Meloni’s nemesis or Italy’s Corbyn? Elly Schlein raises PD hopes and fears

The centre-left party’s new leader is a bisexual feminist, ready to challenge authority. Some colleagues worry she is too radical

One is bisexual, a feminist and passionately pro-European. The other is a conservative who promotes the traditional family, is against “pink quotas” and who, until she came to power last October, was a passionate Eurosceptic.

The political views of Elly Schlein – the first woman to lead Italy’s centre-left Democratic party (PD) – and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy, could not be more different.