Share

Tabacci: "Di Maio and Salvini, get out of the dream: you are not absolute winners"

INTERVIEW with BRUNO TABACCI, leader of the Democratic Center and parliamentarian of +Europe - "The Five Star-Lega government is not the only possible solution but, if Di Maio and Salvini continue to act as absolute winners, the center-left will only have the opposition" - "Neither illusions nor forcing the electoral law" - "Salvini will not be able to launch the takeover bid on the center-right" - "The Democratic Party does not perch itself on the Aventine"

Tabacci: "Di Maio and Salvini, get out of the dream: you are not absolute winners"

"The sooner Di Maio and Salvini will realize that theirs - as was Bersani's in 2013 - is a mutilated victory that requires discussions with the other political forces, the better it will be for everyone": Bruno Tabacci, leader of the Democratic Center, re-elected for the sixth time in Parliament on the +Europe list with a triumphant success in the heart of Milan, he looks with great concern at the political framework that emerged from the elections of 4 March but does not lose his traditional realism. "The first step - he observes - belongs to the Five Stars and the League: if they don't make the first move with great humility, there is little they can do" but, in any case, "the crisis will not be short". Here's how Tabacci sees today's political situation and its possible developments in this interview with FIRSTonline.

Honorable Tabacci, how did the miracle of overwhelmingly winning the elections of 41 March in the heart of Milan with 4% of the votes with a list, that of +Europe, which did not reach the 3% quorum on a national scale, and faced with the rising wave of the League and the Five Stars? 

“It wasn't a foregone conclusion, on the contrary, and it was a political success that not only makes me proud on a personal level but is very important for +Europe and for all of the centre-left. I believe that the result of the Milan 1 constituency, where I was a candidate, was mainly influenced by two elements: the hard core of sincerely reformist and pro-European voters who in the previous general elections had voted for Mario Monti, who with Civic Choice garnered about 20% of the votes , and the ability to communicate with the Milanese bourgeoisie, on which I have always focused, knowing full well that it is not at all crossed by reactionary orientations such as Salvini's League would have us believe".

The centre-left wins hands down with you in the heart of Milan and triumphs with Gentiloni in the center of Rome, but does not touch the ball in the suburbs: it is a sign that the centre-left, and in particular the Democratic Party, is the point of reference for the establishment but cannot speak to young people and other segments of the population? 

“It is useless to hide from ourselves that the vote of 4 March was above all a vote of great protest and rebellion against the system and that in the center of Milan and Rome the centre-left mainly intercepted the votes of the leading groups and organized interests, also on the wave of good governance and good administration which have been the basis of unequivocal successes such as, for example, the Expo. There is no doubt, however, that the centre-left has not been able to speak to the suburbs and the excluded and that this should make us think. We would be wrong if we thought we were only the voice of the ruling classes in Parliament and I believe instead that we will have to treasure the vote of 4 March by trying to export the political model that made us win in the heart of Milan and Rome, courageously tackling the problem of social and generational inequalities and learning to speak to the excluded but demystifying the root of the illusory shortcuts of the League and the Five Stars". 

Apart from the personal successes of Tabacci and Bonino, the +Europe list managed to elect only four MPs: did you expect a better result and now which parliamentary group will you place yourself in? 

“Yes, we expected a better result especially in the South where, up until a few days before the vote, there were signs of attention towards +Europe by a part of the centre-left electorate who no longer wanted to vote for Pd but who didn't feel like it to change field. Unfortunately the wave of the Five Stars has overwhelmed everything. But what is striking is that from Lazio down all the regions of the South, with the recent exception of Sicily, were and are in the hands of the centre-left, but this was not enough to cool the protest. Now we will join the mixed group with the hope of helping to rebuild a completely different center-left, not self-referential, more markedly pro-European and reformer, and without Aventine temptations". 

Confusion is high under the sky of politics but the battle for the election of the new presidents of the Chamber and the Senate is upon us: it will be a game entirely in the hands of Cinque Stelle and Lega or the minorities will be able to try to have some say in the matter ? 

“We are facing an unprecedented scenario that is the result of this electoral law, tendentially proportional but unsuitable for implementing the parliamentary guarantees of the First Republic, where the Presidency of one Chamber usually fell to the DC and the other, at least in the last legislatures, to the PCI. Today this scheme has been broken and we are moving in the dark, because, beyond the rhetoric of the two winners, there is no certain majority and the center-right is full of very strong tensions, ever since Salvini made it clear that he would like to launch the takeover bid on Forza Italia and on Fratelli d'Italia. The sooner Di Maio and Salvini realize that theirs - as was Bersani's in 2013 - is a mutilated victory that requires discussions with the other political forces, the better it will be for everyone. But the intentions of dividing the Presidencies of the two houses of Parliament seem to me a bad start, which can only complicate an already very difficult game". 

Can an agreement on the presidencies of the Chamber and the Senate really push Cinque Stelle and the Lega to form a government together? 

"They have the numbers to form a government together, but politically it continues to seem to me a very problematic operation that risks upsetting the general balance of the system and pushing Italy towards a very ambiguous international position, in Europe and in NATO . It is no coincidence that President Mattarella clearly expressed his concern for an electoral campaign that seems to never end and asked everyone for the utmost sense of responsibility".

A Five Star-League government would be a huge risk for Italy, however – on closer inspection – the programs of both (from the No to the Jobs Act and the Fornero law to Euroscepticism and immigration policies) are more similar than it appears: don't you think? 

“That is partly the case, but any government worthy of the name is born on a serious program and on a ministerial composition that is not improvised: no one knows yet where Cinque Stelle and the Lega will be able to go on these lands and this contributes to making the political situation very uncertain. since the March 4 elections”.

Realistically, in front of the centre-left are there alternative paths to the more logical one of a responsible opposition to governments led or influenced by Di Maio and Salvini? 

“We need to see if and at what precise moment the awareness will emerge that the new Parliament is characterized by not two but three minority groups. If this awareness does not emerge, it is clear that we will move towards a Five Star-League government with the center-left in opposition and the center-right furrowed by very strong tensions and that then we will return to voting. But, on paper, this is not the only possible solution, even if it appears to be the easiest”.

Does it mean that the centre-left could make itself available to support centre-right or Five Star governments if they lack extreme points of maximalism? 

"No, I mean that the centre-left must not withdraw onto the Aventine and must not withdraw into itself and that, at the moment, I see no other perspective from the democratic opposition, but at this stage the game is in the hands of the Five Stars and the League. It is clear that if they want to create a government of two and continue to behave like absolute winners of the elections without being one, the centre-left will only have the opposition. Otherwise, faced with a declared willingness to dialogue without "ifs" and "buts" of the Five Stars and the League, the different possible parliamentary and government combinations will be evaluated ".

Minister Franceschini has proposed a constituent government to write together the new rules of the game, namely a new electoral law and a new constitutional reform, before returning to vote: what do you think? 

“I think Franceschini's approach is correct but a bit too ambitious. Attempting a new constitutional reform after the 2016 referendum and after the electoral strengthening of the Five Stars and the League seems to me very difficult to achieve. But in any case, the first step belongs to Di Maio and Salvini. If they don't make the first move with great humility, there's little they can do”.

Granted and not granted that a new electoral law is arrived at before returning to vote, how should it be? Majority or proportional? 

“In the last legislature I did not welcome the too casual transition from a basically majority electoral system to a predominantly proportional one which only increased the confusion. If it were possible to start from scratch, I would suggest the German model in the strict sense but if, in addition to representativeness, one wanted to privilege the governability of the system, then the French system with the double shift has its reasons and its merits. But first of all, a serene and unprejudiced comparison would be needed, which for now does not seem within reach".

Will there be a new electoral law or not before returning to the vote? 

“I am very puzzled. I would advise only two things: no illusions and no forcing. If there is someone, as it seems to me that Salvini is doing, who believes that adding a majority bonus to the Rosatellum system is enough to close the discussion, he is very wrong. We are no longer in the electoral campaign and the citizens are not fools: whenever someone thinks of forcing his hand on the electoral law, he usually pays the price”.

As things stand, it doesn't seem that this legislature has a great future: how long will it last and what will it be able to do? 

“I don't think this legislature is far-reaching but its future, as well as on the moves of all the protagonists, will also depend a lot on external factors, such as the reactions of the international and above all European community and of the financial markets. The crisis will not be short-lived and I think that only after Easter will President Mattarella be in a position to be able to give an assignment for the formation of the new government".

And what will happen in the centre-right? Will Salvini really be able to launch the takeover bid on Forza Italia and FdI or does Berlusconi still have the ability to overturn the balance of power? 

“It does not seem to me that, while threatening to push for new elections soon, Salvini is in a position to launch the takeover bid on Berlusconi and Meloni, because the centre-right voters would not follow him so easily. We are only at the beginning, the match is open”.

And what will the Democratic Party be like after Renzi's resignation? 

"It needs a strongly self-critical path and Martina's first steps seem appreciable to me, especially when she says that to heal wounds a day's passage to the gazebos is not enough but a serious congress is needed which helps to broaden the game and revive the reforming spirit and pro-European of the centre-left, in which +Europe too can play its part. I think it is essential that the Democratic Party does not take refuge, but knows how to deal with the great epochal issues and with the reasons why social democracy is no longer successful in any part of the world in recent years, to seek new solutions ".

1 thoughts on "Tabacci: "Di Maio and Salvini, get out of the dream: you are not absolute winners""

comments