Of course, observing the dynamics of an Italian political system in rapid evolution, the risk of "dying Christian Democrats" is in front of us. And the more the crisis bites and threatens businesses and jobs, the more public finance constraints force us to cut back on waste and privileges that have been financed with public debt since the XNUMXs, the more nostalgia arises for a system that stood up to several decades on tax evasion and public spending, protection from competition and devaluation, public employment, double work and inefficient services.
This was certainly not the DC of the origins, a national and popular party, which from De Gasperi to the XNUMXs guided the post-war reconstruction, making Italy a large industrialized country and laying the foundations for the economic boom of the XNUMXs. But in the following decades, it was the DC led by a new generation that had not directly known fascism and the Liberation, which, while in other countries (for example Germany) fraternal parties laid the foundations of a modern social market economy , in Italy, piece by piece, thanks to the exponential growth of the public debt, created an economic and social system increasingly blocked by rents and corporatism.
A system whose oppressive growth was not opposed by the opposition political forces which, although excluded from the national government up to the nineties, were however at the helm of Municipalities and Regions, of Health Trusts and countless other public bodies; nor, of course, the trade unions. And it is from that story that, after 92, with the opening of the single market and then with the progressive European integration, Italy's structural difficulty in becoming a modern European country, competitive on global markets, difficulties concealed by Berlusconi's macroscopic anomaly and , thanks to this great collective alibi, never addressed and resolved.
Today the followers of that tradition occupy key positions in the government, are candidates for leadership of the Democratic Party, are important exponents of the other majority parties. Of course, there is Europe which protects us from a return to financing public deficit spending. But Europe is not enough, we are the ones who have to change, profoundly: to build the future of Italy today, a change is needed that starts from the sharing of values of legality, loyalty and civic responsibility.
Fiscal responsibility, respect for the rules, public service to be performed with dignity and honour, competition and merit as instruments of true social equity, transparency as a method of democratic participation; an idea of the Constitution that is not only a guarantee of rights but above all the fulfillment of duties. This is the new culture indispensable for building a competitive economy and a more just society.
These are, moreover, the messages that the Monti government gave to a country on the brink of the abyss and which the parties then immediately removed during the electoral campaign, with the opportunistic demonization of the action of the emergency government. And they are the same messages that the President of the Republic gave by lashing out at the parties and their irresponsible foolishness in his vigorous inauguration speech.
The Letta government, now in office for a few months, after years of sterile bipolar confrontation would have the possibility of using the grand coalition to implement - exactly as Schroeder did in Germany in the early 2000s - those reforms which, by affecting rents and privileges , they can breathe new life into the country, they can convince outsiders, almost always young, that it is still possible to build their future here, in their country. It does not seem that we are going in this direction: the IMU is removed to support Berlusconi's propaganda, returning to waver on the dangerous limit of 3 percent; the precarious workers stabilize in the public administration, the appointments in the Authorities are parceled out and liberalizations do not restart; we give up on making a great plan to involve private individuals for the enhancement of our cultural heritage.
In short, there is no new season and the grand coalition runs the risk of being a grand immobile collusion in pure neo-Christian style. Renzi appears on the horizon, who at the outset showed signs in a completely different direction. And not only and not so much for the happy slogan on the scrapping of a political class which, after so many defeats, as is customary in other developed countries, should step aside, but for other messages on Italian modernization and on the great challenges that Italy with its heritage of beauty, culture, creativity, artisan and industrial knowledge it could play in globalization. But these messages are already blurring to make an alliance with the left of the party possible, in order not to have the hostility of the trade union, a strong shareholder of the PD against which it would perhaps be impossible to conquer the party secretariat.
"Uniting" the party as asked by the ex populars means losing its diversity: it would mean giving up a project of change and retreating to a neo-Christian perspective. The risk to which Paolo Franchi alluded. Let's hope that Renzi knows how to resist these sirens, he leans on those in Italian politics who want to represent liberal, democratic and European values and does not give up his battle.
