A joke circulates among the leaders of the Democratic Party that the real miracle achieved by the centre-left would not be so much having won the administrative elections, as having not yet quarreled in the aftermath of that success. Now it is easy to predict that the climate of cohesion, in and between the opposition parties, will continue at least until the referendums are held which aim to fix the victory of Milan and Naples and put the government majority in further difficulty. But is all this enough to build a credible alternative government? Probably not.
Here then is that the center-left, and in particular the secretary of the Pd Bersani, who emerged truly strengthened from the electoral test, must perform a further miracle, this time all political: to succeed - in the aftermath of a success that has rewarded above all candidates that someone considers too characterized on the left - to dialogue, as well as with Vendola, with the center to field a credible government proposal for the next general elections, which it is easy to predict will not be before spring 2012.
In the meantime, however - given that a 40 billion euro maneuver is being requested from the country by Europe - the oppositions will have to be able to put forward, even to a center-right in obvious difficulty, feasible proposals to deal with the economic difficulties and the consequent social unease . This, therefore, must be the political agenda of the third prong and center-left for the post-referendum: competing in the open field to try to start solving the country's problems, also seeking political solutions with the current majority that allow it to govern a difficult transition in view of future elections.
This is one way of responding to the appeal launched by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, before the heads of state and government who participated yesterday in the feast of the Republic, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian unity: "Despite the its difficulties, our country deserves trust”. As for the increasingly imminent deadline of the referendums (just over a week to go), the centre-left and the majority are both focusing on the merits of the questions. The first to more easily reach the quorum necessary for their validity, the second, which also seems to provide for the achievement of the quorum, to shield the Government as much as possible from the political significance of that vote.
