The left dem discovers Conte’s ambiguities. But for D’Alema it is “indispensable”

Counter-order comrades and beware of that Giuseppe Conte: “There is a tradition to be saved”. On the eve of the Democratic Party, which tomorrow will inaugurate the new democratic phase, that of the re-foundation – yet another – of “who we are and what we want to be”, doubts about the grillino leader are advancing on the left. Progressive? More than ever. But woe to define it left-wing: the label, the former People’s Advocate has always avoided it, as if it were a fault or an obstacle to the electoral rise. And perhaps, given the results, he wasn’t even completely wrong. But seeing it from the left, in fact, the question is now quite different.

For some, Giuseppe Conte was considered a “very strong point of reference” – the copyright is owned by Nicola Zingaretti. Certainly they were other times, but even then there was talk, as always, of the identity problems of the Democratic Party. Except that today to question the political nature of the former prime minister are those who until yesterday had to be the bridges between the Pd and M5s. Giuseppe Provenzano says it clearly: “There is a tradition, an inspiration, that of the Italian left, to be saved. Indeed, it must also be brought to life in a new time, I am thinking of Lula’s Brazil, the revolt of students in Iran, the threat Putin nuclear power. We cannot give this patrimony to Conte and his ambiguities “is the warning that the Deputy Secretary Pd delivers to colleagues from the pages of the Press, revealing the grillina fiction: “He declares himself progressive, but never on the left and in fact shows indifference to the fact that we have the government that is furthest to the right ever. “

But on the other hand, at one time, Conte had also defined himself as a populist, he posed with Salvini to sponsor the security decrees. Some doubts could arise, even if the sociologist De Masi, who notoriously looks at the world from the left and who is certainly not an enemy of the M5s, invited Volturara’s lawyer to “consolidate his leftist faith, which is not at all obvious. There are the basics, but we need to work on a truly left-wing leadership. “

Perplexities that now reach the Nazarene, and also in the surroundings. And so Bersani, who does not rule out a return to the origins, in the event that the Democratic Party really manages to reinvent itself into a “new party”, turns to those who seek in Giuseppe Conte the new leader of the left. “It is an optical effect. Problems are not solved in this way, finding the Mandrake or Mandrake on duty”, says the former secretary, recognizing the sensitivity of the grillini for certain social issues. “Themes useful for defining a progressive field, but which do not affect the structures of equality to be redesigned: rights and dignity of work, progressive taxation, universalistic welfare, industrial and environmental policies on which the left has the know-how for decades and which they cannot be delegated to others “. As if to say, dialogue is fine, alliances are fine, but with well-defined roles, tasks and objectives of representation.

A different point of view, certainly much more nuanced than that expressed by Massimo D’Alema, whose good relations with Conte are certainly no mystery. The “old communist”, as he defines himself when speaking with the daily newspaper, is very hard on the dem leadership: “I even wonder where they have coffee in the morning“, says D’Alema to underline the disconnect with the reality of the Democratic Party, whose only way at this point is to go back to the road with the grillini.” They are indispensable “, D’Alema insists. And the reason is soon said: “Conte has refounded and relocated the grillini and the Democratic Party needs him because he no longer intercepts the popular vote.“.