"Now only the Eternal Father saves him" comments the former premier Romano Prodi seeing the rubble of the Democratic Party after the new electoral blow which also canceled the red Regions. According to the father of the Ulivo, a shock cure is needed: “We need a new way of thinking, perhaps even a new formation. Definitely something that goes beyond the fence of the Democratic Party ".
Although starting from different assumptions, Prodi's thinking reaches conclusions not far from those of the former Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, who has been calling for the formation of an anti-populist republican front against the Lega-Cinque Stelle government for some time. But the temptation to go beyond the Pd had and perhaps still has the former secretary Matteo Renzi, who after the defeat on March 4 was called out.
“Cycle finished” comments the Governor of Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti, tempted to take the field at the next congress of the Democratic Party after the Martina parenthesis.
But what is not clear is on what programmatic and political bases any new formation should be born. Do the reforms carried out in the last legislature to modernize the country remain a watershed, even with all the necessary adjustments, or must they be sacrificed in the name of a newly minted underground populism? Even before the vehicle (Pd or beyond) it is the political identity and the direction of travel that is not clear. Zingaretti seems nostalgic for the Olive tree but Calenda thinks in a completely different way and looks more towards a transversal reformism on the Macron model.
In recent weeks, the economist and political scientist Michele Salvati has launched, from the columns of the newspaper, a Manifesto for a reformist, pro-European and anti-populist Democratic Party. But the discussion is only in its infancy and it would be disappointing if it were reduced to a Renzi Yes - Renzi No referendum without understanding that the problems of the Italian left go far beyond the temperament of a single leader, first praised and then disavowed, and must instead do accounts and seek answers to the epochal challenges of our time (globalization, immigration, new technologies, artificial intelligence and its effects on employment and wages, demographic crisis and so on) but placing them in the heart of the ongoing battle over Europe and finding a backbone that allows the dialogue to be renewed between a ruling class to be renewed and the middle class, the less well-off classes and the new generations. Without knowing how to speak to the middle and popular classes and the new generations, the very concept of progressive strength fades.
The battle for growth and for work and the firm defense of Italian incomes against the delusional anti-euro temptations could be an illuminating banner for a new reforming formation if the petty spite and chicken coop squabbles that tear the Democratic Party to pieces end.
