Pd, one in two voters would like Landini as leader

There is research that confirms what is already in the air, namely the political potential of CGIL leader Maurizio Landini. The study was carried out (between November 28th and 30th) by Emg/Adnkronos. Here’s what happens: 42% of Democratic Party voters and 30% of 5-Star Movement voters would see the CGIL secretary as the new leader of the left. However, 23% of PD voters and 44% of Cinco Estrelas voters responded negatively. In general, to the question “among Landini, Conte, Schlein, who would you like to be the leader of the left?”, 32% opt for the union leader, 30% for Conte and 20% for Schlein. However, 18% do not respond. Fabrizio Masia, number one at Emg, explains this dynamic in an interview with Adnkronos. «A possible candidacy by Landini – he notes – would be proposed as a unifying element of the center-left capable of recovering even lost votes». Furthermore, he continues, «Landini has excellent appeal at the moment, while it seems to me that Schlein’s activity is struggling to gain a foothold and consensus, while Conte’s is more conservative. The PD electorate likes Landini and arouses a lot of interest in that part of the center-left electorate that is not going to vote. He manages to intercept the most well-founded requests from left-wing parties that are not properly represented.”

As for Elly Schlein, explains Masia, “she certainly embodies some historical values ​​of the left. It is no coincidence that she won the primaries by obtaining many votes from those who voted for the Italian left.” However, she believes that beyond the value aspects, there is probably a lack of real content and programmatic ideas capable of gathering citizens’ consensus and interpreting their needs”. This is a numerical table that seems to certify what is already underway, that is, a street mobilization (the last stage yesterday, in the South) that seems more than anything else oriented towards conquering political spaces on the left. Triggering a confrontation with the government, which is generating a series of consequences. On the one hand, the division in the union. If the Uil, in fact, decided to follow the CGIL’s stance, the CISL opted for a more dialogical line, also recognizing the sharing of some measures contained in the maneuver. The other consequence, then, is the impact on the general scenario. The Italian economy is certainly suffering setbacks due to a difficult economic situation, but it is essentially holding up, and the recent employment data is there to prove it. Despite the slowdown in inflation, many unknowns remain about 2024, also arising from the ECB’s interest rate policy. In this scenario, fueling social conflict through the re-presentation of the 20th century formula of opposition between businesspeople and workers is not good for the country.

And this can also be seen considering the major changes to which a union, in an evident crisis of representation, must respond: the change in the organization of work due to the diffusion of new technologies (see also artificial intelligence), the change in the relationship between the commissioning and performance (in this regard it is useful to study the phenomenon of the on-demand economy, of which home delivery drivers are the most immediate example). In this context, the CGIL chose to behave like a pseudo-party, and signs of this can also be seen in the mobilizations promoted on issues not strictly attributable to representation, such as the war in Ukraine or the fascist alarm (we remember the demonstration promoted in Florence after the fight at Michelangiolo school). It is certainly not the first time that a tunnel has come into operation between the Corso Italia union and left-wing parties. Just look at the political path that Sergio Cofferati, Guglielmo Epifani and Susanna Camusso have followed, just to name the last few years. But adopting any political line has a price, and perhaps this time it runs the risk of being higher.