With Schlein, the Democratic Party will become a party of the radical left
For the first time, the primaries of a party establish a different leader from the one voted by the members, namely Bonaccini. Notwithstanding Schlein's clear victory, a great rebus shakes the left. Paola Sacchi's note
Surprise wins Elly Schlein. The former red company throws itself more and more to the left. An increasingly radicalized left chasing after the grillini in an attempt to prevent the takeover bid. Although an old rule of politics says on the contrary that the voter usually rewards the original.
It remains uncovered with the defeat of the Emilian governor Stefano Bonaccini, a former Renxian, who had made realpolitik speeches also in relations with the Meloni government, the so-called reformist "center" on the left.
The "third pole" of Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda can only be satisfied and put the emphasis on the room for maneuver that it now sees. “It is a beautiful day for the clarity of the political framework. After years of ambiguity, the main centre-left party takes on a clear physiognomy: the same as Ocasio-Cortez, Corbyn and Melenchon . Now it's up to us all to build our identity with equal clarity ”, tweets the Renzian Luigi Marattin, hypothesizing for the Democratic Party, with a series of comparisons with the foreign left, a radical and as such residual future. Maria Elena Boschi immediately speaks of the wide spaces that open up "to a reformist policy".
But even Giuseppe Conte, the pentastellato leader and former prime minister, derives his satisfaction from Schlein's affirmation, somehow putting his hat on it. Best wishes to Elly Schlein and as if it were his revenge he says: "The Pd voters have asked for a change with respect to those who have traded the Conte 2 measures on work, the environment, poverty, support for businesses and the middle class with the empty Draghi agenda". But, warns Conte: “We have already had clear projects on these issues for some time”.
The Democratic Party with its new, indeed its new secretary is in the midst of a political dialectic in which it is now called to prove that it is still the pivotal party of the opposition.
Best wishes from the center-right government go to Schlein, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who acknowledge the victory obtained in the gazebos through the general political value of territorial mobilization: for the Prime Minister, the affirmation of "a young woman” is auspicious that the left “can look forward and not backwards”; for the leader of the League, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, the hope is that "even on the left they will now respect the popular vote".
But the first words of the leader of the Democratic Party are in direct opposition to the government: “We will be a big problem for the Meloni government. The people of the left are alive and ready to get up again, this is the first response to abstentionism”. The program is to give answers to the poorest and most marginalized groups, especially young people.
Harsh words from Schlein on the tragedy of immigration in Crotone, calling into question the politics of the centre-right: "It is inhumane to issue a decree to make rescues at sea more difficult". And on the clashes in Florence he accuses the right.
In short, as was already predictable in his program, the line is that of a radical left, of identity claims that find consensus above all in urban centres. Il Giornale directed by Augusto Minzolini speaks of Pd which "closes itself in the living room" and of "a new communist Refoundation" which wins "with the help of the 5s".
If it will end up trying to hegemonize, according to the old Gramscian theory, the Democratic Party ended up being hegemonized, we will see over time.
One fact is certain: for the first time the primaries of a party establish a different leader from the one voted by the members, namely Bonaccini. Notwithstanding Schlein's clear victory, a great rebus shakes the left.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/con-schlein-il-pd-diventera-un-partito-della-sinistra-radicale/ on Mon, 27 Feb 2023 04:03:10 +0000.