Enrico Letta has dissolved the reserve: he will be the new secretary of the Democratic Party. The Tuscan politician and teacher, former premier in 2013, communicated it with a tweet around noon: "I am here", he wrote with a hashtag, and in a video lasting just over a minute he formalized his candidacy for the dem Assembly to be held on Sunday, thanking the outgoing secretary Nicola Zingaretti and announcing that he will speak during the Assembly: "I believe in the value of the word - explains Letta in the video- I invite everyone to fly based on my words. Knowing that I am not looking for unanimity but for the truth in relations between us to get out of this crisis”.
“Today I am here – added Letta in the video posted on Twitter – where I never imagined last Monday to run for leadership of that party that I helped found and which is currently experiencing a profound crisis. I do it for the love of politics and passion for democratic values”. In the video, the future secretary of the Democratic Party, who has already received the endorsement of almost all currents, in particular from the outgoing secretary Zingaretti but also from the minority ones and the "ex-Renzians", appeared smiling and relaxed, after the tensions of the recent days which had forced him to take his time before deciding, among other things letting it be known that he would not accept "any diktat".
Initially spread over two days, the Pd assembly was reduced to just one. It will be held on Sunday 14 March, starting at 9,30, completely online and in streaming on the party's Facebook page. At 15 there will be the proclamation of the secretary. It begins with President Cuppi who will inform the Assembly of the resignation of the secretary and will make a speech. After which the meeting will be suspended for an hour and a half to two hours to sign the candidacies. Next weekend is held also the assembly of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi's party that Letta himself was a rival in the succession to Palazzo Chigi, which everyone remembers as far from peaceful. Now the two find themselves in the same government majority and one of the main issues will be whether to resume the dialogue, after the last secretariat of the Democratic Party was very much oriented towards an axis with the 5 Star Movement.
In July 2016 Letta was appointed president of the Jacques Delors Institute, a European think tank founded twenty years earlier by former European Commission president Jacques Delors, also led in the past by Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa. He currently lives in Paris, where he has directed the School of International Affairs of the Paris Institute of Political Studies since 2015. He will be the ninth secretary of the Democratic Party, after Walter Veltroni, Guglielmo Epifani, Dario Franceschini, Pier Luigi Bersani, Maurizio Martina, Matteo Renzi, Matteo Orfini and Nicola Zingaretti.
