because of an extreme heatwave. people in the us state are being urged to turn down their air conditioning, switch off unneccesary lights, and avoid using major appliances in the afternoons and evenings. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. in three weeks time, italians vote in a general election. now, if the opinion polls are to be believed, the country is about to embrace a political movement with its roots in post war fascism. what would that mean for italy and for europe? well, my guest today, here at the ambrosetti forum a sort of italy style davos gathering is enrico letta, a former italian prime minister and leader of the centre left democratic party. is his effort to keep the far right out of power doomed to fail? enrico letta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for the invitation. we appreciate your time, particularly because you are in the middle of a fiercely fought election campaign. would you accept
a former italian prime minister and leader of the centre left democratic party. is his effort to keep the far right out of power doomed to fail? enrico letta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for the invitation. we appreciate your time, particularly because you are in the middle of a fiercely fought election campaign. would you accept that right now, you in the centre left look as though you are going to lose? no, i think we will win. how can you think that, when the raw mathematics of this election look so bad for you? and i say that because the right has coordinated, it has organised, there is a very clear coalition of interests between all the right wing parties. they are fighting as a team. you, on the left, are not. there are two reasons. first reason is the fact that there s 40% of the people saying that they will abstain, or they are not decided. they have not decided what they want to do. second, because the unity of the right is a fake. they are united today, b
66 people are now known to have died and more than a dozen are still missing. others have been left stranded after landslides closed off roads. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. in three weeks time, italians vote in a general election. now, if the opinion polls are to be believed, the country is about to embrace a political movement with its roots in post war fascism. what would that mean for italy and for europe? well, my guest today, here at the ambrosetti forum a sort of italy style davos gathering is enrico letta, a former italian prime minister and leader of the centre left democratic party. is his effort to keep the far right out of power doomed to fail? enrico letta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for the invitation. we appreciate your time, particularly because you are in the middle of a fiercely fought election campaign. would you accept that right now, you in the centre left look as though you are going to lose? no
welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. in three weeks time, italians vote in a general election. now, if the opinion polls are to be believed, the country is about to embrace a political movement with its roots in post war fascism. what would that mean for italy and for europe? well, my guest today, here at the ambrosetti forum a sort of italy style davos gathering is enrico letta, a former italian prime minister and leader of the centre left democratic party. is his effort to keep the far right out of power doomed to fail? enrico letta, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for the invitation. we appreciate your time, particularly because you are in the middle of a fiercely fought election campaign. would you accept that right now, you in the centre left look as though you are going to lose? no, i think we will win. how can you think that, when the raw mathematics of this election look so bad for you? and i say that because the right has coordinated, it has organised
done a deal, that s the point. and for those watching and listening, it is clear that the brothers of italy, salvini s league, and berlusconi s forza italia have thought long and hard about how to win, and win big. and it looks as though they ve got a formula that will work. i m not saying that they are not in good position. i think they are in good position because their alliance is bigger than our alliance. that s the point. but the electoral campaign is still there. we have three weeks, we will keep fighting. some of your own colleagues think that you and senior leaders in the progressive centre left have failed the italian people. i m going to quote you nicola zingaretti, who is a senior figure in your own democratic party. he says, and i m quoting him, he is ashamed of the amount