the Regionals sweep away the idea that there is any opposition to Meloni

Not even two months have passed since the Regionals in Sardinia, but for the opposition forces to the Meloni government total darkness seems to have returned. Alessandra Todde’s victory, certainly also determined by local factors and the errors of her opponents, was built on simple premises: an authoritative candidacy, clear choices on the program and horizon of government, no ambiguity on the ideological level, limitation of the leaders’ exposure. A path also for future experiments, it was said in those days, with the possibility for the Pd and M5s to work on that organic and structural alliance which appeared to be the only way to stem Giorgia Meloni’s project of making Italy the laboratory of new European right-wing government.

The failure of the shoulder in Abruzzo, with a different project and in more complicated conditions, instead triggered a completely different process. Which was divided into three phases, which involved practically all the opposition parties: confusion, sabotage, everyone free. Reconstructing all the moments of tension between the leaders or listing the facts (true or presumed) that contributed to putting the ball back in the center-right’s court would be a long and complex operation. However, it is much simpler to photograph the state of the art: the opposition has essentially given up on competing with the centre-right for the leadership of Basilicata and Piedmont, relying on chance and “the territories” for the administrative elections (for the sake of the country we will not dwell on the case Bari); the leaders of the main parties have never been so distant, politically and also humanly; at the European Championships we will go to win the internal matches, between Pd and M5s and between Action and IV-+Europa, rather than the one against the right.

The result of the Regional Elections in Basilicata certifies the state of the art: the right has the country in its hands, also because he does not have a compact opposition with a clear and coherent mission. Not only that, because there are other signals coming from the Lucanian consultation, albeit small and marked by growing abstentionism. The centre-right, when it does not hurt itself and limits the level of internal quarrelsomeness, also proves more capable than its opponents in building and developing that network of territorial relations which is a guarantee of electoral consensus in local consultations. It is no coincidence that, with the sole exception of Sardinia, the coalition has not lost a regional election for four years and aims to continue the streak also thanks to the push coming from Palazzo Chigi and its tenant, who holds the keys of the country and the weapon of the Pnrr.

Let’s be clear, local voting often follows its own dynamics, but choices at a national level, especially on a communication level, determine the conditions in which victories mature and balances are consolidated or broken. And what is the image that the opposition’s choices give back to the territories? What is the mood in which choices of candidates and lists are made and decisions on coalitions are made? In what climate and for what project are voters asked to go and vote?

We could write a treatise on the contentiousness of the opposition to the Meloni government, but on closer inspection this isn’t even the point. Because the reality of the facts says that there is no opposition to the right, understood as a clear and recognizable political area, capable of mobilizing itself and mobilizing citizens on shared battles, whether of principle or substance. There are individual more or less opposition forces, which play their part with more or less conviction, and which speak to different and divided electorates. The excellent result of the centrist lists of Renzi and Calenda as guests (?) of Bardi’s very large camp in Basilicata is a small indication of the “sense of belonging” of an electorate that evidently prefers Meloni and Tajani (perhaps not yet Salvini) to Conte and Fratoianni.

Even before the sympathies between the leaders, it is the distance between the individual reference electorates of the different parties which should worry those who want to build an alternative to the right. A distance that is partly physiological, of course, but largely built by months, years, of short-sighted and selfish choices. From wars to immigration, through internal political choices and leadership, the center-left parties have never given the impression of being able and knowing how to work on a unitary political-programmatic platform, around which to build the alternative in the country and aggregate the different reference electorates. We have been reduced to waging small-scale battles, which have only led to weak positions on specific issues, while also opening small or large fractures within the coalition. The horizon of the European elections has undoubtedly favored this process, pushing individual parties to focus on their own navel. Thus, on the left, efforts were made to search for high-level candidates with the aim of going beyond 4%; the M5s has opted for an aggressive campaign on issues dear to its “historic” electorate and those disappointed by the conservative choices of the PD; the Democrats are engaged in yet another psychodrama, which this time focuses on an incredible work of sabotage by the party currents against a secretary who had been elected with the mandate to put an end to old logic and the underlying ambiguity in the political positioning and ideological nature of the party, to now find itself forced into the usual compromises and classic half-choices. Every man for himself, therefore, all ready to fight the battle of the zero comma.

Little attention was paid to grasping the signals that came from the streets and the militants, preferring to focus on internal dynamics in the buildings or on the frantic search for a small result in the week’s electoral polls. Difficult to go far, evidently.