“We can’t do much with a female prime minister if women’s conditions don’t improve”

PADUA – Not a rally closing the electoral campaign, but a homage to the figure of Enrico Berlinguer. This he had anticipated Elly Schlein announcing his participation in the ceremony in Padua on the fortieth anniversary of the last public appearance of the then secretary of the Italian Communist Party. It was June 7, 1984 when Berlinguer went on stage in Piazza della Frutta where he would then collapse, even then it was a European election and that time the PCI managed to overtake the Christian Democrats in a historic move. For the occasion, yesterday everything was recreated as it was forty years ago: the same stage, the same lineup, the giant screen, the novelty was the preview of Samuele Rossi’s film which will be in theaters on June 13th (with the preview in Bologna on the 11th and in Padua on the 14th at the Lux cinema), then the red roses placed on the commemorative stone. But for the secretary of the Democratic Party it was not just a tribute to the charismatic figure of the left, in the end it was truly a closing rally of the electoral campaign. From Padua, Elly Schlein attacked the government of Giorgia Meloni and the reforms of the right, from the premiership which “disrupts the democratic balance” to the differentiated autonomy which “splits the country in two” while serving “the redemption of the South”, passing through the minimum wage (“Below 9 euros is exploitation”), the stop to free internships “which prevent young people from paying the rent” up to the presence of anti-abortionists in counseling centers: “We won’t make much of a female prime minister if they don’t improve the conditions of women”. But also the admission, when he spoke about the number of “foreigners” in the classes, that he was wrong: “It was a mistake on the part of the centre-left not to have changed that law when we had the numbers to do so.”

THE SQUARE
Listening to her was a square full of young and old, some still with their 1984 party card in their pocket, but not the crowd of the historic and dramatic rally forty years ago. Flags of the Democratic Party and the Italian Left, one also of the old PCI. And a sign with the ceremony’s slogan: “Enrico Berlinguer, 40 years into the future”. On stage the mayor Sergio Giordani (whom Schlein thanks for having had the courage to register the children of same-parent couples in the registry: «We need a national law to not leave mayors alone»), the former parliamentarian Flavio Zanonato who forty years ago he was secretary of the Padua federation and of the PCI and now he invites us “not to consider Berlinguer a saint, Enrico was the symbol of a politics without personal interests”. And then Elisabetta Leban for the Nuova Società Foundation which organized the event together with the Ettore Luccini Study Center. And Emma Ruzzon, the president of the Student Council whom the secretary of the Democratic Party mentions more than anyone else, three times (and they say that if she had been 25 years old she would have been on the list for Brussels). Around the Venetian Democratic candidates for the European Parliament, from Alessandro Zan who arrives together with the secretary to Alessandra Moretti and Andrea Zanoni, with them the regional secretary Andrea Martella. «Today we couldn’t be anywhere else – says Schlein, remembering Berlinguer -, a figure who is still an example today, a great ability to stand alongside those who struggle most, workers, men and women, and for us also an example of the way of doing politics: a great humanity and at the same time a strong authority.”

THE THEMES
Berlinguer is also quoted to talk about foreign policy, because the PCI leader «already 40 years ago had launched messages of peace and development which are our themes, today more than ever». The secretary of the Democratic Party remarks: «Europe was born as a great peace project, not as a war economy project. Today the theme of peace is more central than ever and must be supported by Europe.” Schlein attacks: «There is a gigantic social and wage issue in our country, a real emergency and the government’s measures in recent days are empty boxes, fluff decrees, it is a mockery of the citizens. In a year and a half they have demonstrated their inability to solve citizens’ problems.” He talks about the environment: «We will not help farmers by denying the climate emergency, they are the first victims of the emergency. We will help them with the circular economy, with clean energy, stopping land consumption.” He tells artisans and entrepreneurs that we need “a great industrial plan to redistribute the benefits of the digital transition and help our businesses”. But he attacks multinationals: “Taxes are paid where profits are made, not where it is convenient.” He cites Giacomo Matteotti, Aldo Moro, David Sassoli, but also Altiero Spinelli. And he calls for “a more federal Europe”, with a peace project for the Middle East and for Ukraine: “We need a diplomatic effort for a just peace.”
The conclusion for Berlinguer is: «Thank you Enrico, long live Enrico Berlinguer, long live anti-fascist Italy».

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