“Separating Congress and Constituent Phase”. Bonaccini and Schlein say yes to the proposal

The tones are those of a self-awareness session or a moment of collective autogenic training. One of the three candidates for the secretariat, Stefano Bonacciniclearly asks: “Are the founding reasons of the democratic party still valid?”The response of all the participants in “For a real constituent phase”, an initiative promoted by a handful of dem managers – Stefano Ceccanti, Walter Verini, Roberto Morassut, Marianna Madia, Pina Picerno, Debora Serracchiani, Graziano Delrio, Giorgio Tonini and Stefano Graziano – it is obviously yes. “This – Picierno articulates – cannot be the congress of abjuration”.

The document presented by the promoters for the candidates, on the other hand, it started from a prerequisite. “The result of 25 September ultimately called into question the historical function of the Democratic Party, the very meaning of its existence”. For this reason Ceccanti and the others have asked the three candidates for the dem secretariat, Stefano Bonaccini, Elly Schlein and Paola De Micheli, to separate the congressional phase from the constituent one “in order not to drag the identity principles of the Democratic Party into the legitimate and healthy competition for leadership”. At this morning’s event – physically present Schlein and De Micheli, connected to Bonaccini – all three candidates answered yes. In the end, the secretary dem Enrico Letta drew the conclusions (in audio connection because with the flu at home): “The three candidates for the secretariat – he said – gave a positive opinion on the proposal to give the constituent phase a longer breath If there is a broad consensus, I’m just happy to accompany it”.

An attempt to calm the waters within the Democratic Party, where the more moderate part begins to strongly fear a radical change, a return to the past. Well summed up by Marianna Madia’s speech during the meeting: “If the solution to our crisis must be that of a left-wing reissue of the DS, with all due respect for that history, I think it is a historical error and a great one of analysis”.

Bonaccini in his speech averted a similar turning point: “I hear from time to time in the internal debate of the Democratic Party the opposition between capital and labor as if we were at the beginning of the last century, it is surreal. I feel the drive for change with regressive connotations which I will oppose because they would mark the end of the Democratic Party, which would lead us onto minority tracks. It has already happened in other neighboring countries, the risk is that it will happen here too”. And Schlein, who is the candidate most feared by moderates and Catholics, also tried to reassure her in her own way: “We are not here to make a identity showdown, but we are here to do a much more difficult operation: build the new Democratic Party and do it together, keep this community together, safeguard its precious pluralism but, at the same time, never give up on having a clear vision, a identity that is understandable to the people we cross paths with”.