After months of denying that he is eyeing a spot in
the Italian Senate, Matteo Renzi finally came clean: anticipating the
centre-left primaries (date still TBA), on September 13 from Verona, he kicked off a 75-day
tour of Italy in a motor home, campaigning to become the major candidate of the
centre-left coalition in the 2013 national elections.
Others campaigning for the cente-left primaries are Nichi
Vendola, president of the Puglia region and leader of the Sinistra Ecologia e
Libertà, and Bruno Tabacci, leader of Alleanza per l’Italia. Another candidate was recently announced: head of the Partito Democratico (PD) in the Veneto region, Laura Puppato (www.laurapuppato.it).
Although his announcement was not much of a surprise,
Renzi’s move has ruffled the feathers of the leaders of his own party, the
PD, who have already chosen their candidate, current PD
leader Pierluigi Bersani.
In the lead up to September 13, in media headlines Renzi and PD leaders were, indeed, engaged in a volley of sniping. According to many of his fellow party members,
Renzi is the party’s enfant terrible,
who ‘lacks respect’ for his own party’s leaders and
who lacks an official platform; Renzi has not yet
released his platform publicly but he did say from Verona on his first day of campaigning that his
vision is based on three principles that are needed to ‘make real change
in Italy’: ‘future, Europe and merit,’ the mayor of Florence said from
centre stage in Verona.
In response to those who have criticized him for
not having yet presented an official platform, he offered: ‘It is
our challenge today to bring the idea of “future” back to the
forefront,’ and he intends to do this before presenting the public with a
‘to-do list.’
For the campaign, the mayor also launched a slogan, ‘Adesso!’, and a new website, www.matteorenzi.it,
in which supporters can make 5, 10 or 50 euro donations to fill his
campaigning motor home’s gas tank. Moreover, donations are transparent:
there’s a ticker that shows how much has been donated thus far.
Renzi’s tech-savvy campaign website also seeks ‘web volunteers’ that
will help him campaign online and engage real and potential voters on
Facebook, Twitter (his campaign’s hashtag #renzi2012) and Instagram.
In
response to his detractors in the PD, Renzi promised from the stage
of the Auditorium del Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona to give his
support to the winning candidate even if he loses: ‘I thank Bersani. But
not for the primaries; the primaries are the essence of the PD. If I
loose, I will help he or she who wins.’
Renzi
and his decision to run in the centre-left primaries has also angered
many in Florence, including the opposition in the city council, which
has accused him of ‘abandoning the city’ for a run at
the primaries. Renzi’s response: ‘I do not intend to be a “part-time
mayor.”
This is an administration that does things and I think Florentines are
proud
that the mayor of their city has the opportunity to take on a leadership
role
in national politics, because Florence has always been a national
leader.’
Further,
Renzi has reiterated on more than one occasion that if he is
unsuccessful in his bid, he will finish his term as mayor of Florence.
‘If I lose the
primaries,’ he said, ‘I will not only respect the outcome but also
decline any
underhanded offers I may for a secondary or backseat role. If I lose, I
will
continue to be the mayor of Florence.’
[This article was published in print on September 10, 2012 and updated online on September 13 with additional facts and information.]
