All the real convulsions of Zingaretti’s Pd

5 March 20213 years ago babelfish

What will happen in the Democratic Party after the announced resignation of the secretary Nicola Zingaretti? Gianfranco Polillo's analysis

The reasons that led Nicola Zingaretti to resign are not entirely clear. At least we didn't understand them. In the long post, published on Facebook, he declares that he is ashamed of the fact that in the party "we are only talking about seats and primaries, when the third wave of Covid is exploding in Italy, there is the problem of work, investments and the need for rebuilding hope especially for the new generations ". Not therefore a simple dissent, which in the difficulties of Italian society, would be natural. But the complete degeneration of a political force that no longer has a future. And to think that one of the founding elements of the post-communists always remains the proud affirmation of an alleged "diversity": now definitively disgraced by the intervention of the secretary.

Who knows if in the now distant 1993 these were the secret thoughts of Mino Martinazzoli when he proposed the dissolution of the party and its transformation into the Italian People's Party to the national assembly, which was held in the Palazzo dei Congressi at the EUR? An unfortunate idea: in a few weeks Silvio Berlusconi would have taken the field, absorbing in his Forza Italia the ranks of the center and right of the old DC, while the left entered definitively into the PDS, crowning a dream that had lasted for years.

Will this be Zingaretti's goal or will it not be a simple tactic, aimed at finding and silencing the opponents, within their own party? We will see it, in a few days, when the debate in the National Assembly opens. Whatever happens, it cannot fail to question itself on a double crisis: that of the party and its privileged ally. Those 5 stars, now “normalized”, like the Hungarians after the intervention of the Red Army, by the leadership of Giuseppe Conte. And in the process, given the polls especially against the dem, to launch their takeover bid on the entire left.

That these two problems are intertwined is all too evident. So far the Democratic Party has had one goal: to prevent the success of the center-right led by Matteo Salvini. For this reason, at the end of the yellow-green government, Nicola Zingaretti himself, in contravention of the agreements with the League, rejected the very hypothesis of early elections, to give way to a change of majority. It was Matteo Renzi's fault: one could argue. True. But who was the party secretary? He was overwhelmed by the contrary opinion of the elders. Maybe. But this is nothing more than one of the many weaknesses demonstrated.

That Giuseppe Conte was unable to bear the weight of the new phase was evident from the very beginning. The constitutional mechanisms, which regulate the alternation, are placed precisely to safeguard a normality, which those choices violated in depth. It didn't take long to realize it wasn't going to work. Then Conte was also unfortunate, forced to face an unprecedented situation, not having those skills that derive from consolidated institutional experiences. Just look at Mario Draghi. Which justifies the subsequent turning point of Matteo Renzi: first king maker, then killer.

In the end: deadlock. And lack of any alternative strategy. Which explains a bit the desperation of Nicola Zingaretti. He was forced to take on the problems of 5 Stars until the end. Heading the hunt for the so-called "responsible". A heart attack. Then the glorification of the people's advocate. The coronation of a foreign pope, following the suggestions of Goffredo Bettini . And today the real risk of transforming his party into a bush of 5 stars, in the new format wanted by Beppe Grillo.

Will it be possible to avoid it? In truth, it seems very difficult to reverse the course of events. “The center-right – Paolo Mieli recently wrote in Corriere della Sera – has found the way to remain united despite two parties (Lega and FI) having joined the majority, while one (Fratelli d'Italia) remained in the opposition. And, at least for the moment, the alliance holds up ”. On the opposite front, the center-left sees its consensus increase, at least in the polls. But the front is more complex. Personally I have doubts that the possible hegemony of the 5 Stars, under the hauberk of Giuseppe Conte, could favor the participation of Matteo Renzi or Carlo Calenda. In which case the center-right would still be the majority.

In any case, the alliance on the left is obliged, at least in view of the upcoming electoral deadlines, relating to the administrative ones. If they do not come together, defeat will be almost inevitable. And the eventual defeat in the administrative can only represent a strong mortgage for all subsequent deadlines, until the judgment of God of the policies of 2023. All this explains the further convulsions. Is it possible, at the same time, to support the majority, at the territorial level, and the proportional at the general political level? Difficult to think. Yet for that electoral system, the Democratic Party had spent some time, regretting several times for the hesitations of its Grillini allies.

And here is the idea of Zingaretti to start a new discourse with Matteo Salvini on the possibility of reaching a majority for politics instead. Reversing, like a glove, the previous positions. Open up heaven. At the first indiscretions of the press, the hard reaction of the various currents: from the orphans of Matteo Renzi to Matteo Orfini. A riot destined to favor the resignation of the secretary, now on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Unimaginable resignation at another time. Today the result of the complete exhaustion of a phase, lived without too much enthusiasm.

A phase that must be carefully analyzed. The suspicion is that the Democratic Party has come to the end of a long ride. In a world that is changing faster and faster, that people, but above all its leaders, have remained without the references of the past. Their own ideology, too often, has been transformed into that false consciousness, which Marx attributed to the bourgeois of his time. Faced with this great void, the "political policy" has taken on an overwhelming dimension. By overshadowing any programmatic speech. By tarnishing the values of the good old times and bringing out all the inability to deal with the new contradictions of a modernity, all to be interpreted.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/tutte-le-vere-convulsioni-del-pd-di-zingaretti/ on Fri, 05 Mar 2021 09:00:06 +0000.