Sanchez declines comic's plea to come and lead Italian centre left

(ANSA) - ROME, 14 OTT - In an ironic post, Spanish Premier Pedro Sanchez has declined a plea from a leading Italian comedian to come and lead an Italian centre left that cannot agree on who should lead its bid to unseat Premier Giorgia Meloni next year, and has picked Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein for the job. The PD is the biggest party in the opposition alliance and normally the biggest party's leader leads the alliance too, but two-time former premier Giuseppe Conte of the leftist populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) is proud of his status and wants to challenge Schlein in centre-left primaries, with opinion polls making him the slight favourite. Some lft-wingers have grown so tired of the vexed issue that they are calling for a so-called 'federator' or popular third party like well-liked veteran former PD chief Luigi Bersani or telegenic and articulate young Genoa Mayor Silvia Salis to be installed as alliance figurehead. Both Bersani and Sali have publicly ruled themselves out from performing such a role, although Salis has been accused of leaving the door open if she is called by a plebiscite. If the centre left wins, according to a contested new electoral law the alliance leader will automatically become premier. Sanchez posted a playful response to the appeal made by Luciana Littizzetto on the TV show *Che tempo che fa* (broadcast on channel Nove), where she read a letter inviting him to come to Italy to lead the centre left. "Thanks for the kind words, Luciana," Sánchez wrote on social media, "but I have to stay in Spain and cook paella for at least four years. "And anyway, I really can't imagine anyone better for Italy than Elly Schlein." He signed off by quoting a song by late entertainment icon Raffaella Carrà—which Littizzetto had referenced in her appeal—writing: "Yours always, Pedro Pedro Pedro." Amid the centre left's chronic inability to pick a leader, many on the left have said it should first forge a common platform for the general election. One of the main areas of contention is further defence spending and aid to Ukraine, which the M5S is against. Schlein's watchword for years has been that she is "stubbornly in favour of unity". However, she recently pointedly observed that the PD has twice the votes of the M5S. (ANSA).
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