It is no coincidence that in recent days "l'Unità", the newspaper close to Bersani's Pd, is giving greater prominence than other Italian newspapers in the upcoming French elections. In fact, if, as almost all the polls predict, but as it is not at all obvious (to say it is the socialist candidate himself), François Hollande will win the race for the Elysée, the secretary of the Democratic Party will have good game in asserting, even at the within his party, the forward-looking move, for which, together with the French socialist candidate and the leader of the German SPD, Sigmar Gabriel, he did not hesitate in mid-March to sign the manifesto for Europe. This is the political platform, on the basis of which Hollande (between 22 and 6 May), Bersani and Gabriel in 2013 challenge their respective national centre-rights, with a political proposal that relaunches the pro-European commitment of the left.
If Hollande is elected president of the French on the evening of May 6, the European left, led by the three, will have developed a very important first blow in this challenge, starting to give a very strong signal, breaking, as noted by Harlem Desir, today number 2 of the French socialists, “the pact of the Merkozy duo”. In turn, Bersani and the Democratic Party will find themselves having a much more significant political weight, even with respect to the Monti government. Whose policies will have to take into account the new balances that will begin to take shape in Europe in that case.
Hence also the attention that Monti has today towards what is happening on the French left, which is, moreover, a reflection of the attention that Hollande dedicated during his electoral campaign to the evolution of Italian politics and the choices of the president of the Council following the decline of Berlusconi.
Of course, even in the Democratic Party there were those who did not view favorably the secretary's decisive siding alongside the candidate of the French socialists. A minority of leaders from the popular party (Fioroni, Follini) would have preferred support for the centrist candidate Bayrou, but support for Hollande was widely shared by the most authoritative leaders from the Catholic world, such as the group leader in the Chamber Dario Franceschini and the foreign manager Lapo Pistelli.
Another issue that closely concerns the Democratic Party is observing how Hollande will resolve (in view of the second round) relations with the parties to his left, starting with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, credited by the polls with a good 15% in the first round. That of relations on the left is a problem that Hollande once again shares with Bersani and Desir, who, in order to win the elections, have to deal with Vendola and Di Pietro, and, perhaps, with Grillo, in Italy, and with Oskar Lafontaine in Germany. As you can see, there are similarities.
Almost completely absent from attention to the French elections is the Italian right. The ironic and mocking smiles with which SarKozy and Merkel welcomed Berlusconi in international forums weigh heavily. And so the only one who allowed himself a trip to France (in support of Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Front who surpasses both Bayrou and Melenchon in the polls) was the leader of the Right Francesco Storace. The exponents of the third pole who divide their sympathy between Bayrou and Sarkò are also cautious.
