A past to study, to take as an example and to reinvent in a difficult present. Dreaming of a future of triumphs. Elly Schlein, the new secretary of the Democratic Party, seems to have clear ideas about what the right recipes are to bring the dem back above 25%. At the base of the 37-year-old’s program is an evident shift of the political axis to the left. Enough of the radical chic living room party voted on by corduroy-jacketed college professors and wealthy residents of the Ztl. The new Democratic Party wants to go back to its origins, wants to go back to talking to the workers, to those who live (and have voted for the Lega and the Fratelli d’Italia for many years) in social housing located in modest outlying neighborhoods, to those who can’t have lunch along with dinner. To carry out this ambitious project, Elly Shlein made it immediately clear that structural alliances are needed. However, they keep the bar on the rive gauche. Translated: total closure of the Third Pole of Renzi and Calenda, search for a constructive dialogue with Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli, but, above all, with Giuseppe Conte.
Lugano has a dry bipolar scheme in mind: centre-right on one side, left on the other, center isolated in the middle (at least in the opinion of the new secretary of the dem). «Without the base, forget the heights». A maxim that implies the immediate need to return to the people themselves, to the territories. And to do so by allocating to circles at least thirty percent of the party’s two per thousand. As for the “rules of the game”, Elly Shlein wants to return to an electoral law that provides for preferences. No more candidates decided in the secret rooms of the parties. Big space for the environmental issue: no absolute and decisive to nuclear energy (tagged as expensive and dangerous), public resources to be significantly increased in renewable energies. Great attention was also paid to the more strictly cultural aspect: the message must be conveyed that saving energy is not a habit, but an absolute necessity. The new Democratic Party will introduce a national zero land use law; the commitment to decarbonization must not be forgotten. But what would become of the Democratic Party without a new gabel to be imposed on Italians? The idea is to launch a kind of ecologically correct tax plan, to eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies and link indirect taxes to CO2 emissions. In short, the least polluting would pay less. And, conversely, there would be higher social security contributions for those who pollute the air and land.
Work returns to the center of left-wing politics. Overcoming the Renzian Employment Law, considered “a rupture with the world of work and with workers”, it will be necessary to limit fixed-term contracts as much as possible, making stable work more convenient, abolishing the most precarious forms such as free internships . A minimum wage law will also be introduced and basic income will not be affected. On the issue of immigration, Elly Schlein would like a reform of the Dublin treaty, which imposes the principle of solidarity. “You don’t do politics on the skin of migrants by keeping them trapped at sea or in ports. We need redistribution mechanisms ». Finally, the broad subject of civil rights. “We must fight for a law against homomobilesbotransphobia, ableism and sexism. We want marriage to be an institution open to all, with full recognition of the rights of homoparental families and an end to discrimination suffered by their daughters and sons”. Of fundamental importance, at least for the new Pd, the Ius soli, “because the citizenship is not recognized by blood.” Finally, marijuana which, in the intentions of the new secretary, will be legalized.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
