To make sure “the democratic people live”, Elly Schlein promised to be “a problem for the government of [Giorgia] Meloni.” At age 37, the deputy, born in Switzerland and daughter of two academics — an American descendant of Ukrainian Jews and an Italian daughter of a lawyer and anti-fascist politician — won the Democratic Party primaries, becoming the first woman who lead this formation of the Italian left.
Schlein’s victory in the weekend’s primaries, in which more than a million supporters took part, came as a surprise as his opponent, the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Stefano Bonaccini, was seen as the overwhelming favourite.
Elly Schlein thus succeeds former Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who has been head of the PD since March 2021. Letta resigned following the party’s weak showing in last September’s parliamentary elections, in which she won 19% of the vote, compared to 26% of the vote. the Brothers of Italy, Meloni’s neo-fascist party. The head of government was one of the first to comment on Schlein’s victory, saying she hoped “the election of a young woman will help the left look forward, not backward”.
With the next election scheduled for 2027 – but Italy is known for its political instability – the PD appears in the latest polls with about 17%, practically tied for second place with Giuseppe Conte’s 5-star movement, both well behind the Brothers of Italy, it comes with 30% of the voting intentions.
A scenario that Elly Schlein promises to change, by moving the PD further to the left. “The priority is the fight against all forms of inequality,” Schlein declared shortly after his victory, summing up what will be the main thrust of his leadership: “the right to decent work, the need to face the climate crisis with the utmost urgency to offer” . And he concluded: “We must restore trust where it has been broken”.
Elena Ethel [os nomes de ambas as suas avós] Schlein was born in 1985 in Sorrengo, a small village near Lugano, where his father taught in Italian-speaking Switzerland. In 2008, aged 23, she graduated in law from the University of Bologna, with a dissertation in constitutional law. She took part in the campaign in Chicago that would lead Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, after being involved again four years later, in his re-election.
In 2013, Schlein joined the PD and was elected a member of the European Parliament the following year, fulfilling her mandate until 2019. In 2020 she assumes the vice-presidency of the Emilia-Romagna region, with her Coraggiosa (Brave) movement playing an essential role in preventing the extreme poverty of the right from coming to power in this traditional stronghold of the left.
Schlein, a deputy since last year, returned to the PD shortly before the election, having left in 2015 because he disagreed with the course taken by the then leader, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Now he promises to unite the formation and work “for everyone”.
With a mathematician brother and a diplomat sister, Schlein rarely talks about his private life, but in a 2020 interview, he claimed to be bisexual.
Source: DN
