The Copernican system of Goffredo Bettini
“A great storytelling, combined with the duplicity of the most ancient communist tradition. A mixture that allowed Bettini to manage the various phases of the life of the party, marked by the constant changes of name and the relative immovability of the leadership group ”. Gianfranco Polillo's comment
One of the advantages of the later age, few in truth, is that of being able to freely say what one thinks. And remembering the episodes of the past: forgotten or little known. I have known Goffredo Bettini for a long time. For a while we were in the same party body. He citizen secretary of the PDS, I coordinator of the (few) Roman bestists. Before Massimo D'Alema imposed its dissolution.
In the complicated geography of that period, Goffredo Bettini was a centrist. Berlingueriano, at the time of Berlinguer, Dalemiano even when Achille Occhetto was to reign, and finally Veltroniano. It was his intuition to nominate Francesco Rutelli as mayor of Rome. Even if the subsequent relations with the "prince", as the mayor of Rome was called by those who did not hide their annoyance, had not always been optimal. The next choice in favor of Walter Veltroni, as the new first citizen of the capital, is always his.
His conception of politics? A Copernican system with a sun in the center and many satellites destined to revolve around it. The so-called "large field", which will later be Nicola Zingaretti's political platform, for the coronation as party secretary. Scheme destined to last over time even if with some hitches. In the mid-1990s, there were those on his left who wanted to demonstrate, as Pietro Nenni foresaw, that they were even more pure and determined. Bettini was therefore accused of breaking the house rules. To have appeared, with his image on election posters – the co-opted period of the PDS – and to have accepted the support of the cooperatives.
It was up to the bestists to defend that choice in the name of modernity. Even if that was, for me, the last act of a political militancy. Especially since the current would soon be dissolved. The only irreducible: Emanuele Macaluso , who set up a cooperative, with many socialist exponents, to create a monthly: “The reasons for socialism”. Which remained a great little flag in defense of that reformism that the oldest communists, before their sudden conversion, considered a blasphemy.
How do you explain Goffredo Bettini's long political career? Fifty years and more spent, from when he was a leader of the Youth Federation, at the end of the 70s, to today. A great storytelling, combined with the duplicity of the most ancient communist tradition. A mixture that allowed him to manage the various phases of the life of the party, marked by the constant changes of name and the relative immovability of the leadership group. Quality in which Bettini broke all records, outlasting those same secretaries, such as D'Alema or Veltroni, of which he had been a passionate supporter.
And still today it is still that ability, that attempt to seek the essence of things, which allows him to exert his influence on the younger leaders of the PD. The collapse of the Berlin Wall – these are his most recent affirmations – led to the crisis of the old "forms" of politics. So green light to the most reckless experiments, in an attempt to keep the levers of power in their hands. This explains his support, "no ifs and buts", towards Giuseppe Conte. Until he was crowned leader of the whole array, which was to act as a levee to the right. The worst one: Lega and Fratelli d'Italia. But not in Forza Italia, whose hidden virtues had suddenly been discovered, after years of condemnation without the possibility of appeal.
Political cynicism? Maybe: ideological conviction. In many ways even more dangerous. After all, years and years of justificationist historicism had not passed in vain. And here we are trying to explain, as Angelo Panebianco has already observed, from the pages of Corriere , the need to fight against the "productive and social model that has won". To "reform capitalism" and "make globalization more human and fairer". Mission impossible: at first sight. But what does it matter! The dream of communism was too. But while it lasted, it still helped. Perhaps only a few, but this too had to be put into the account.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/il-sistema-copernicano-di-goffredo-bettini/ on Tue, 23 Feb 2021 15:54:33 +0000.