The Calabrian Democratic Party and the Cosenza one in particular is in crisis, mired in an analysis of the vote that seems meaningless. The main problem remains the reality of the facts. Compared to the disaster of Amalia Bruni’s regional elections in 2021 and the 2022 political elections, they thought they were at 20%, but it seems like a miracle that they grew to 15%.
Some make the comparison with the 2019 European elections, but the problem is that then the region was still under the leadership of Oliverio and almost all the provinces were centre-left. The point is this: it is useless to talk about a reborn Democratic Party. The Democratic Party in Calabria died with the end of Oliverio’s government experience.
Not because Oliverio invested in the Party (remember Magorno’s season) but because with Oliverio the political proposal that the Democratic Party had advanced for 30 years ended. That political and organizational model, heir to the DS and Margherita, has dissolved, dispersed in a thousand streams of energy, consensus and human capital, and will never return. They know this both in Rome and at a local level. The Democratic Party is finished here, it only serves to elect two parliamentarians every 5 years. The clubs don’t exist and the Feste de l’Unità are farces.
Everybody knows. But then why is there a general climate of uneasiness regarding voting in the European elections in Calabria? This certainly reflects the tensions accumulated during the European elections.
Nicola Irto was disappointed with the outcome of Pina Picierno, candidate for the European Parliament which he supported together with Nicola Adamo and Enza Bruno Bossio. Therefore, the choice of the regional councilors to support was not liked Lucia Annunziata and Decaro, in line with Nico Stumpo and Falcomatà. Even less liked that the Cosenza Federation independently chose to support “the executioner” Sandro Ruotolo and the Catanzaro candidate Jasmine Cristallo.
Irto is thus taking revenge, opening trials mainly against the Federation secretaries with a theatricality worthy of Mao during his Cultural Revolution. Do you remember the fiery public criticism sessions in Beijing, the “pīpàn dahuì”where provincial secretaries no longer liked by Mao were tried in the streets, accused of all the evils of the world and sometimes beheaded?
Now, we don’t want to save anyone here, but as a former regional councilor of the Democratic Party says: “but have you seen what the federations outside Cosenza are?” In Campania and Puglia we have commissioners. Then in the rest of Calabria we have a secretary who lives in Milan for years, a secretary who is the former son of the president of the Province and leaves everything to his father, a secretary who, being mayor, never leaves his municipality and one who is a full-time entrepreneur. Nothing exists anymore. Isn’t it perhaps ungenerous to put all the blame on the Cosenza Federation?
And as a mayor of the Cosenza area says: “But wasn’t there a plan to weaken Cosenza in view of the regional elections with internal complicity?”. There are many details that lead to this point, such as the story of the employee fired in 2022 which was published in the national press two weeks before the vote. It appears to us that she is still close to exponents of the Cosenza Democratic Party and that she has other work collaborations in place in the old Cosenza area… at altitude “cuttlefish revolution”…
Why didn’t Cosenza have any candidates for the European elections? It seems clear that if you leave a province uncovered with the other lists that nominate all your exes such as Funaro, Mascaro, Greco, will there be an impact? Here the question arises: had Cosenza made any proposals, and if so which ones? Why had Professor Passarelli said that he had been asked to apply by Cosenza?
Then of course there is the secretary Pecoraro, a nice panda, sweet face, polite manners, but naughty. What do they criticize about him? He wanted to be part of the Chicago Democratic Party, but instead of Obama he found… Mazzuca and Incarnato. Many elderly people, many traditions, a lot of true Italian province with its vices, its passions and its languages. So the first frictions immediately arose: he closed the provincial headquarters of the party to the public (saying that “we are not a railway club”), digitized the cards (“no more useless paper”), closed clubs saying that they looked like bars in Caracas with men of 80 year olds playing cards. No to slippers, yes to the piano bar.
Many miss the days when we went to the federation for some wine, a laugh, a walk, a scurrilous joke and spending the days doing crosswords. All this gave a sense of home, of warmth, of family. The river meetings of Midaglia, the shouts of Bruno Villella, the laughter of Mario Oliverio. What memories. We ate a little salami in January and broad beans in May. The distribution of membership cards was a ritual, as was the mutual help between members to find work for their children, wives and more. A healthy clientele replaced by a certain zeal “if you need a job, go to LINKEDIN and good luck”.
Meanwhile, the winner of this drama seems to be Antonio Tursi, still a member of the Democratic Party, who not only allowed himself an electoral walk with the candidate for the European elections Tridico of the 5 Star Movement in Corigliano-Rossano complete with photos, but who also seems to have encouraged the municipal councilors close to the Democratic Party in his Spezzano Albanese to vote for him and for a certain Labarile.
Stay tuned, because in this political circus, the ending is yet to be written and there will be many new features.
