“Giuseppe, accept a television duel” –

«I challenge Giuseppe Conte, come on TV. He uses me to attack Elly Schlein.” Matteo Renzi throws down the gauntlet to the five-star leader in an interview with Corriere della Sera in the aftermath of Italia Viva’s decision not to support the centre-left candidate, Andrea Orlando, in the regional elections in Liguria. «Conte is so blinded by resentment that he can’t believe that there are people in the world who pay to listen to me – explains Renzi -. This doesn’t happen to him. The conferences are given by Enrico Letta, Romano Prodi, Mario Monti. But Conte doesn’t, because he has so little authority, even as a former prime minister, that no one calls him. However, I challenge him publicly, you accept a confrontation with me on TV or on social media. And let’s see who lies. Because the truth is that Conte has a lot to clarify about foreign policy, starting with the Chinese masks and the Russian soldiers who arrived in Italy during the pandemic. I am ready for a face to face meeting with him, we could have fun on foreign policy and his relations with Russia. Next time I haven’t yet decided whether to run for the House or the Senate, he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for Parliament or the Duma.”

Renzi raises the tone of the conflict: «Conte uses me to attack Schlein too, he wants to weaken the secretary of the Democratic Party. The next few months will tell whether the center-left is guided by Schlein’s appeals or by Conte’s vetoes. I am interested in building an alternative to Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini. The center-right has the majority thanks to the divisions of the opposition. Meloni with 26% of the votes had an overwhelming majority due to the fragmentation of the left. The alternative – underlines the leader of IV – is built starting from the contents”.