Schlein, 38, has already faced heavy criticism from moderate and reformist elements of her party, especially the post-Christian Democrats, after the centre left won just one of seven provincial capitals in Sunday’s mayoral run-off votes, 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.
“The right won the local elections, but there were some positive cases,” Bonaccini said.
“It would be a sensational mistake to blame someone who has only been in the job a few months.
“The PD has got through too many leaders because an internal trial starts with the first defeat.
“It’s too soon.”
Schlein told Instagram followers on 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 the local elections.
“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.
ANSA
