Will we all die Christian Democrats? After the arrival at Palazzo Chigi of Enrico Letta, who proudly displays his militancy in the DC youth movement, and of Angelino Alfano, another long-time ex-Christian Democrat, Matteo Renzi's increasingly probable rise to the top of the Pd, another product of the Florentine Catholic school, authorizes us to ask ourselves a question that was very topical in the First Republic, only to become – even for many laymen – a reason for regret, rather than relief, in the long Berlusconi season of the Second Republic.
Surely the moment in which the new essay by Beppe Vacca, historian of political thought and leading intellectual of the Italian left as well as president of the Istituto Gramsci Foundation, sees the light: "Will we die Christian Democrats? The Catholic question in the reconstruction of the republic” (Salerno publisher, pp. 232, euro 13). Pages of faint topicality, accompanied by detailed historical reconstructions and supported by authoritative sources, document the implosion of the Second Republic and outline possible future scenarios.
In short, will we die Christian Democrats or not? It is a doubt also raised yesterday by the columnist for the "Corriere della Sera" Paolo Franchi in an analysis that appeared in the Via Solferino newspaper which delves into the latest events in the Democratic Party's congress and which not by chance is entitled "Surprise, goodbye post-communists. The Democratic Party turns out to be a Christian Democrat”. "A large part of the voters who vote for Pd" and who are now fascinated by Renzi's charisma and discontinuity "certainly have no desire to die Christian Democrats" argues Franchi, who however adds: "But to die of starvation, acting as guardians to a temple that has been empty for some time, probably these voters of the Democratic Party have even less desire ”.
To the question that gives the title to his new essay, Beppe Vacca tends to answer in the negative. “The reasons why“ we will not die Christian Democrats ” – writes Vacca in his introduction – are written in the cartography of the nation that the last political elections have illuminated in a dazzling way. Any reconstruction project cannot ignore the medium and long-term issues of Italy's history”. But – commented in Espresso” the economic historian Giuseppe Berta “overcoming the political cultures at sunset does not seem to be on the agenda for the moment”.
In other words: it is not mandatory to die as a Christian Democrat but to overcome this horizon the left must be able to fully deal with itself and with a society that is profoundly different from the one that could be read on the thread of the ideologies of the past.
