Centre-Left/Centrists Struggle To Make Common Cause Ahead Of Election

While there are some signals of tension within the centre-right coalition of parties ahead of the 25 September general election, it is between the parties of the centre-left and centre where major divisions are evident. If they cannot be solved it could hand the election to the parties of the right.

• The leaders of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and centrist Action (A), former PM Enrico Letta and former Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda, are meeting presently in an attempt to forge an agreement on whether/how to run their party campaigns in the upcoming election.
• The PD will need to make accommodations with a number of centrist and centre-left parties to build a coalition or alliance if it is to stand a chance of keeping the right out of power. However, local media reports have highlighted the issue of disagreements between the PD and other parties on how various party leaders should run for parliament (whether in first-past-the-post seats or on proportional party lists).
• As well as the PD and Action, there is Action's close ally the pro-EU liberal More Europe (+EU), the Christian left Democratic Centre (CD), and former 5-Star Movement Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio's Together for the Future (IpF).
• There is also the prospect that the red-green Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), formed by the socialist Italian Left and environmentalist Green Europe, could also seek to align with a PD-led coalition. Unconfirmed reports have stated that the leaders of both these parties have been offered positions on the regional party lists of the centre-left. No word on what offer Di Maio might receive.
• Calenda and +EU co-leader Benedetto Della Vedova both seen to be seeking positions as FPTP candidates rather than on a proportional list.