Bologna, September 4, 2026 – “Walking around the Festa dell’Unità, I don’t see enthusiasm for the primaries. However, if this is the will, we must do everything possible, without waiting months. Then we must focus on changing the government of this country. The sooner Giorgia Meloni leaves Palazzo Chigi, the better.”
Read more Clara enchants everyone, even her brother Valentino Rossi: “He had never heard me live before”
The president of Emilia-Romagna Michele de Pascale is fired up.
He talks about primaries, the center-left alliance, and a broad field. But also about Ducati, just steps from Cevenini Park, with the Borgo Panigale plant, industrial crises, the latest being that of Gaggio Tech, and healthcare.
But, first of all, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, and Italy “have one priority: Meloni no longer president.” But, to make all this happen, one thing is needed: a program. And it must be “clear, with a different perspective,” continues de Pascale. The priorities are healthcare, peace, ecological and industrial transition, management of migratory flows, security. The latter, Bologna teaches, “must exist, but different from how the right sees it.” But, before talking about coalition and leader, for de Pascale “the project is essential,” he repeats in front of a packed Mediterraneo square.
De Pascale’s self-criticism: “Coalition must be credible”
The governor of Emilia-Romagna also makes self-criticism about what the center-left has done and failed at over the years. “The coalition should not start with vetoes, but must be credible, guaranteeing to hold for five years,” continues de Pascale, also referring to what Meloni said yesterday about the longevity of the current government.
“Schlein or Conte? Let’s discuss and find a synthesis”
But, on who will lead the center-left, Schlein or Conte (guest today at 7 pm at the Festa dell’Unità), de Pascale is clear: “I am not afraid to call my people and ask for their opinion. But, to the leadership I say: lock yourselves in a room, discuss, find a synthesis. If we have to hold primaries, let’s do them as soon as possible and then go win the elections.”
The president then, also welcomed on stage with the special guest of the evening, the governor of Puglia Antonio Decaro (“I came to see how to govern a region well”), talks about healthcare and mentions Bologna. “For healthcare, a truly universal system is needed. Bologna is the real national and regional example of this. In an oncological day hospital, the richest and the poorest are found side by side. This is not the case everywhere.” Other priorities are increasing healthcare workers’ salaries and avoiding territorial disparities.
“Ducati is an Italian DNA to defend”
And then, in the panel ‘Free to dream, capable of doing. The concrete proof of governing Emilia-Romagna’, de Pascale, after the introduction by the deputy secretary of the PD of Bologna Eleonora Riberto, talks about Ducati, “an Italian DNA to defend,” incentives for hiring in fragile areas like the Apennines, and the school model, with early openings: “A result of dialogue.” What the broad field needs. To demonstrate unity, cohesion, compactness.
