when it comes to politics at the «home of the enemy» – Corriere.it

When Elton John starts with “Back in the Ussr” by the Beatles, the lineup was already skipped. The frost falls among party officials but that concert in Leningrad on May 28, 1979 immediately made history and opened the doors to Anglo-American music in the Soviet Union. A performance beyond the curtain, at the home of the «enemy». That night the enemy was there, behind the scenes. But the enemy, the adversary, can loom even without showing himself. Years far away and hardly comparable, of course, but one wonders if Elly Schlein embrace Maurizio Landini the turn to the left of the democrats is confirmed, but if this happens at the Leopolda in Florence, the profanation of a “political temple”, that of Renzism, that of the scrappingof the Jobs Act. Matthew Renzi it’s not in the room, but those spaces that host the conference on precariousness organized by Filcams remember it all right. And the secretary of the Democratic Party certainly cannot turn a blind eye. «We are in a particular place, it will be mine and our care to try to humbly rebuild a relationship based also on the recognition of errors which have been done in previous years, and which have produced deep social fractures”. A scratched at the enemy without naming him, at his house.

The environment promises to be at least hostile for Giorgia Meloni. It is March 17 when he arrives in Rimini for the CGIL congress. The invitation is from Landini and the premier accepts it. When she takes the stage to speak from the back of the hall, a long choir rises intoning «Hello beautiful». Meloni is the first president of the center-right council to participate in a union congress. He waits for the singing to continue for a few seconds, then begins his intervention. At the end of the day, accompanied by Landini himself and holding a large bouquet of white flowers, Meloni says she is satisfied: «I’m never afraid of confront me, as you know. I think it’s a right thing and that it was right to be there “”.

An unusual visit, as indeed Silvio Berlusconi alongside the porters of Livorno is certainly not an everyday occurrence. The former prime minister arrives at the Mandela Forum in Florence on 20 March 2007 escorted by the old man’s security service PCI to participate in the congress of the DS, the historic adversaries about to merge with the Margherita to give life to the future Democratic party. The Knight shakes hands, waits patiently for the kermesse to begin, sits in the fourth row behind the home party staff and listens, even applauds, to the speech of Peter Fassino. A first time and then, more decisively, a second time, when the secretary addresses the center-right: “Enough of considering us enemies, from now on we will simply be adversaries”. Then another (historical) adversary, Massimo D’Alema, sanctions the moment by defining Berlusconi’s presence as «a significant fact», because «the man undoubtedly has an extraordinary perception of what is going on in the depths of Italian society and I believe that we who fought against him must not underestimate his abilities. When we did, we were wrong.” In short, the day is one to remember. Starting from the diessina house, the blue leader leaves himself in the joke: “If this is the future Democratic Party I would be ready to join myself too”.

A completely different reception several years earlier, on May 14, 1984, for the secretary of the PCI Enrico Berlinguer when it reveals itself in Verona at the socialist congress of Verona. A blanket of boos and shouts rises from the audience with the organizers intent on calming spirits: «They are our guests, we welcome as socialists», can be heard in the audio yellowed by time. But it is useless, Berlinguer moves through the crowd and sits down while the cries do not subside by staging one of the most famous “anti-communist” demonstrations in socialist history. Later, in his speech, Bettino Craxi clearly reminds the opponent who is playing at home and who is away. Going back to the whistling, he says a phrase that he still remembers: «I know very well that we were not addressing a person, but a policy that we consider profoundly wrong. And if the booing was a political signal demonstrating against this policy, I don’t join the booing just because I can’t boo.” The scene is theatrical and Berlinguer stays there, stubbornly and physically present among the guests throughout the morning. He will return to the boos the next day, in Nogara, in front of some militants. Frosty. «No delegation from other parties has ever been signaled to any act of offense or even discourtesy. In none of the congresses of the other parties that have taken place in recent months have there been demonstrations against us Communists or against other delegations of the type of yesterday in Verona, against us». That time the visit to the wolf’s den leads to the rift. Total.

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