Prodi: "Schlein can beat Meloni, open primaries are laughable."

"I think Elly Schlein can beat Giorgia Meloni, but she needs to have the breadth of action and coalition necessary to defeat her." Romano Prodi spoke thus on Otto e mezzo on La7, answering questions about a potential duel between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein in the upcoming elections. The broad field will have to choose a leader: Schlein or Giuseppe Conte? Could an outsider emerge between the Democratic Party secretary and the M5S leader? "Open primaries make me laugh. Either everyone agrees on a foreign Pope, or the leader of the largest party will be the one to lead," Prodi stated. 

Program chapter: "A wealth tax would be a wonderful thing, but it can't be done. I reiterate that when it comes to taxes and migration, the right wins. Either we seriously reflect on what a different economic model might look like, or the right wins with the Thatcher model, which is still going strong. Inequalities, however, are constantly increasing, and sooner or later these situations will explode," says the former prime minister. "I'm speaking at the European level: the left loses because it doesn't have a plan to reduce injustice. If it doesn't focus on equality, what kind of left is it?" he asks. 

Italy's position in a tense international context is also being discussed. "Rearmament is not just a matter of how much money we spend, but how we decide to spend it. A common European army represents a solution, also to avoid wasting funds. Europe wouldn't reach the level of China and the US, but we could defend ourselves in the south and east. Meloni doesn't want a common defense? Then she will spend more and more on national defense to be less and less influential."  

Within NATO, the United States' actions are disruptive: "Trump broke NATO, not us. Let's be clear: if it's an alliance, the allies must speak out; if there's a single dominant country and the others must remain silent, it's no longer an alliance. If we had a European army, we'd be engaging in dialogue with him." 

(Adnkronos)