No to a painful split and no to counting in the party. Tomorrow at 18.00, in the party headquarters in via del Governo Vecchio, the already suspended direction of Popular Alternative, convened two weeks ago and which had already been postponed. After a meeting that lasted just over two hours, with two political secretariats behind it, held over the weekend almost in absolute secrecy, the internal travail of Angelino Alfano's party did not find an end. The two conflicting souls, the one led by Beatrice Lorenzin and that of Maurizio Lupi, have not given up their positions, and although the minister has worked in recent days on a 'unitary' solution, the result is always the same: part of the AP wants continue with the experience of government and ally with the Democratic Party in the next elections, while the other intends to finish this phase and wants to run alone, looking at and addressing Silvio Berlusconi's center-right. During the management, "dissent and different political positions emerged" explains Fabrizio Cicchitto and the three founders were given a mandate to find a way for a "consensual separation". Maurizio Lupi, Beatrice Lorenzin, Cicchitto himself, and the deputy national coordinator, Tonino Gentile, will tomorrow present a unified document that safeguards the two political coherences that emerged in today's discussion: one of belonging to one's own political history and to the birth of the party and the another of continuation in the reformist action of the government, which began five years ago ”. In short, the road has already been traced with Lorenzin and his team towards Pier Ferdinando Casini's 'Centrists for Europe' and in coalition with the Democratic Party, while Lupi aims at a 'Lombardy model' to be proposed again in the next elections. "I continue to work to reach a unified position within Popular Alternative - says the Minister of Health - the driving force of the moderates, who must look to the future and be the interpreter of the changes taking place and the concrete needs of citizens". "Now we are divided on the prospect of new routes - confirms Lupi - Personally I think that today we need a serious, moderate, liberal alternative to the Democratic Party".
No vote then, also because no motion was presented, and one more night to reflect. The split has now been digested, but woe to call it a split. And in the background, practically fundamental, is the same symbol of the party which by statute belongs to the president, Angelino Alfano. In fact, internal sources explain that in the event of a vote and if the leader was found in the minority, he would have been forced to resign, thus losing the possibility of taking the name of Popular Alternative with him. The rumors on this issue, however, are conflicting, there are those who would not bet even a cent on Lupi's desire to present himself to the center-right with a 'brand' born in support of the left and which he governed with Matteo Renzi. Here then is that the puzzle to be solved risks being simply the 'legal' one linked to Ap.