling tally of almost 45%.
That alliance, spearheaded by Giorgia Meloni of the hard-right
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, is favoured to take control of
Italian politics on September 25 and potentially give Italy it's
first woman and first post-fascist prime minister.
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 ex-premier and media mogul Silvio
Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
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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