The appeal of the Pd reformists against Schlein: “Let’s make our voice heard”

“Secretary Schlein has every right to try to create the political-cultural and programmatic platform with which she won the congress. We, who clearly opposed that platform, highlighting the risk of a regression towards an identity antagonism inconsistent with nature itself of the Democratic Party as a party with a majority vocation, we have not only the right, but also the duty to bring to life (and to make people perceive outside the party) a vision, a political culture and a distinct programmatic proposal and, in many respects, alternative to that of Schlein”. It is one of the most significant passages of the text that the former parliamentarians of the Pd Stephen Ceccanti, Henry Morando And George Tonini they sent to Republic. In which they clearly list the reasons why the so-called “reformist area” (from which they come) should not give up “making their voices heard” on some important issues that are determining the political position of the party.

According to the three, “in the 2008 Manifesto of Values ​​(the only one in which we continue to fully recognize ourselves), it is the constituent commitment of the different cultures of Italian reformism, what gives a foundation of political culture to the function that the Democratic Party assigns to himself: constitute the axis party of a credible government alternative to the right-centre“. The reference is to the ideological entrenchment that the new leadership is allegedly pursuing, all taken by the desire to oppose, which would prevent it from considering how one of the mantras of the Democratic Party is in reality the governmental capacity, of building a path that flows into a project with concrete repercussions. According to the reading of Ceccanti, Morando and Tonini, proof of this came during the meetings that Prime Minister Meloni had with the opposition on the subject of constitutional reforms. “When instead Schlein seems tempted to take refuge in the ‘Aventine Hill, with the fallacious argument that it would not be a priority issue on the country’s agenda, it is up to us reformists to openly contest a choice which – contradicting one of the architraves of the Democratic Party platform and, before that, of the Ulivo del 1996 — would end up transferring for free to the right a heritage of institutional reformism constitutive of the very identity of the Democratic Party”, they write.

But the differences do not stop at the redesign of the institutional system. Because other interventions also live in the flesh, even of an economic nature, what does not seem to have gone down to the reformist area is that sort of clean-up on fiscal and labor-related interventions. “If Schlein is timid in claiming to the Governments of the Democratic Party or supported by the Democratic Party a primacy in the structural reduction of the tax wedge on labor that Meloni attributes to the mini-intervention of his recent decree, it is up to us reformists to highlight the results of our commitment“.

Ever since the former vice president of Emilia-Romagna won the primaries, one of the great questions that the Democratic Party has had is how such different political and cultural areas could have coexisted together, given that pragmatic reformism had massively supported the motion to Stefano Bonaccini. At the end of April it was Enrico Borghi, a member of Copasir, who greeted rather suddenly. “Schlein’s Democratic Party is moving more and more towards a maximalist line,” he said to justify his farewell. A couple of weeks later, and the economist Carlo Cottarelli also announced his intention to resign as senator: “It is undeniable (just look at the composition of the new secretariat) that the election of Elly Schlein has moved the Democratic Party further away from liberal democratic ideas I believe in,” he wrote on that occasion. Before him there had been cases of Beppe Fioreni, Andrew Marcucci And Catherine Chinnici. Also on the agreements with Libya, some dem exponents such as Lia Quartapelle and Enzo Amendola have not easily digested the Schlein line of removing what was done by the then minister Marco Minniti.

But then what is the main road, that of splitting? No, Ceccanti, Morando and Tonini seem to answer. “both splits by defeated minorities in regular Congresses and the requests to sit outside addressed by unaware and arrogant majorities to those who do not share the political line and the choices of the pro-tempore leader are to be avoided like the plague”. So how does it come out? Not giving up having their say, and being ready when it’s time to give their contribution, the three explain again. “It is very likely that it will not be a short battle, accompanied by immediate results. For this too, it is essential that it begin immediately, before the summer, by promoting an opportunity for discussion, also open outside the party, to discuss, update and relaunch an ambitious reformist agenda“.