The centre left faces certain defeat
in the September 25 general election unless it puts together a
broad alliance to take on the right/centre-right coalition,
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said on Wednesday.
As a result none of the potential members of the centre-left
alliance should put vetoes on who else can be in it, he said.
"I hope no one puts up vetoes because it is not the time for
vetoes," Sala said referring in part to the meeting that took
place on Tuesday involving Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico
Letta and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who recently left the
5-Star Movement (M5S) to form his own centrist group, IPF.
"The only thing I have asked Letta is to get rid of the vetoes,"
added the Milan mayor, who was elected at the head of a
centre-left ticket but is not directly linked to any of the main
Italian political parties.
"Di Maio told Letta he was willing to be part of the centre
left.
"If some people don't like the idea of broadening the side that
is starting off as underdogs, they should say so.
"But if you don't try to broaden the field, you lose".
The right/centre-right as a coalition looks in a strong position
for the September 25 election, especially with the PD ruling out
running with ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's M5S after it triggered
the crisis of government that led to collapse of outgoing
Premier Mario Draghi's government of national unity.
Giorgio Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, the
only major party that did not back the Draghi government, is
currently top of the opinion polls with the support of around
23-25% of the electorate.
The PD is a close second, polling at around 22-23%.
FdIs allies, the League and Forza Italia, are polling at around
12-13% and 7-8% respectively.
The support for the M5S, which won around a third of the vote at
the 2018 general election, has shrunk to around 10%, according
to the polls.
The M5S looks set to run alone.
The centrist Azione group of former Industry Minister Carlo
Calenda is polling at around 5-6%, but the other centrist and
left-wing groups that could potentially ally with the PD are
polling well under 5%.
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