The Penati case is a bad thing for the Democratic Party. First of all because it shifted the attention of a public opinion that the Pd had managed to concentrate on similar and perhaps more serious cases involving authoritative exponents of the Pdl to a serious matter of corruption within the party. Then because Filippo Penati is not a "quidam de populo". He was mayor of Sesto San Giovanni, candidate for the presidency of the Lombardy Region, contending for it with Roberto Formigoni, then he coordinated the electoral campaign of Pierluigi Bersani, on the occasion of the primaries that brought him to the secretariat of the Democratic Party.
Yet Penati himself could have rescued the party from the embarrassment. It would have been enough that, after the judiciary recognized his right to avail himself of the statute of limitations for the serious crimes for which he would have been responsible, he had said that he renounced that benefit, instead asking to be acquitted in court of those serious accusations. Nothing more than what the Democratic Party has repeatedly asked Berlusconi to do, on the occasion of similar prescriptions. After all, in the old PCI, of which Penati was an authoritative and appreciated executive officer, these behaviors were sometimes customary. If not, where was the declared “diversity” so dear to Enrico Berlinguer going? And after all such behavior was first suggested and then energetically requested of Penati by both the president Rosy Bindi and the deputy secretary Enrico Letta.
Faced with the stubborn determination of the former mayor of Sesto (he will have good reasons) to rely on the prescription, Bersani has referred the case to the Guarantee Commission, the internal court of the Democratic Party authoritatively chaired by Luigi Berlinguer. One wonders if the Commission will also be able to take the expulsion measure against Penati. The President of the Commission himself pointed out that the Statute is not very clear on this point. But he also hinted that there will have to be a strong and timely decision. In order to be able to demonstrate once again the "diversity" of the Democratic Party, compared to other parties.
But this setting is not very convincing. It is not the diversity of one party compared to others that requires draconian measures against administrators who violate the law. Instead, the "normality" of politics is. The latter, if "normal" cannot be "mariola". And therefore if Penati, once his serious responsibilities are ascertained by the Guarantee Commission, will be expelled, this will not mean that the Democratic Party is a "different" party, but more modestly and subduedly a party that aspires to bring politics back to normal . Considering that, as Lucio Dalla said, even in politics, "the truly exceptional thing is to be normal".
