Whether Bersani himself is aware of it or not, Pierluigi Bersani's decision to take an active part in the campaign (which he would never have been allowed to do in the PCI of which he was a manager) marks the first decisive step towards split of the Pd. The disfigurement of the Constitution and the dangers for democracy that Bersani cites as justification for his involvement in the field seem too much of a pretext to be truly credible. If Bersani were truly convinced that the Renzi-Boschi reform represents a threat to democracy, then he would have to explain why he voted for it in Parliament. The truth is that, as for D'Alema and Speranza, for Bersani too the real stake in the referendum is not (or is not only) the future of the Constitution but rather the future of the "firm", ie the Democratic Party.
If the Yes wins, Renzi's leadership is strengthened and the Democratic Party can increasingly clearly affirm its reformist and governmental character and its majority vocation, thus condemning the minority to political and cultural insignificance. If instead the No were to win, then a battle for life and death would open within the Democratic Party over the "identity" of the Party destined to end, however things go, with a split. This is the main political problem that the outcome of the referendum will place on the country's agenda as proof of the fact that, at least in Italy, it is unthinkable to separate institutional reform from the transformation of the political system. The two things, as Craxi understood at the time, go hand in hand and this applies to the political forces of the left as well as those of the right.
The Democratic Party is actually an unfinished business, a sort of work in progress, as are Forza Italia and Cinque stelle. It was born from the encounter between the post-communists (those who, according to Pierluigi Battista, passed from Communism to Democracy without however mourning, i.e. without having fully come to terms with their own history) and the post-Christian Democrats of left (Rosy Bindi) who were not, and still are not, very familiar with reformism and Catholic liberalism. This "amalgam", as D'Alema said, did not turn out very well. In recent years, the Democratic Party has continuously fluctuated between reformism and antagonism, between a culture of government and a spirit of opposition, between full acceptance of the market, capitalism and globalization (obviously net of the criticisms that can always be made) and the alongside antagonistic movements such as No Global and No to Everything. In the crucial moments, the syndrome of "no enemy on the left" almost always prevailed.
Even Bersani, who despite being from Emilia could boast some reformist credentials, in the end succumbed to this suicidal tendency and also for this reason he managed the not easy task of losing two elections he had already won at the table. First there was the photo of Vasto (Bersani, Vendola and Di Pietro), then the disastrous streeming with the Five Stars in the senseless attempt to give life to a government of change with them and, finally, the support to the variegated front anti-reformer of the No. An impressive political parable!. Lastly, Bersani affirmed that "the Democratic Party must be an alternative to the right but competitive with the Five Stars", as if to say that with the Five Stars one can compete but also collaborate, while not with the Right. The idea that we should instead work towards a convergence of the reforming and moderate forces of the left and right on the reforms to be made to counter the real danger to our democracy represented by the populism of the Five Stars and by Salvini's xenophobic extremism, obviously not it doesn't even touch his brain. The truth is that with leaders like Bersani and D'Alema, the Democratic Party no longer had any future.
The arrival of Matteo Renzi changed things and gave the Democratic Party a role and a perspective. Renzi had the courage to archive a bloodless and barren political culture but, above all, he understood that the 900s is truly over and that the political institutions that characterized it have exhausted their driving force and must therefore be changed. The Renzi-Boschi reform will not be the Great Reform that the country needs but it certainly marks a first significant step in the right direction which other steps must and can follow if the reformist forces of the Yes win.
