It must be recognized that a far-sighted politician like the former President of the Senators Pd, Luigi Zanda, was once again prophetic. On the eve of the parliamentary disaster of Wide field on 'Ukraine had given an interview to “Domani” which contained two non-trivial observations. The first, referring to Giuseppe Conte: “If you slept with a dagger under your pillow for four years, you can't think of doing something good in the last fifteen days” because now the differences between Five stars and the Democratic Party have become ossified. And the second: "Conte thinks we can't argue about Ukraine in the nick of time, but he's wrong: over Ukraine, things can break up." This is exactly what happened in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, and it casts ominous shadows over the future of the center-left coalition.
“Today – it is Zanda speaking again – Schlein and Conte can at most reach an electoral agreement, a stubbornly united one, but not a true alliance.” It's impossible to disagree with Zanda. But what kind of alliance would it be if the two main parties can't even agree on foreign policy? It would be just an electoral sham, a desperate operation to gather votes but with little hope, even in the event of a victory at the polls, of being able to govern.
The divisions over Ukraine are just the tip of the iceberg of the disorientation of the Broad Camp
In reality the rift over weapons to Ukraine, attacked by Putin's Russia, is just the tip of the iceberg of the broad camp's disorientation on all foreign policy issues, which affect the role of Europe, the increase in military spending, the Safe funds, security and defense in the face of threats of aggression, and much more. But the fragility of the center-left concerns its entire programmatic framework, which has never been fully defined but which, as an editorial by the director of "Il Foglio" astutely observed, Claudio Cerasa, It reveals among Campo Largo's majority shareholders—from economic policy to pensions and labor market regulations, not to mention justice, migration, and security policy—"an explicit obsession with erasing the progressive camp's reformist past." With such a shortsighted and biased programmatic approach, which mirrors the paradigms of Giuseppe Conte and AVS, Campo Largo, despite the divisions that also permeate the center-right, is seriously laying the foundations for a crash in the next elections.
But a basic rule of politics dictates that, when you're in deep, you should try to turn the tables and disrupt the situation, trying to dictate the agenda yourself, if you can. It would take courage, creativity, and imagination—all qualities that, with rare exceptions, certainly don't shine in the center-left.
Renew or perish, a stroke of genius to shake up the stagnant waters of Italian politics.
Think about what would happen if, in view of the Campo largo primaries, an innovative, pragmatic and empathetic figure like the reluctant mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis, decided to put aside all his doubts and openly enter the race for the premiership, disrupting the antiquated games of the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement, to which he would unexpectedly offer a winning side. But on what basis could such an operation be imagined? It may seem strange, but there's not much to invent and you don't start from scratch, it just takes courage: it would be enough to adopt theDragons agenda adapting to the Italian context his Report on European Competitiveness, made of "radical changes" and massive investments and well summarized in the title of the latest book by the former Prime Minister and the former President of the ECB, "Compete or Disappear." Or, if you prefer, "Renew or Perish." The candidacy of a leader full of freshness and dynamism of the level of Salis not as a personal choice but on the binding basis of a highly authoritative and at the same time very concrete program like the Draghi Agenda: this would be a crazy coup for Italian politics and the only truly great innovation to counter the pro-Putin populism of the General Vannacci. New leadership and a highly innovative program: everything would change. Is it a simplistic hypothesis? Of course, but it cannot be said to be banal. However, some might criticize Salis, if she were to run for the leadership of the national government, for abandoning the administration of Genoa A little over a year later. This is a serious objection and one that shouldn't be taken lightly, but with all due respect to the city of the Lanterna, if there's an event of exceptional national interest that puts the country's fate at stake, especially after General Vannacci's intervention, then the commitment to Italy's future must prevail, without any democratic damage, over that of the Ligurian capital.
But is a dream like Salis's candidacy with the Draghi Agenda under her arm realistic? Probably not in the deadly race of Italian politics. But never say never, knowing that for the Campo largo, the alternative to the Salis + Draghi Agenda gamble would be a constant and exhausting fratricidal war, fueled by unbridled personal ambitions, with the ever-looming risk of probable political suicide. Is this what Italy, not so much the Campo largo, deserves? Raise your hand if you have the courage to support it.
