In recent months, everything has happened to the Democratic Party: Bersani's party has lost the elections even though it finished first by a hair's breadth; he failed to make the announced government change; he gave a bad show in the elections for the President of the Republic (just think of the 101 snipers that brought down Prodi's candidacy, which was acclaimed a few hours earlier by the plenum of his big voters); he broke with his electoral campaign ally (SEL), thanks to which he had won the majority prize in the Chamber; at the same time the secretary resigned, after the institutional generosity of the President of the Republic, almost forced to re-election, had avoided the worst for the institutions and for the country. Finally, this party, in evident and profound crisis, now finds itself leading a government of broad agreements with Enrico Letta, in which PDL ministers also participate. This solution was vigorously excluded both during the electoral campaign and afterwards.
If this is the summary of the previous episodes, it is clear how difficult the appointment of the National Assembly on Saturday 11 May is called to give at least a provisional set-up to the party leadership in view of a congress that looks anything but easy. Of course, all this takes place in a heated climate with some occupied party offices and with the harsh protests of the circles and militants against what remains of the leadership group. It is no coincidence that in recent days the most varied solutions have been chasing each other for the secretariat or at least the regency of the party. Solutions that have never managed to take on robust consistency. It will probably lead to a choice of guarantee which in the end should at least allow the start of the congressional procedures.
It is in this context that Enrico Letta, so far deputy secretary of the Democratic Party and main collaborator of the outgoing secretary Bersani, finds himself governing one of the most anomalous governments of the Italian post-war period, albeit complicated. A government that is difficult even to define. And which certainly is not and cannot be a government of "national reconciliation", but which is certainly a government of necessity.
A state, that of necessity, which has also been recognized by the Democratic Party, which has assumed responsibility even at the cost of facing the reasonable and predictable and strong protest of the militants. The problem is: can the Democratic Party, this Democratic Party in deep crisis, hold up this heavy political boulder in the name of the general interest of the country? I think it's very difficult for him to succeed, but at this point he has a duty to try. The history and identity of the Italian left (including the PCI) imposes it on him.
As Eugenio Scalfari Togliatti recently recalled, as soon as he returned to Salerno he found himself explaining to the general staff of the party that it was necessary to support none other than the Badoglio government, even net of the still unresolved institutional question. First of all came Italy to be rebuilt. Another great leader of the PCI, Giorgio Amendola, was once asked by the workers what the counterpart would be to demand for the commitment of the working classes to reduce inflation. He replied that the counterpart was "the fall in inflation." Here, too, the national interest was in the foreground. Finally the years of lead, those of terrorism and the Red Brigades: once again the left, the PCI and the CGIL, paid a high cost, even in blood, for having put democratic institutions and their defense first.
As if to say that the Italian left has always managed (even from the opposition) to put the general interest of the country in the foreground. Is this the same this time with the government of necessity presided over by Enrico Letta? Answering affirmatively is not easy. Let us take up the reference to the Badoglio government and the Ciellenist governments. In those groups there were also right-wing parties: the liberals, perhaps the royalists. But those most responsible for the catastrophe, those who had wanted to follow Mussolini's adventure to the end, weren't there. Today, however, in the Letta government there are Berlusconians (those whom the Democratic Party considers primarily responsible for a long period of democratic crisis). And above all there is the cumbersome presence, on the sidelines, of their boss. Which certainly does not make things easier by presenting himself as the main supporter and political beneficiary of the government of broad understandings.
If one scrolls through the protests that follow one another on sites close to the Democratic Party, one can grasp this political synthesis: a government with Berlusconi is even worse for us than a Berlusconi government. A judgment which certainly does not facilitate the already difficult start of the Letta government, but which finds an easy explanation precisely in the attitude of those who, while calling demonstrations against the judges, invade the televisions to put on the clothes of the statesman (very badly worn), then benevolently conceding to government to go ahead, despite the so-called judicial persecution, reaffirmed in his opinion, by unjust sentences.
For the Democratic Party, which already has enormous internal problems, withstanding this pressure, even net of the indigestible toads it had to swallow in the parliamentary commissions (Nitto Palma, but above all Formigoni) will be particularly difficult. It will be up to Letta (whose choices on ministers have appeared to be very shrewd) to try to keep the barrack going. And it is no coincidence that the Prime Minister has expressed his intention to participate in the assembly of his party.
Will the Democratic Party be able to resolve its internal crisis and guarantee a government of necessity for the country? The forecasts are not favourable, but the two issues are closely connected, and it begins precisely with the national assembly in which Guglielmo Epifani, on the basis of a last-minute agreement, will become secretary of the ferryman until the autumn Congress.
