All governments now go through Renzi

The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, greets the resigned Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, this Wednesday, in Rome. QUIRINALE PRES OFFICE / AFP

The phrase, spoken at 1.46 in the morning on January 13, 2012, made him a popular hero.

"Get back on board, now!"

Captain Gregorio de Falco starred in 2012 in the monumental fight against Francesco Schettino, the cowardly commander of the Costa Concordia cruise ship who left the ship before the last trapped passengers did.

De Falco, head of the Livorno captaincy, was a signing of the 5 Star Movement in 2018. But he did not feel comfortable and went to the mixed group.

Today he has just joined the team of construction theorists who should support Giuseppe Conte in the next few hours to close the Italian political crisis.

Eleven senators who hope to attract one more parliamentarian - the last one joined on Wednesday night - and who this Thursday will meet with the President of the Republic like any other party.

But this Wednesday, the day that President Sergio Mattarella began the round of consultations, Conte's numbers were not at all clear, not even with this new political device.

The name of Matteo Renzi appears in all his survival schemes.

And without him, at the moment there is no possible Executive.

This Wednesday the new parliamentary group was officially constituted in the Senate.

It's called Europeistas-Maie-Centrodemocratic.

They are euphemistically nicknamed "builders," but technically they are turncoats.

They have members recruited from Forza Italia, the Democratic Party (PD) and the mixed group.

And De Falco is among them.

Also an old squire of Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia) or members of the group Italians Abroad.

There would still be six other members missing if Conte wanted to use him to replace Renzi's Italia Viva.

There is talk of some more possible income from Forza Italia, but the numbers would still not add up.

In the Chigi Palace they know it perfectly and, in parallel with the operation, they begin to considerably soften their reproaches to Renzi, despite the fact that Conte said that he would not return with him.

The plan of the leader of Italia Viva, who this Wednesday harshly criticized in a video the "opaque" strategy of creating groups in Parliament to replace him, is being carried out.

For now

No veto for Conte

Conte's survival right now depends on Renzi, that there are no vetoes from Italia Viva over him when President Mattarella's round of consultations ends.

And in principle there won't be, sources from the Florentine's environment point out.

In this way, the resigned prime minister could receive a commission to try to form an Executive.

But he would lose his pulse with Renzi, because he will have to lower his head and accept the always arrogant lessons of strategy of the Florentine.

At least, say people close to the prime minister, he would not lose his job.

It could be a technical tie, the two parties coincide.

"We will do everything we can to give stability to the country," said Daniela Sbrollini, one of the senators from Italia Viva.

“The lack of a vision and schedule should go through a reorganization.

We want a stronger government.

A remodel?

Call it what you want, but we are interested in a legislative pact ”, he insisted, opening the possibility of another Executive Conte.

Renzi will go on the attack.

But now it leaves the door open for Conte's re-election.

At least until this Thursday the President of the Republic asks his opinion in private during the round of consultations.

Then, he will try to put other names on the table to get the resigning prime minister out of the game.

“He knows that he will most likely have to swallow with his re-election.

But he will try until the end to find another candidate, ”says a person from his circle.

Meanwhile, Captain De Falco, who this Thursday will be part of the delegation that will see Mattarella, thinks on the phone that both should understand each other.

“They have to realize that the main interest is not in one or the other, it is in the Italians.

Between two relevant political exponents there should not be the category of enemy.

They have to work in the service of the country ”.

His group, he explains, will not give free support to the new government.

The main goal, he says, is to create a special and much more centralized unit to combat the pandemic.

But his support, he believes, must be inclusive and insists on the need for Italia Viva to participate in the future government that "should lead Conte."

"I don't see any problem for Italia Viva to be here and I don't see any real political obstacles."

At this point, where the most plausible Executive would be exactly the same one that just fell, that cry from De Falco would still be valid.

"Get back on board, now!"

Di Maio, a thrown weapon between matches

Luigi Di Maio is a particular politician, a clear paradigm of this time.

With no previous experience, neither professional nor academic, in his current occupation (he is Foreign Minister of one of the G7 countries), he ended up being the leader of the 5 Star Movement, the most voted party in Italy, and vice prime minister of the Government that his training carried out with the extreme right of Matteo Salvini.

Di Maio has always aspired to fill Giuseppe Conte's position at the Chigi Palace. And Conte's rivals know it. That is why the Foreign Minister is always very helpful in these cases. As Salvini already did when he was about to be evicted from the Government, he is repeatedly offered the possibility of being Prime Minister, most of the time as a simple way to destabilize Conte and the M5S itself, divided into a thousand factions. This Wednesday Italia Viva invoked his name again through the mouth of the outgoing minister, Teresa Bellanova. And he answered the obvious: “They give my name to put me against Conte. But the M5S will only give its name to Mattarella ”. The murmur of the proposal is already in his head. And for Matteo Renzi it is more than enough.