Challenges and problems of M5s, Lega and Pd on the election of the new head of state
Will it be possible to elect the new President of the Republic going against the wishes – if there are – of the strongest parliamentary representation, that is, the 5 Star Movement? The point of Gianfranco Polillo
Will it be possible to elect the new President of the Republic going against the wishes – if there are any – of the strongest parliamentary representation? According to the latest data, the deputies who belong to the 5-star Group are 158. The senators 74. Together they will represent about 25 percent of the big voters, who will participate in the secular rite, which will lead to the choice of the new tenant on the highest hill of Rome. On past occasions the relative majority party had always played a propulsive function. He had had the burden and the honor of leading the dances, until he reached the desired goal.
In the First Republic it was above all the DC that performed a similar function, mediating between its various internal components, but also careful not to overdo it. In his inclusive way of doing politics, there was an incompressible space that had to be guaranteed to his allies. And here is the rule of alternation between a lay person and a Catholic in the choice of the tenant of the Quirinale. Practice, always followed albeit with some exceptions, which was interrupted, and it was no coincidence, in 1992; when, the Catholic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, succeeded the other: Francesco Cossiga. But then the First Republic was already dead to give rise to that unfinished Italian bipolarity. Forced to survive in a constitutional envelope which, in fact, denied it. Making any relative consistency impossible.
The new Presidents of the Republic were two lay people. First Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former Governor of the Bank of Italy. A respectable role in negotiating Italian entry into the Europe of the euro. It was above all Walter Veltroni who successfully played the role of Sherpa. Ciampi was succeeded twice by Giorgio Napolitano, thanks to the initiative, the first time, by Massimo D'Alema. His second short term – just over two years before his resignation – was instead a consequence of the impossibility of being able to reach an alternative and shared candidacy. The specter that threatens to hover over the upcoming elections.
Instead, the election of Sergio Mattarella came with a sudden turnaround by Matteo Renzi, then secretary of the PD. The agreements with Silvio Berlusconi, in truth, after the season of the Nazarene, provided for something else. Again a layman. Instead, a Catholic was elected, after having recalled him to service, making him leave the gilded rooms of the Palazzo della Consulta. In all three cases, however, it was the relative majority party that gave the cards, bringing home the necessary result. A success that is not explained only by the strength of the numbers, but by the ability to politically interpret the phase that the country, in those moments, was experiencing and to behave accordingly.
This scheme can no longer be used today, due to the 5-star crisis: the epilogue of a much more complex story. A movement of protest that arises following the failure of the old policies carried out by elites who survived themselves. The idea of wanting to change the world, only to discover – as has always been the case – that it was the world that defeated revolutionary ambitions and intentions. And finally the vertical fall of that consensus that only a miracle, explainable only with hindsight, had guaranteed them. With the consequence of creating an irremediable rift between "real country" and "legal country", directly affecting the representativeness of Parliament itself. First cause of present and future difficulties.
If there is no longer a legitimate force to put forward a unitary proposal, capable of imposing itself, it is necessary to have recourse to a substitute role. Which can only be exercised by the major forces of the two sides: the League on the one hand, the PD on the other. Not an easy mission, not only because of the opposing political positions. But for the coalition bond that still characterizes them. And that prevents them from looking beyond their respective borders. Exposing both to the system of crossed vetoes, to the weight of the legitimate aspirations and interests of individual characters. All right and sacrosanct things, but only if they do not conflict with a more general interest. Which can be protected only by breaking the cage of that bond, to go beyond the Pillars of Hercules of the past conjuncture.
Will they be up to it? Difficult answer. The simple calculation of probabilities leads to a solution that is already at hand. But that a misplaced feeling of revenge is likely to wreck. The primacy of politics is suddenly rediscovered, especially on the left. The desire to get rid of those technicians who, by giving luster to Italy, have made those intrinsic limits even more evident, which only a profound regeneration can contribute to overcoming them. If these were the real reasons, it would be the final crisis and not the beginning of a regeneration. Being a democratic country does not mean blindly relying on oligarchies, capable of exploiting the techniques of political control at will. It means promoting a ruling class capable of being up to the problems to be faced. And only god knows how complicated and, in some ways, deadly they are.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/sfide-e-problemi-di-m5s-lega-e-pd-sullelezione-del-nuovo-capo-dello-stato/ on Tue, 04 Jan 2022 09:03:08 +0000.