What does Elly Schlein really think about Russia and Ukraine?
Elly Schlein's position on the war in Ukraine is unclear: will her pacifism transform Italy into the soft underbelly of Europe? Gianfranco Polillo's analysis
Are the concerns of Goffredo Buccini from the columns of the Corriere della Sera founded? The theme of his editorial is the unknown Elly Schlein.
“They didn't see us coming” (they didn't see us coming). The first words pronounced immediately after the electoral investiture. Icon of feminism, but which in the complicated Italian reality risk taking on a different meaning. After all, who is this cosmopolitan: US citizen naturalized Swiss? Who moves between the Canton of Ticino where she was born and Washington where she ran to campaign in favor of Barack Obama. Who is waving in favor of Romano Prodi, demonstrating all his fury against the famous 101, which prevented his election to the Presidency of the Republic.
Who, as an outsider, was elected to the European Parliament at the age of 29, to then become vice president of the Emilia Romagna Region and finally a deputy. Who in December joined the Democratic Party, to become its secretary two months later. A laboratory product ? Once upon a time, at the time of Giancarlo Pajetta, some Communists who enrolled as children in the leadership of the Party criticized each other. In the case of Schlein, only Giuseppe Conte can boast a faster and more prestigious career. And it is said that this analogy represents a good viaticum.
PACIFISM ACCORDING TO SCHLEIN
But let's go back to Buccini. The risk he sees is the abandonment of the line followed by Enrico Letta in foreign policy. Not so much the abjuration – unrealistic -, as the watering down of those positions in favor of Ukraine to the point of making them unrecognizable, in the name of a pacifism that can transform Italy into the "soft underbelly" of Europe. And of the entire West. "For the first time, – he points out – Prime Minister Meloni would find herself almost alone in the parliamentary arc (with the exception of third-party contractors and a few others) to support with conviction the idea that Zelensky still does not need smiles and pats at this stage on the shoulders but anti-aircraft defense systems and tanks with which to repel the new attacks of the Russian invader.”
Warmongering analysis? Anyone who thinks this way does not understand that there is a time for struggle and a time for negotiation. Ignoring or superimposing these two planes is not just a methodical error. But wanting to muddy the waters. Doubt is sown. Ultimately, it is the game of the strongest. And in the case of the so-called "special military operation" there can be no doubts about the role played by Putin and suffered by Zelensky. After all, in politics, the choice of time is decisive. More than right positions, but expressed at the wrong time, often turn into their opposite. And war, according to Von Clausewitz's classic definition, is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means.
WHAT DOES SCHLEIN REALLY THINK ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE?
What is Elly Schlein's position on all these issues? Hard to decipher. She agreed on the supply of weapons. But at the same time he hasn't renounced to ask for greater diplomatic efforts, knowing full well that the situation is still completely dominated by the first half, as is evident, among other things, from the behavior of Putin himself. Is there therefore an element of opportunism, in that constant reminder of the need for peace? In Italy there is a large part of public opinion – which we hope is a minority – who would like to end everything as soon as possible. Let Zelensky stop dragging us in.
In the so-called people of the left these positions are more than consistent. Old communists still sentimentally linked to the myth of the USSR. Devout Catholics. Pacifists "without ifs and buts". Sworn enemies of NATO and the Americans. Anarchists. Militant anti-fascists and so on. Rightly or wrongly, it is believed that it is above all they who desert the polls in protest. Recovering them from civil commitment would be the noble justification for a more ambiguous political position on the issues of peace and war.
The reasoning could also be there if we lived in normal times. But the last years of Italian political life were marked by the passage of great meteors: Matteo Renzi, then Matteo Salvini and finally the 5 stars. That their rapidly sinking from riches to rags. Demonstrating the fact that the validity of a political action is judged in the medium term. Being the follower's techniques destined to implode at the first opportunity. This however did not happen for the Brothers of Italy: a leadership conquered with a constancy of political positions which, in the medium term, paid off.
THE EMBRACE BETWEEN SCHLEIN AND CONTE
It should only be added that Elly Schlein, even regardless of the positions just mentioned, is still in a difficult position. Its constituency goes beyond the borders of the PD. The party members had, in fact, expressed themselves by a majority in favor of Stefano Bonaccini. Others also voted in the gazebos, whose political positions, at least judging by the results, were closer to the 5 stars than to the reformists of the Party. Will the new secretary resist the temptation to represent this composite line-up, in which the left-wing component seems prevalent? We will see. Even if the first clues end up raising some doubts.
In the demonstration in Florence, in the name of militant anti-fascism, which confuses a physical clash between opposing political factions with the prodromes of a return to the past, the three-way meeting: Schlein-Conte-Landini has taken on a symbolic meaning. Maybe it wasn't planned, but the fact remains that the respective political platforms, on issues of international politics, have for some time been superimposable, at least contiguous.
"The embrace between Elly Schlein and Giuseppe Conte in the name of anti-fascism and the defense of the school, – wrote the Corriere della Sera – the handshakes and smiles between the two leaders and the secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landini perhaps photograph a new political phase.” Its developments are difficult to predict. Perhaps this is why Schlein, responding to the New York Times , said she did not agree with the M5S and that now "it is correct to send weapons to Ukraine". Well take note. For future reference.
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-guerra-ucraina-russia/ on Mon, 06 Mar 2023 07:27:54 +0000.