“The Democratic Party will not end with the resignation of Matteo Renzi from the party secretariat and, despite the clear electoral defeat suffered on March 4, it can play a role of arbiter in the new Parliament if it is able to enhance its national and European vocation. This does not mean supporting, for example, a hypothetical Five Star government but making the opposition weigh, case by case, its Yes and No on the new electoral law, on the relationship with Europe and on economic growth”. Who speaks is Beppe Vacca, high-ranking intellectual, philosopher and political scientist of international renown, several times deputy of the PCI, former president of the Gramsci Foundation and today president of the National Edition of Gramsci's writings and co-founder of the association "L'Italia chevenire" which, in the wake of the committees for the yes to the 2016 constitutional referendum, is dedicated to the analysis of problems of the Capital, questions its role and tries to build connectivity between the different experiences of active citizenship. Here is the interview Vacca gave to FIRSTonline about Italy afterwards the March 4 vote and on the future of the Democratic Party after Renzi's resignation from the secretariat.
Professor Vacca, did you sincerely expect such a sensational result from the elections of 4 March as was the one that marked the triumph of the Five Stars in the South and of the Lega in the North and the generalized collapse of the Democratic Party?
“I wasn't expecting it to this extent, but in hindsight I'd say maybe it was to be expected. The new electoral law has put an end to false majority systems by bringing out more clearly than ever the reality of a deeply fractured country and an increasingly "liquid" electorate. It is the arrival point of the Second Republic that allows us to better understand how troubled the gestation of the Third is and how Italy projects its risks on the European balance and on the future of the EU. Thanks to the action of the Democratic Party and the governments in the last five years, I believed that a situation similar to that of other European countries could also arise in Italy, where the grand coalition scheme favors the progress of the European process, despite the accumulation of ever greater obstacles (from Brexit to the election of Trump to the US Presidency). On the contrary, more than half of the voters have turned their backs on Europe and this generates an unprecedented picture. However, I would not speak of a catastrophe".
In what sense?
“In the sense that it has finally clarified, as had already emerged from the constitutional referendum, that Italy does not support majority electoral systems based on poor and approximate political cultures, such as those that characterized the Second Republic. The proportional electoral law is a logical consequence of this and obliges all political forces to pronounce themselves on the future of the Italian nation and to declare whether they want it to remain the key country of central-southern Europe. It's not said that Italy can do it, but the challenge remains open”.
Perhaps the electoral result will not be a catastrophe but it is for the Democratic Party which has fallen to an all-time low after five years in government. In your opinion, has the electorate rejected Renzi's leadership or the reforms of the last Pd-led governments?
“I wouldn't be so categorical. Let us not forget that the Democratic Party remains the second party and that - if it is capable of it - it can act as arbiter in a very divided Parliament which, probably, will not have long life. However, the problems of the Democratic Party do not arise today and do not depend only on the split on the left which took away the votes. Renzi had inherited a party which in 2013, after the lost opportunities by the Bersani secretariat and the lack of electoral victory, was in disarray and saved it - then yes - from catastrophe. Today the game for the reconstruction of a modern, authentically national and European reformist force remains open. Much will depend on the dynamics of world politics, starting with the antagonism between the United States and the European Union, made incandescent by the Trump Presidency. The same difficulties of the international left start from afar, perhaps from the 70s and the Italian story, despite having its own specificity, cannot be read without considering the general trends in progress and the deconstruction of Western societies generated by the double asymmetrical globalization of finance and of digital technologies. The world scene is dominated by a multiplicity of conflicts over sovereignty, characterized by its deconstruction, even violent, or by its remodulation, especially supranational, starting with the European one”.
However, such a clear electoral defeat requires a reflection without shyness on the Renzi cycle and on the future of the Democratic Party: what will become of the Democratic Party?
“There is no doubt that, by favoring the return to proportional representation, Renzi has also remodeled the prospects and function of his leadership. So even the Democratic Party will no longer be the same as before. But it will not end with the end of Renzi's secretariat, also because today he has a larger, more capable and more dynamic management team than the one Renzi himself had inherited. I am unable to predict the outcome of the succession struggle to Renzi as secretary, but, I repeat, I believe that the Democratic Party can win the role of decisive shareholder also in the new political season since it is the main pillar of the European connection of the Italian nation ".
As? Going to government with the Five Stars or making an Aventine opposition?
“Neither one nor the other. I believe that the game is ultimately in the hands of the President of the Republic who, in order to proceed in the government office, will first have to untie the knot of the winner: the fictitious center-right coalition or the first party, i.e. the Five Stars. At that point, the Democratic Party will be able to assert its national and European function through a responsible opposition since, while not being part of or being able to support one or the other government, it can have a decisive influence on the decisions concerning relations between the Italy and the European Union, on the probable launch of a new electoral law and on the duration of the legislature”.
But divided as it is today, do you really think that the Democratic Party can play such an important role in the new political season opened by the March 4 vote?
“I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure of two things. Firstly that, despite all the wounds and lacerations, the Democratic Party is more vital than five years ago and, secondly, that the reconstruction of the party must be intertwined with that of the country. So it has to deal with issues such as labor representation, the re-legitimization of confederal trade unionism, the constitutionalisation of parties and the reunification of the Italian nation".
He does not believe that the Democratic Party, if it wants to hope to recover, should question its inability to speak to the new generations and seriously confront - mobilizing the most vital forces of culture - with the epochal problems that dominate our time such as globalization, the demographic crisis , the development of new technologies but also public debt, social and generational inequalities, growth without productivity and without a real revival of stable jobs?
“For a political generation like mine, which has the lessons of Togliatti and De Gasperi in its DNA, a clear and proportionate relationship between politics and culture is a prerequisite of modernity and therefore also of the political forces that want to interpret it. In theory, everyone in the Democratic Party also agrees and Renzi has also spoken about it several times, but then we didn't go beyond the announcements. Perhaps the transition from the government to the opposition will be able to favor the construction of a new party capable of deepening relations with intellectuals and calling them not only to discuss but also to share possible solutions for the great questions of our age. With the culture and government experience they have acquired, the party's leading personalities could lend a significant hand to the reconstruction of the Democratic Party. But not only them, also other intellectuals and cadres variously interested in the fate of the Democratic Party and of Italy, should follow the example of those who, like Calenda or Toscani, decide to join the Democratic Party at a crucial moment in their life”.
Don't you think that the electoral disappointment and the return to the opposition with the competition of explicitly populist political forces could instead lead the Democratic Party to be tempted to radicalize on the left by chasing the chimeras of Corbyn and Sanders?
“That perspective was overshadowed by Massimo D'Alema and, long before him, by Sergio Cofferati at the beginning of the new millennium, but I don't think the Democratic Party is of use. Italy is not Great Britain, nor Portugal, nor the United States. The real challenge is to rebuild trust between the ruling classes and the people with a renewed political platform that has its roots in Italy's profound history and does not lose its generative link with Europe. It's difficult, but it's worth a try and that's what even a small association born in Rome, inheriting the experience of the Committees for the Yes to the 2016 referendum, which is called "L'Italia chevenire", tries to do".
