Schlein? Worthy heir to the old maximalist culture

27 February 20231 year ago babelfish

"Elly Schlein had to win: it was necessary to stop the "resistible rise" of Stefano Bonaccini, the horrendous reformist who, despite his prudence, resembled Matteo Renzi too closely". Gianfranco Polillo's analysis

No surprise. Among the post-communists, but the same happened among the communists, it is easier to become President of the Republic than secretary of the party. The story of Giorgio Napolitano teaches. At the death of Enrico Berlinguer he was, undoubtedly, the most prestigious leader. Instead, Alessandro Natta was preferred: "Enlightenment, Jacobin and Communist", as he liked to call himself. Lover of fine literature, a Latinist, a man of great classical culture, but certainly not endowed with the charisma of his predecessor. His tenure lasted four years. In June 1988 he was forced to resign, following a heart attack that had struck him a few months earlier. Once again it seemed that the baton was destined to pass into the hands of Giorgio Napolitano. And instead it was the turn of Achille Occhetto.

Natta had not been an innovator. But a "very Togliatti-like leader in gray", as Lietta Tornabuoni had written of him. To the point of going to Moscow in 1988, under pressure from Armanno Cossutta, the most pro-Soviet of the Communist leaders. Occhetto, on the contrary, was all about "innovation". In his long political career he had never hesitated to take heterodox positions, destined to shake the body of his party, especially on the issues of democracy and criticism of the Soviet regime. For this he was both loved and hated at the same time. However, he caught up with the reformists (right-wing communists) with his movementism, based on the idea that the party should take the lead of a caravan traveling towards a more radiant future.

Due to those strange astral conjunctures, he became secretary of the Party in the very years in which the Berlin Wall was collapsing. And it was once again his courage to impose that change that will go down in history with the name of the "turning point of Bolognina". To understand its significance, it is necessary to go back to those times. Before that famous speech, the reformists of the PCI were in great difficulty. Marginalized in the face of an aggressive left, which condemned them to marginalization and exit plans. The turning point of Bolognina put them back in the game, providing them with the opportunity to regain a right of citizenship that seemed lost. In the hard political clash that followed, they were instrumental in supporting the new course. And the transformation of the PCI into the PDS: "Left Democratic Party". While almost a third of the militants of the old party adhered to Armando Cossutta's new formation: the Communist Refoundation Party.

BETWEEN EYE AND D'ALEMA

Occhetto remained secretary from 1991 to 1994: the year in which the political elections were held, which saw the birth of Forza Italia and the descent into the field of Silvio Berlusconi. His, as leader of the left-wing coalition "Alliance of Progressives", was a hard defeat, matured on the wave of some watchwords such as those on the "joyous war machine", which contributed to the victory of the opposite front: "the Pole of freedoms and good governance”. The reckoning, internal to the party, brought Massimo D'Alema to the secretariat, for some time in strong controversy with the secretary. Who in the meantime had decided to enhance Walter Veltroni. Younger than Massimo D'Alema, but also less cumbersome from a political point of view due to his liberal air, against the slightly retro image of his direct competitor.

The dispute, after a sort of internal referendum which did not lead to any results, was decided by the National Council. Massimo D'Alema was elected with 249 votes, against 173. Veltroni paid the price of having been too close to Achille Occhetto, to whom a large part of the party attributed the excessive radicalism of the choices, in the international arena, and the electoral defeat suffered. After giving the impression that victory, given the massacre of "clean hands" against the historic Italian parties (DC, PSI, PRI), was within reach. With D'Alema, party secretary, he returned to tradition. The final implosion of the USSR had created the conditions for the old Togliatti policy – the encounter between the communist and Catholic masses – to finally take place. But in a very different form than what was thought in the past.

THE CULTURAL HEGEMONY PASSES TO THE CATHOLICS

With the birth of the Olive tree, wanted by Romano Prodi, a former exponent of the DC Left, the political and cultural hegemony shifted rapidly from the post-communists to the Catholics, eliminating the hypothesis that had supported the scaffolding of the "Italian road to socialism ”. In which the baton of command should have belonged to the communist party, as a direct expression of the working class. Which, however, precisely in those years, had experienced a progressive numerical and cultural downsizing. Better equipped from the point of view of government, the Catholics enjoyed the favors of the country's economic and financial establishment. Worried about Silvio Berlusconi's entry into the field, the bearer of an evident conflict of interest, much of that world had chosen to support the centre-left, strengthening the grip of the non-communist component.

In the first elections, after Berlusconi's brief interlude in 1994, the Ulivo conquered Palazzo Chigi. Prodi becomes Prime Minister. Walter Veltroni, with his liberal allure, is the vice president. D'Alema chews bitter. He will do everything to claim the premiership for himself, in an attempt to overturn the harsh verdict of history. He will succeed in October 1998, but will only dance for a few seasons. In return, Walter Veltroni will assume the position of secretary of the party. Which, in the meantime, will have changed its name again, to become "Left Democrats". His merit: the choice of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for the Presidency of the Republic. That will not be enough, however, to avoid the defeat of 2001, when the post-communists will reach their historic minimum: 16.6 percent of the votes.

From that moment it will be the beginning of a more than excited phase. If we exclude the secretariat of Piero Fassino, which will last four years, during which the Party will once again change its name to become "Democratic Party", the subsequent assignments will have a frenetic pace and an unpredictable duration. Two years for the renewed presence of Walter Veltroni. Nine months only for Dario Franceschini. Again four years for Pierluigi Bersani, but only seven months for Guglielmo Epifani. With Matteo Renzi we return to the tradition of a few years: from 2013 to 2018, but with a brief interregnum of a couple of months by Matteo Orfini. Then Maurizio Martina: 8 months. And finally Nicola Zingaretti and Enrico Letta: two years each.

SCHLEIN THE OUTSIDER (REALLY?)

At the end of this long process, the success of Elly Schlein, that it would be impossible to imagine more outsiders than that. His membership in the party dates back to December last year. One of the many "extravagances" that characterized his political life, compared to the prevailing model in that form – the party called to lead. But this choice shouldn't come as a surprise. It was necessary to stop the "resistible rise" of Stefano Bonaccini, the horrendous reformist who, despite his prudence, too closely resembled Matteo Renzi, or, going further back in time, that of Bettino Craxi. That is, of those who, in their historical present, appeared, in turn, to be too close to figures such as those of Karl Kautsky or Eduard Bernstein. Revisionists. Black beasts for that old maximalist culture, so hard to die.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/elly-schlein-pd-cultura-massimalista/ on Mon, 27 Feb 2023 15:34:01 +0000.