Silvia Salis isn't a politician in the classic sense. She's a former athlete, an Olympic representative in the hammer throw, and the current mayor of Genoa. Now she is something more - a name the Italian left is bringing up for the next parliamentary elections.

The message she sent last week was visual. She organised a techno party in the very centre of Genoa, on Piazza Matteotti. It's not a party senate. It's a party for the young. And every other political figure in Italy suddenly looks too long in the tooth and too tired.

Among them, Giorgia Meloni. In the Palazzo Chigi she's been weakened by the defeat of the referendum on judicial reform. The Italian right, which for years has dominated with the "protest vote", is now losing that advantage. On the field there is a new candidate whose biggest asset is that she doesn't resemble any classic political type.

Politico has flagged Salis as "the rising star of the Italian left". The party of the left has been falling apart for years. Without a leader. Without a story. Without charisma. Now it has a potential figure who sings "Bella Ciao" with citizens on Liberation Day - and at the same time is an Olympic veteran.

Salis herself doesn't want to say exactly what's coming. "My priority is Genoa", she says. She answers neither "yes" nor "no" about the national elections in 2027. That's a strategy that wins her sympathies without making a single mistake.

For the Balkans, this is an interesting case study. When the left bloc falls apart, you need a face that isn't part of anything that came before. The Italian left already has that face. The question is - do we have a face like that, and would it help us more than the ones already on stage?