AGI – The barometer of the Democratic Party, after weeks of storm, finally seems to be turning towards calm. Effect of the eve of April 25th and the long weekend that gives the dems a last day of school atmosphere. But above all, the fact that, having archived the electoral lists and logo, the PD now knows that it is better to avoid controversies and internal arguments to concentrate on the result of the European elections. In Transatlantic, the currents mix to wish each other “happy April 25th” and make an appointment for the resumption of work. Beneath the apparent appeasement, however, the different souls of the Democratic Party are seething with activity. The challenge of June 9th is one that can mark the future of a secretariat.
The secretary refuses to set the bar, but it is indicated in the Democratic Party 20 percent as the minimum threshold so as not to have to talk about defeat. However, few in the party believe that Elly Schlein you risk being undermined, even in the event of a negative result. Lack of alternatives, it is explained. And then “it’s not necessary”, adds a Democratic source. The reasoning is that Schlein could remain in her place, perhaps “supported” by a powerful president who would take over Stefano Bonaccini, with our bags ready for Strasbourg. Of course, there is no reason to consider the European commitment as an obstacle to Bonaccini’s retention of the position of president of the Democratic Party. However, according to a current of thought present among the dems, the move of the president of Emilia-Romagna could provide the pretext for actively returning to the field Paolo Gentiloni.
The EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, in fact, ends his mandate in a year and his return to Rome would please many. Also for this reason, there are those who dismiss the hypothesis as a pious wish and those who read it through the lens of movements between the currents. The idea of the name in the symbol, in fact, seems to have arisen during the conversations between Elly Schlein and Stefano Bonaccini. A solution with which the former aimed to attract consensus even outside the party’s perimeter. The second managed to secure the vote for the candidates in his area, otherwise at risk if the secretary had appeared in all the constituencies. A result that Bonaccini, among other things, achieved by guaranteeing strategic positions for his players.
Despite this, the president of the Democratic Party is the subject of criticism from a portion of the internal minority who consider his action in opposition to the secretariat to be less than incisive. But it is above all the construction of the area and the work of establishing Energia Popolare that do not satisfy some leading exponents of the minority. And the fact that it was Bonaccini himself, as president of the Democratic Party, who brought the name proposal to the leadership did not help to calm things down. Indeed: even representatives very close to the president, such as Stefano Lepri and Silvia Costa, intervened to immediately stop the proposal.
If tempers are agitated in the minority, things are no better within the Dem majority. There proposal on the electoral symbol it also caused discontent among members of the PD secretariat such as Peppe Provenzano and Marco Sarracino. But Andrea Orlando also turned his nose up at the idea of including the secretary’s name in the logo. And the former Minister of Labor was the protagonist of a position that sounds a warning to the Nazarene. Shortly before the vote in Brussels on the new Stability Pact, Orlando had underlined to journalists: “I hope that our group in Strasbourg clearly rejects the proposal to reform the Stability Pact. A different vote would end up watering down a negative opinion on the incompetence of the negotiations of our government and on the betrayal that the EU Council has committed compared to the excellent proposal of the Commission, created thanks to the precious work of Paolo Gentiloni”. Words that clash with the line followed by the PD delegation in Europe, which abstained from voting so as not to ‘break’ with the rest of the PSE, on the one hand. And to avoid giving the impression of wanting to disown Paolo Gentiloni’s work, on the other.
The fact is that yesterday, a few hours after the vote, Orlando returns to the topic: “Gentiloni had made a proposal to reform the Stability Pact which the EU Council modified and which in my opinion initially reflected more the spirit of the Next Generation and the challenges that Europe faces”, explains Orlando. “A series of interventions by countries such as France and Germany have reduced the tools that Europe will have in the coming years.” The result, for Orlando, is “a Stability Pact that conflicts with a higher European ambition and with the national interest, a rather paradoxical fact for a Government that had to go to Europe to bang its fists on the table and obtain conditions better.” A failure for the government, therefore. And, certainly, not a caress for the outgoing group in Brussels and for the secretary who blessed the path of abstention, after having harshly criticized the Pact and the government for not opposing it sufficiently: “We will vote against this downward compromise” , was in fact the line expressed by Schlein on 5 March, a few hours after the European Council gave the green light to the reform of the Pact.
