Once upon a time, in Italy, there was a political force, the Democratic Party (PD), which was powerful and influential within the European left, although because of its internal divisions and great contradictions, it suffered electoral disasters. Like other European socialist formations, it is in deep crisis, since Matteo Renzi left its general secretary in 2017. In fact, the right now rules Italy almost unopposed and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is more concerned than his partners in government, for the “Philoputinanos” – Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini – from the same left opposition, deeply divided and without a project, having lost its ancient roots. On Sunday, in the primaries for left-wing voters, the successor to Enrico Letta, who was defeated in the general elections five months ago and also in the regional elections of February 12, will be announced. In the latest polls, the Democratic Party had 16.9% of voting intentions, far behind the country’s leading party, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, with 31.1%). The favorite in the primaries is Stefano Bonaccini, 56-year-old head of the Emilia-Romagna region, who began his political career in the Italian Communist Party and gradually moved to the Social Democratic and Liberal positions, becoming one of the main representatives of the Italian Communist Party. PD reformer suite. His rival who could surprise is Elena Ethel Schlein, 37, Member of Parliament and former Vice President of Emilia-Romagna, who holds Italian, American and Swiss citizenship. Feminist, anti-liberal, and self-proclaimed bisexual. Schlein represents the new face of the Italian left. With the Democratic Party utterly bewildered, this is a primaries in which the entire left could participate, from PD fighters to Greens and Radicals, including the Five Star Movement; Some rights can even cast their votes at the polls to limit this. With confusion like that, anyone could be the winner: Bonaccini or Schlein. One of them will be the 11th general secretary of the PD in 15 years – they’ve lasted an average of 18 months. The original idea of this formation, founded in 2007, which was the spirit of Romano Prodi’s Olivo and which was born as a “party with a call to the majority” to bring together all the left currents, from the moderate to the most extreme. Over time, the original project has faded and is now unrecognizable. RELATED SPECIFICATIONS No News Leaders from the Italian Left Praise Giorgia Meloni’s Administration Ángel Gómez Fuentes The New York Times Prime Minister Blesses Two Leading Democratic Party Leaders Confirm It’s “Capable and Better Than Expected” The Primaries Didn’t Even They Sparked Interest From The left, because neither Bonaccini nor Schlein made striking or attractive proposals, except for the usual resource on the need to renew and remain at the service of the citizens. There was no debate, but there are many issues of great interest on which the left should be questioned, suggested Paulo Flores d’Arquis, director of Micromega, who in its latest issue stirred up a scathing debate about these enduring crises. His thesis is that the Italian left is allowing itself to get sucked into “reactionary drifts”. Warm Solidarity Floris Darquis wonders, among other things, why the left has become so “Islamophilic” and denies or hides the oppressive aspects of that society; Why did he show tepid solidarity with the women’s protest movement in Iran? Why did the left support solidarity with the “Me Too” movement without distinguishing between harassment and rape? Or, finally, why the left is not in solidarity with the part of historical feminism that questions the biological nature of sexual difference, which the LGTBQIA+ movement denies. The political scientist and sociologist Luca Riccolfi, professor at the University of Turin and president of the David Hume Foundation, provides an answer to the causes of the deep crisis on the left, author of a book with remarkable ramifications: ‘La Mutazione’. Come le ide di sinistra sono migrate to destra (“The boom. How the ideas of the left migrated to the right”). Sociologist Ricolfi explains that “the three great ideals and values of the left—the defense of the popular classes, freedom of thought and expression, and the defense of meritocracy and culture as a distinct path toward equality—no longer live there; some wander aimlessly, others have gone to the right,” he concludes.
