The National Assembly of the Democratic Party opened with a long and highly applauded speech by Matteo Renzi, the one that should lead to the so-called split, with a minority of dissidents - led by Michele Emiliano, Enrico Rossi and Roberto Speranza and also represented by Massimo D 'Alema (who in fact deserted the appointment at the Parco dei Principi in Rome). The word split was evoked by the former prime minister in his speech: “The word split is one of the ugliest words in the political vocabulary, but the word blackmail is even worse. It is unacceptable for a party to be blackmailed by a minority,” Renzi said emphatically, effectively closing the doors to dissidents.
Renzi has therefore formalized his resignation as secretary, confirming his intention to go to Congress in order to choose a leader in view of the possible early elections. A position on which the minority is very distant, which would prefer to reach the end of the legislature, with a programmatic conference before Congress and the primaries only in the autumn (while at the moment there seem to be two dates in the balance, either April 9 or May 7). “The word 'respect' must be the keyword of this assembly – said Renzi at the beginning of his speech -. A political party must always choose to respect itself and must respect its militants and members”.
“The Democratic Party has missed the opportunity to open the windows and speak outside. Now I say, without distinction: let's stop. Outside of here they're taking us for crazy. Our responsibility is to the country. That's enough, we can no longer discuss internally. Let's do it today but we have to get back on the road”, continued the outgoing secretary who identified the bone of contention in the referendum of last December 4th. “There is a strong rift in Italian politics and society, there is a before and after December 4th. And I am responsible for it: the referendum was a blow to the whole country system and we must get the country back on track".
On the referendum Matteo Renzi also added that "the first Republic has returned but without the quality of the first Republic, it does not concern only the Democratic Party, they are all splitting up, fractures that proportionality physiologically enhances". “We cannot stand still and say congress yes, congress no – continued the former prime minister -. Let what happened in these two and a half months remain in the records. I tried every day to collect other people's proposals to stay together. At the last assembly, two historical friends cursed me to tell me 'you are making a mistake'. At that point a part of the majority and minority said let's stop and I took it upon myself not to hold the congress because I thought we could carry out a listening campaign together".
“To fix this absurd situation it might have been worth taking a step back, I thought about it,” Renzi said. “But I seriously thought about it, because never like these two and a half months have we been secular in decisions, we have listened to everyone, but accepting today that we can say no to a candidacy, accepting that a person can be eliminated, would be a return to the past. We are together to confront each other,” he added. “We will never, ever, ever accept that someone tells us 'you're not good, you're part of this community'. You have the right to defeat us, not eliminate us." "Power in the Democratic Party belongs to the citizens who vote in the primaries, not to fireplaces or currents," the Democratic leader also pointed out.
Even on the minority front, however, the positions do not appear malleable. Massimo D'Alema will not participate in the meeting today: "It is a waste of time to try to negotiate with Renzi, I know him, he will never step back". Enrico Rossi, Roberto Speranza and Michele Emiliano with Bersani and D'Alema himself repeat that they will not be at the congress if this is only an opportunity for Renzi to "take revenge". Emiliano writes on Facebook that he has obtained a guarantee from Renzi that there will be no voting before 2018, and adds: “With Renzi the “red line” is active. We say: have the programmatic conference and the primaries in September”.
