The former president: “If you start from alliances without a program, you become weak”
Schlein’s debut went poorly. Indeed, it was catastrophic. Indeed, the demonstration in Florence marked, on the one hand, the acceleration towards a link between the new Pd on the left, with the 5 Stelle Movement, Verdi-Esquerda and the CGIL, founded on the virtual urgency of fighting fascism. On the other hand, however, the emergence in the context of the square of violent slogans, the cries of “killing a fascist is not a crime” and a pro-Cospito banner. Ugly scene, no doubt. And who knows if also in reference to this yesterday, Romano Prodi, speaking in Mezz’Ora in Più in Rai3, sent a kind of “alert” to the new secretary in the process of rebuilding the degraded Pd.
“I am convinced – said the former prime minister – that now Schlein has to define the program of the Democratic Party: only when there is a very precise program is that a political force is the driving force of the alliance, but if you start from the alliances when doesn’t have a program yet, so it’s weak.’ This is not exactly a secondary issue, this. Schlein, in fact, won the congress thanks to the gazebo vote, where voters from other parties could also participate, which is not said, in fact, it is more likely that they are excluded, they could abandon the movements that favored until last Sunday at the polls to embrace the cause of the new leader of the DEM.
On the contrary, it lost in the first phase, the one in which the members of the Democratic Party, who constitute the backbone of the party, obviously also formed by elected representatives from the area, voted. For many of whom the frantic rush left-left can be indigestible. However, Prodi does not disdain the identity agenda, of which the new secretary is the interpreter: “They accuse you of radicalism, but there are some issues where you have to be radical, everyone has the minimum wage, defending everyone’s job has to work . On these issues, the party must be precise and clear, a bit of radicalism in principles is needed».
And so, Prodi explains that Schlein “must unite society, this is a very important task if one day the centre-left wants to take over most of the country”. So aggregated. Keyword for all leaders who want to be competitive. The exact opposite of Saturday’s sortie, in that ugly and demagogic square. From which only polarization, even internal, can arise.
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.
