From the Lusi case to the lack of political democracy: once people stole for the party, today for themselves

This beginning of the week three episodes, very unedifying, re-propose the question of how political parties are financed and organized. The first episode is about failure to reduce salaries and annuities for parliamentarians: for now everything has been resolved (in the Chamber) in a missed salary increase of 1.300 euros which will in any case be recovered in a separate fund again for the deputies. The second (and it is the most amazing) is that of Senator Luigi Lusi (PD), who allegedly appropriated as much as 13 million, part of Margherita's public funding (called electoral reimbursements), allocating them to the personal purchase of properties in the center of Rome and in Canada. We use the conditional as a guarantee, even if it was Lusi himself who admitted the circumstance who now, on the sidelines of a possible plea deal, has also agreed to a partial repayment in installments. The third episode, still to be explored, concerns the Senator Riccardo Conti of the PDL who, according to what was explained on the news of "La 7", in a single day would have bought a building in the center of Rome from the Omega fund and resold it to the psychologists' social security institution for a profit of 18 million euros.

The first episode (the missed reductions), unfortunately, is in perfect continuity with the more or less recent history of the costs of politics in our country. The third (that of Senator Conti) will have to be subject to subsequent checks. But the second, namely that of Senator Luigi Lusi, is truly a special case. The protagonist, already a boy scout, had been chosen, in his time, as treasurer of the Margherita, by Francesco Rutelli, who is now indignant and furious, demanding the recovery of the stolen goods. For now, however, we can observe that we are faced with an absolute precedent. If confirmed, Lusi would be the first treasurer, who instead of "stealing" (the term is strong and perhaps technically inaccurate, but it gives a good idea) for the party, he appropriates party property (indeed of a former party, given that after the birth of the Democratic Party Margherita can no longer make use of that definition, despite having continued to have its own administration). In short, there is something to look at with sympathy for the poor Severino Citaristi and Vincenzo Balzamo (administrators of the DC and the PSI at the time of clean hands) who have collected records of guarantee notices for illegal party financing. Not to mention Primo Greganti, who even went to jail for a while, in order not to involve the former PCI, in casual and illegal financial transactions.

It then strikes that the three episodes came to light just after an impeccable public intervention by the President of the Republic, which, on the occasion of the awarding of the honorary degree by the University of Bologna, had called politics to an indispensable reform path, which starting from the electoral reform was to involve above all the parties. "Only with reforms - said Napolitano - can we get out of the crisis", adding: "Parliament is committed to reforming the institutions and electoral rules to give citizens back the voice they deserve in the choice of representatives". Another consideration by the Head of State was on that occasion that "between rejecting parties and rejecting politics, distancing oneself from politics, the step is not long and is fatal, it leads to the end of democracy and therefore of freedom”.

Strong and clear words that lead us to reflect on article 48 of the Constitution according to which citizens can "associate freely with a democratic method in determining national policy". One wonders if the parties, as they are living in the Second Republic, really respect the democratic method. And one could conclude that this democratic method is at least weakened. Since in parties (and this applies not only to the highly presidential PDL, which in any case has also had a secretary for a few months) Congresses are very rarely held. And these, when they take place, almost always end with plebiscitary acclamations, rather than democratic elections. Naturally, internal rules are also a problem that fades into the background, in the face of the absolute anomaly of an electoral law according to which a Parliament, instead of being chosen by the citizens, is nominated by a few party leaders. A bit as if our democracy took the form of a party system without parties.