Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly
Schlein told people on Instagram Wednesday to "settle in" for a
long haul because the centre left has a lot of work to do to
rebuild and give the country hope despite a drubbing in local
elections at the weekend that confirmed the rightwing
government's enduring appeal to voters.
"Change is not a gala lunch. Make yourselves comfortable, we
have a long job to do. We won't stop. We have to rebuild a
perspective giving hope to the country. Let's do it by sticking
to our task," she said on the Instagram live feed.
The PD leader, elected as the centre-left party's first woman
head at the end of February, added that it was "unacceptable" to
use the cash from the European recovery fund to buy weapons, and
said that a commissioner that knows the lay of the local land
was needed to oversee reconstruction after the Emilia-Romagna
floods and landslides that killed 15 people and caused billions
of euros of damage to property, infrastructure and crops.
Schlein, 38, has faced heavy criticism from moderate and
reformist elements of her party, especially post-Christian
Democrat ones, after the centre left won just one of seven
provincial capitals in Sunday's mayoral run-offs, Vicenza, a
city where the successful candidate told party leaders not to
attend rallies, and lost long-time Marche fief Ancona for the
first time in 30 years.
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