Rome, 16 February (LaPresse) – Elisabetta Gualmini leaves the PD and joins Azione. The MEP announced this during a press conference in the Senate with Carlo Calenda. “For me, it's like coming home,” she said. “Merit is one of the reasons that prompted me to join Action, beyond ideologies, demagoguery and nonsense. 'The battle over Ukraine is decisive, it's the turning point,” she added. 'I am strongly convinced that the Democratic Party has changed its nature. I think there has been a structural change, a profound change, a genetic mutation that has led to a repositioning on the radical left, on the Conte, Landini, Fratoianni, Bonelli axis, which cuts out, let's say, the culture and reformism that I have always stood for. I think Elly Schlein has done a masterpiece: Elly Schlein has taken over the whole party, so she has a 92% majority. She is a young leader, probably the longest-serving secretary of the PD, who has effectively shaped the party according to her idea of a party and according to the mandate of the primaries. But the space for political manoeuvre for those who have a different, more moderate vision, more than a PD of government, of the PD of responsibility, with a strong focus on foreign policy, is that space has been greatly reduced. So either you stay there and criticise the secretary every day, every single day, passively, negatively, or you stand up straight and be positive, because I haven't changed a single idea,' he concluded.