Italy Democrats weigh election alliances, Letta tells Repubblica

Bloomberg

Italy’s Democrats are weighing possible alliances for the country’s national elections in September and will decide in the coming days and weeks on the makeup of any new coalitions, party leader Enrico Letta said in an interview with la Repubblica published Sunday.
Opinion polls show the Democrats, or PD, running a close second to the right-wing Brothers of Italy party led by Giorgia Meloni. The rightists are already part of a wider electoral coalition, including Matteo Salvini’s League and ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
Letta has been expected to weigh linking up with some center and center-left parties to form a coalition that could defeat the Meloni-led bloc. The PD chief, who served briefly as prime minister, told Bloomberg News on July 21 that polls don’t yet reflect his party’s strength, as he anticipates voters to eventually decide to punish politicians who turned their back on outgoing Premier Mario Draghi.
Draghi stepped down as prime minister last week, after three parties in his coalition — Forza Italia and the League from the center-right, plus the anti-establishment Five Star Movement — withdrew their support.

“Talk About Fascism”
A coalition headed by Meloni’s party, whose roots stretch back to Italy’s post-fascist movement, is set to campaign on a mix of fiscal largesse and nationalist policies, possibly unsettling markets and European partners. And while Meloni insisted in a newspaper interview Saturday that the right doesn’t represent a threat, Letta warned that a Brothers of Italy-led administration would imperil many of the accomplishments of past governments. Asked whether Italy would risk a repeal of abortion rights under a Meloni government, Letta said “the climate is that one,” though he signaled faith in the country’s justice system.