The deadly embrace right up to the last minute with the now adrift gang of the Five Stars and with that unreliable conspiracy theorist who has always been Giuseppe Conte and the improvidentity of not having prepared in time a Plan B based on a proportional electoral law are were two unforgivable mistakes that the Democratic Party risks paying dearly. There is no doubt that the killers of the Government Draghi have three unequivocal names – which are those of Tale, di Salvini need Berlusconi – and it is to be hoped that the voters will remember the damage they have caused to Italy, purely out of business interests. But the fact remains that the Pd, despite having always supported the Government, he was caught unprepared by the unscrupulous maneuvers of his opponents and scored a goal on the counterattack which he could certainly have avoided with greater foresight.
THE TWO FATAL ERRORS OF THE PD: EMBRACE WITH THE GRILLINIS AND NO BATTLE FOR A PROPORTIONAL LAW
The arrival from Paris of Enrico Letta at the head of the Democratic Party after the unsuccessful experience of Nicola Zingaretti had given hope that the new secretary could correct the disastrous course of the embrace with the grillini, considering that, in his inauguration speech, the former student of Nino Andreatta had assured that the Pd would have dialogue with all the reforming forces. Unfortunately it didn't go like this and the privileged axis of the Democratic Party has always been only one: the one with the Five Stars. It can be understood that, having the misfortune of being surrounded by prophets of nothingness and politicians of proven mediocrity such as Francesco Boccia, Andrea Orlando, Giuseppe Provenzano not to mention Goffredo Bettini and Michele Emiliano, Letta had his hands tied more than he could seem, but from him we could expect more courage, less prejudices and a stronger reforming charge. The alliance with the Five stars instead it was the undisputed mantra of the Democratic Party even under its secretariat, while acknowledging Letta the merit of the clear pro-European and Atlanticist position in the face of the unspeakable Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But there is a second unforgivable mistake that Letta and the Democratic Party have made in the face of the obvious disbandment of the grillini and that is that of not having tried to prepare an alternative plan to the alliance with the Five Stars in time. You didn't have to be Einstein to understand that trying to get Parliament to pass one Electoral law of a proportional type, it would have crumbled the center-right coalition and would have left everyone free and marked the triumph of the Democratic Party if it were confirmed as the first party. But nostalgia for the olive tree, recently archived even by Romano Prodi, clouded Letta's ideas, who never believed in a new electoral law proportional, despite the reformist wing of his party pushing him in this direction, and when he seemed to repent it was already too late.
LA MALFA AND PRODI'S COUNCILS: ELECTORAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN PD AND CENTRO IN SINGLE-MINIMATE CONstituencies
In the face of such egregious errors by the Democratic Party and in the face of the unscrupulousness of the Five Stars, the League and Forza Italia, it is not surprising that for the center-left and its leading party the electoral challenge of 25 September is all uphill. The polls speak of a gap of more than 10 points between the centre-right and the centre-left and there is little time to recover. But what for the Democratic Party and more generally for the center-left (from which decency advises excluding the Five Stars after the breakup with Draghi) is a handicap race can turn, if there is wisdom, into the occasion of a turning point clear reforming imprint that unites all the pro-European and Atlanticist, anti-populist and anti-sovereignist forces from the Democratic Party to Calenda, from Renzi to the refugees from Forza Italia and Tabacci and perhaps even Di Maio and Speranza.
It is the proposal that, in consideration of the constraints of the Rosatellum, the former Republican leader Giorgio La Malfa according to which, to avoid an electoral victory of the right that would make Italy pay an enormous price, it would be more than ever appropriate that "from the center to the Democratic Party a vast grouping be formed which would allow the country to avoid this end: in the proportional system one can be divided but the challenge (ed. of the centre-left) must be brought to the single-member constituencies”. An intelligent proposal (divided in proportional representation but united in single-member constituencies) which former premier Romano also promptly relaunched in yesterday's Messaggero Prodi, hoping among all the reforming forces for "a common program on the major problems of foreign policy and European commitment".
Center and Pd, are you ready? We will understand it in the next few hours but to implement the La Malfa-Prodi proposal, mutual vetoes must be dropped and we must have the courage to speak to the country, as Draghi did, the language of truth even on the most thorny issues. Not doing so would mean giving Italy to the right without even fighting.
