It has officially begun the showdown in the Pd house. It starts from "an analysis without any discount, starting from myself", explained the outgoing secretary Enrico Letta during the leadership of the Democratic Party convened following the searing defeat suffered in the elections of 25 September.
Letta has already announced that a new congress will be held in March, to which he has no intention of running. According to the current secretary, to survive the party needs new recruits, a generational change. “I thank all those who have asked me for a longer-term commitment, but I would deem it a mistake for you and for the party: I started my political militancy as a young man, I was minister in '98 and it is right that our party puts in place a younger ruling class capable of challenging the government of Giorgia Meloni, a young woman”, said Letta.
Letta: "Enough with public health governments"
“Voters have given us the mandate to be the second political force and to lead the opposition, to build an alternative starting from the opposition. We are the only ones who have built a political alternative to the right. The others essentially made elections as an alternative to us. Today we begin a congress process but this is intimately connected to opposition work which begins today, we must immediately take on the role of the opposition, because the mandate that gave us the vote is that of leading the opposition". A position that brings with it a challenge: “When this government falls, the honeymoon will be short, I won't be there. But we will have to ask for early elections, no public health government, I say and will say, with respect to any congressional debate.”
Letta's mea culpa
The analysis starts with a dig at the former allies: “Only Brothers of Italy won: a field won because it was united, our field, on the other hand, was not, despite the work of months and years to build the wide field, a large unity, the only condition with which it could have been won ”, reiterates Letta.
“The fall of the Draghi government on July 20 was the point of return and who did not want to build the common work. That interruption trapped us in a 'Draghi yes, Draghi no' electoral campaign, which overshadowed the project they were building. We went at running elections with an incomplete profile, and thus falling short on core objectives. The first objective is not only to be the party of those who make it in Italy. But becoming the party capable of speaking to that large number of people who cannot. We were not considered the natural interlocutors,” Letta indicated.
The Democratic Party of the future
To be reborn, according to the secretary, the Democratic Party will have to change. Everything, but not the symbol of him. “I love this symbol, I am why the symbol remains as it is because it tells of the service done to Italy”.
The route must necessarily pass through one new women's representation: The few elected Pd women are “the failure of our representation. It is clear and evident, I don't have much to add, and it represents the sense of a party that has not taken the necessary leap forward ”, said Letta. “It is not possible to go back on the need to have heads of parliamentary groups representing women. On the other side there will be the country's first female prime minister and we must be credible on this point”.
"We will judge the government for what it will do - added Letta - but the impression is that any programmatic idea has already failed in relation to the many promises of the electoral campaign". Regarding the Congress of the Democratic Party, "not a referendum on Conte or Calenda", which "would be an idea of decline", explained the secretary.
The congress: "No to X factor on names"
“I would like the journey to end in winter, in March to leave again“, explained the current secretary of the Democratic Party, underlining that the congress must have “the right times, it doesn't have to be either an X Factor on the best secretary to be done in 40 days, but not even a congress that postpones to the Greek calends. I wish the new leadership team was in the field with the onset of the new spring. We need to start in March with a meaningful choice”.9
