The unedifying statutory brawl that prevented the national assembly of the Democratic Party last weekend from resolving the problem of the rules for the next congressional path, in particular on the possibility that the future secretary may not necessarily also be the premier candidate for the future round of general elections, has overshadowed an important political fact: the distances between the four (currently) candidates for the secretariat have visibly narrowed. The speeches by Gianni Cuperlo, Matteo Renzi, Pippo Civati and Gianni Pittella signal at least one point of convergence: the Congress must be held and the process must be completed by 8 December as indicated by Guglielmo Epifani.
In this context, the question of the secretary's automatic candidacy for prime minister also assumes a different significance. Certainly the Renzians think that this identification between the two offices is the best solution, but they are not barricading themselves on this, contenting themselves that there is not a rule according to which the secretary must undertake not to be a candidate for prime minister. In turn, Cuperlo in his congressional platform instead undertakes to want to be secretary and that's it, excluding as of now his possible candidacy for Palazzo Chigi. As for Civati, his position is characterized by a greater distrust of the government of broad agreements, which he would like to have a term, possibly as short as possible, to then go back to voting with a new electoral law. Pittella insists above all on the themes of Europe for a Democratic Party increasingly placed in the field of European socialism.
But if the positions of the four candidates have at least the common denominator of wanting to hold the Congress immediately and to bring the question of the secretary-candidate to a conclusion with a reasonable compromise, how can we explain that the national assembly of the Democratic Party ended with nothing in fact and with an embarrassed postponement to an upcoming management meeting currently set for Friday the 27th? Elisabetta Gualmini probably hits the mark when she wrote in “Stampa”: “A completely physiological passage is taking place between the old and the new. Among the previous trade union pact, now reduced to a minority intent on resisting desperately with paragraphs changing the rules in progress, regulatory gabolas and aspiring leaders who fill the party tents ". Hence, in the meeting, Enrico Morando and Rosy Bindi clung to the statutory rules which must not be "matter for low-profile short-term agreements". After that, to break the bank it was enough to point out that, thanks to physiological or perhaps suggested absences, the assembly could not have resolved anything. And Epifani could not help but postpone any decision to a forthcoming management meeting.
The malicious argue that the final absences would have been favored on one side (Cuperlo) by the Bersanians and on the other (Renzi) by the latest arrivals, such as Dario Franceschini. This is probably a rough reconstruction. But it is certainly clear that what is referred to as the old nomenclature is determined to resist as much as possible in order not to be cut off by the four aspiring leaders, who, as Elisabetta Gualmini always observed, "have begun to seriously confront each other without feigned unanimity and viscous backroom deals”.
In short, from last week's assembly important signs of novelty came from the four candidates who, however, still have a long way to go to overcome the resistance of a sort of party gerontocracy which clings to statutory rules, clearly failed, to try to stop or jam that wheel that finally may have started to turn. We will see. The road to Congress will have to be short, but it will still be very bumpy. The easy relationship with a government in which it is the protagonist, but which is not at all appreciated by the members, also weighs on the democratic party. Prime Minister Enrico Letta explained that he will stay away from congressional disputes. An understandable intention, but not easy to implement and which carries the risk of accentuating the already significant distances of the Democratic Party from what is not "its government". The definition belongs to the Prime Minister.
