"There are common battles to be carried on together in Parliament and in the country," Schlein said.
"Let's lock ourselves in a room, even until late at night, in order to find something to do together," Schlein told populist Five Star Movement (M5S) leader and ex-premier Giuseppe Conte, leader of the centrist Azione party Carlo Calenda and Italian Left (SI) Secretary Nicola Fratoianni during Italy's leading trade union confederation CGIL's congress in Rimini.
"Every progressive force" must "put up a united front" against "conservative right-wing forces" Conte said, in response to the idea of a permanent discussion table, dubbed by journalist Lucia Annunziata as the 'Anti-Papeete coordination'.
The title is in reference to right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini's sudden break with a former Conte government in 2019, when he said he was seeking "full powers" at a popular beach club at Milano Marittima on the Romagna Riviera.
"In all honesty we are already a bit late," Fratoianni said, hailing the initiative, while Calenda said he and Conte were already in discussions on the minimum wage.
"There are points we can work on together, and we have a duty to do so," the Azione party leader said.
Schlein agreed.
"... we will fight for a minimum wage, because below a certain threshold it is no longer possible talk about work but it is only exploitation," she said as an example.
“We will fight because there are more than three million workers who are poor even though they work."
Calenda, also leader of the joint 'third pole' with the centrist Italia Viva (IV) party of former PD leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi, had previously ruled out working with Schlein and Conte saying they were too left-wing.
ANSA
