The official announcement had been awaited for hours and the now former secretary of the Democratic Party gave it just before 18.30 pm: data the unequivocal results of the elections, Matteo Renzi is no longer the secretary of the PD. The resignation came during the press conference held in the late afternoon at the Pd headquarters in Largo del Nazareno in Rome, during which Renzi however also said that the congressional phase for the appointment of the new secretary will only take place "after the formation of the new government”, in which the former prime minister also clearly stated that he did not want to participate in any way: “If it is true that we are corrupt and unpresentable, our role in the next government will only be in the opposition. We will not be anyone's crutch, we will not participate in a government with anti-system forces. No mess-ups but responsibility”.
However, Renzi will not "limit" himself to being a senator, elected in his native Florence with 44,16% of the votes, twenty more than the Lega candidate Alberto Bagnai, because he intends to lead the phase that will lead to his own succession which will end in a few months with the party congress but which will not be able to ignore the Primaries: "The next secretary must not be chosen by a fireplace," said the former secretary of the Democratic Party, who will go on to occupy a seat in the very Senate that two years ago proposed to abolish with the constitutional reform.
Renzi began the press conference by thanking everyone for their commitment and "for the extraordinary results achieved by the last government", but acknowledging the defeat without ifs and buts: "We are proud of our government results, now we hand over the keys convinced that we have contributed to creating a better country. But the defeat was clear and sharp ”, she specified for the avoidance of doubt. In explaining the defeat, the now former center-left leader admitted his guilt, but also indirectly attributed to President Mattarella that he had not taken advantage of the 2017 electoral windows, when a pro-European wind had blown in favor of Macron and Merkel ( and against the anti-Europeanists in Holland): “We should have voted at that moment, when the sense of belonging to Europe was at stake”.
A lost opportunity, like that of the previous year's referendum, a real crossroads from which the decline in consensus towards Renzi began, who however still claimed that choice: "If those who won today had voted Yes in the referendum, now they would be able to govern the country thanks to the new institutional system that we had proposed”. Therefore: no internal and external mess-ups, no fireplaces, no direct or indirect support to the governments of the extremists.
But on the timing and methods of Renzi's resignation there is already an open clash in the Democratic Party with the frond that refers to Franceschini and perhaps Gentiloni himself in some harmony with the Quirinale ready to give battle.
