Ever since they slammed the door and embarked on the path of splitting from the Democratic Party in hatred of Matteo Renzi, it has always been difficult to trace in the exponents of the Democratic and Progressive Movement inspired by Pierluigi Bersani and Massimo D'Alema (Art 1-Mdp) a political glue that really went beyond the personal grudges and resentments against the secretary of the Democratic Party.
The swing of orientations towards the Gentiloni government - of convinced support when it seemed that Renzi himself wanted to distance himself from it and of threatening detachment since it became clear that the Democratic Party will support the government in office until the end of the legislature - is the map the litmus test of the MDP's undulating political line. But the breakdown of negotiations with the centre-left in Sicily and the presentation of Claudio Fava's candidacy for the regional elections in November clarify even more and even better the real objectives of the Mdp which does not seem able to get rid of the Siena syndrome, where it is in Palio of July 2nd that in that of August 16th each contrada takes the field above all to make the rival contrada lose even before to win.
The times in which Bersani, as an excellent Minister of Industry of the first Prodi government, interpreted, as previously as Governor of Emilia-Romagna, the line of reasonableness and dialogue with businesses are long gone and perhaps definitively over the times of his liberalizing sheets in the second Prodi government. But the times are also long gone when, as the first ex-communist Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema not only promised the "liberal revolution", except bowing down to the sanctuaries of finance (first of all that of the banker Cesare Geronzi who had helped the DS to restructure the debt) and to sponsor the takeover bid of the so-called "brave captains" who fatally ballasted Telecom Italia, but courageously challenged the one-way pacifists by sending Italian troops to Kosovo to avert a tragic massacre.
But when yet another small party of the Italian left is born not with the intention of proposing new policies for change but with the main objective of playing "against", it is difficult to find a space to the left of the Democratic Party and the expertise of navigated is not enough political leaders of the PCI of the past such as Bersani and D'Alema to avoid the maximalist drift and landing on ever more radical sides, even at the cost of denying themselves and cultivating the subtle taste for their own defeat and that of the entire Italian left .
With all due respect to the generous former mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia and his progressive camp, born with the idea of revitalizing and reunifying the center-left, it is clear that if one of the main players in the game (the Mdp) starts from the prejudicial policy that can be summarized in the categorical imperative "Never with Matteo and with his reforms" (all, except the Italicum, approved in Parliament by the Mdp who now pretends to forget it), the search for a sustainable compromise failed before even starting, with great joy of Beppe Grillo's grillini and Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini's centre-right.
The divergence to the left and the search by the Mdp for its own alternative identity to the Democratic Party have not prevented the formation of unitary lists in the last local elections, albeit with generally disastrous results and until a few days ago it was thought that this could happen also in Sicily, where the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, notoriously independent from the Democratic Party and in the front row of the demonstration in Piazza Santi Apostoli in Rome which inaugurated the Progressive Field project in July, has spent – with the open Pisapia's support – to create a large and plural centre-left list that would go beyond the Democratic Party and bring together forces ranging from Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to the Mdp and the Italian Left.
Open up heaven. "Never with Angelino" thundered the local and national exponents of Mdp. It is of little use to remember that Mpd, whose bishops - when they were at the head of the Democratic Party - sponsored and supported the Letta government together with Silvio Berlusconi, have so far voted to trust the Gentiloni government together with Angelino Alfano. And that the same thing happens in Palermo where the mayor Orlando governs with a wide array that goes from Alfano to Mdp. But coherence, as we know, is a rare virtue in politics. Mathematics, on the other hand, is merciless and without the votes of Alfano's group, which are rather scarce at a national level but which are decisive in Sicily, the electoral battle of the centre-left on the island, if not compromised, is certainly very problematic. With the gamble of Fava's candidacy, the MDP and the Italian Left could not really give a greater gift to Berlusconi and Grillo, who will know who to thank.
At the Sicilian Regionals, the followers of Bersani and D'Alema risk an own goal if they do not exceed the 5% quorum and they are the first to know, but Mdp's real objective is all too clear and is only to pick Renzi and the Pd. Let Samson die with all the Philistines. It is the Palio di Siena syndrome or the subtle and irresistible taste of defeat.
In recent days the killer of the first Prodi government, the ineffable Fausto Bertinotti, who then paid for his political about-face with the complete shipwreck of the Communist Refoundation which was not even able to reach the quorum to enter Parliament, found again, appearing at the Meeting of CL in Rimini, the strength to admit: "I am a great expert on defeats". Bersani, D'Alema and Mdp must have asked him for advice.
