Schlein and the risky identity mutation of Pd-Corriere.it

Support for Ukraine confirmed the continuity of the Pd’s foreign policy; and his closeness, on this issue, more to Carlo Calenda than to Giuseppe Conte. It was predictable, if not obvious. And it is opening a crack in relations with the M5S, which yesterday reiterated its no to military aid to Kiev. But on the social agenda, Elly Schlein’s party continues to follow a radical line destined to meet and surpass that of the grillini; in fact, to slowly drain the tank of their consents.

The attempt of the Five Stars to escape the offers of collaboration from the obvious new secretary. The possibility that it succeeds, however, is pending verification. In a few weeks, Schlein restored citizenship to the Democratic Party in the squares. He snatched flags from Conte such as the minimum wage and civil rights. In the last few hours you reaffirmed your yes to the legalization of soft drugs and went as far as to defend the ecologists who soil monuments. They ask, she comments indulgently, to listen to science.

In fact, it is monopolizing the opposition with a skillful blend of traditional leftism, grillismo and maximalism; albeit without renouncing NATO membership and European alliances, using only more pacifist tones. But the way in which it declines the role of minorities prefigures a march that tends to incorporate every residual, extreme, movementist position. And, although in the Democratic Party the leader shows herself to be shrewd in the division of tasks, a covert identity mutation is emerging.

Perhaps inevitable, because the profile of the old nomenklatura is too worn out to be able to oppose it. The defeat at the Policies of 25 September 2022, combined with that of the recent Regionals, confirm the need to change as much as possible. The problem is that at the moment the result is a transfer of votes from the M5S to the Pd; therefore, a competition with radicalism that has attracted a part of the electorate disappointed by the left. But without this suggesting, at least for now, a broadening of consensus in the alignment opposite to that of the government.

Accusations of ideology hurled at the coalition by Giorgia Meloni are often justified. The approach of the front that Schlein seeks to dominate, however, shows a rate of ideology symmetrical and opposed to the government one. But above all, it is not clear where the pursuit of every impulse that fills the squares leads; and to what extent the traditional Democratic Party, sick with power but also with institutional culture, will indulge its leader. The fear that enthusiasm is destined to cool down, despite the favorable polls, could soon appear.