Perhaps to understand Schlein’s philosophy and the feelings that exist in the “wide field” you should have a friendly chat with one of his shadow men, Igor Taruffi known as Tarufenko, at the La7 TV studio, after an episode of Aria che tira. Talking to the supposed custodian of the orthodoxy of the “Elly doctrine” of Romano Prodi’s passionate reasoning in ulivist sauce you hear him reply, not without surprise: “That world is over, there is no more. The Prodi people have changed”. Speeches that were not far-fetched considering that they echoed the sociological conjecture of recent weeks by another Schlein council member, Francesco Boccia entitled: “The voters of ’96 (Ulivo, ed.) no longer exist, they have disappeared”.
Schlein was less sharp, faithful to the motto that bears his name – “we stubbornly stick together” – but in the end his secretary’s attitude was not much different. The professor speaks in every office and in every newspaper (yesterday in Corriere): in vain. The secretary listened, perhaps nodded, but then quickly acted on his wishes and supported the “identist” school growing around him, those who believed that instead of broadening its spectrum of representation, the Democratic Party should retain its left-wing essence. “Before I – that was one of the phrases he liked to repeat – we didn’t know what the party was going to be about.”
One almost gets the impression that Schlein is jealous of his “radicality”, that he is more concerned about speaking to his people to win the coalition primaries that are a mandatory step if the electoral law is changed, than speaking to the country to win a political election in a year and a half. His people picked up on signals which they believed to be positive indicating the validity of the line: from 2 per thousand it turned out that there were more Democratic Party subscribers (638 thousand) than Fdl subscribers; in three years the party’s finances increased from 5 million euros to 10 million; and to those who accused them of losing the anti-Employment Law referendum together with Landini, they stated, convinced that a quorum was not reached but that the 13 million Yes voters who responded to the call were more than the 12 million who brought Meloni to Palazzo Chigi.
In short, they believe they are right even though the secretariat does not seem particularly committed to a justice referendum (there are currently no Democratic MPs present on the No committee) and prefers to hand over leadership of the crusade to the Judges’ Association. These reasons give the idea that Schlein no longer believes in the idea of a Democratic Party with plural representation as its founder Veltroni had in mind, but considers it a subject moving to the left that leaves the representation of more moderate examples to other souls in the wide field, to Matteo Renzi, to the transformism of Giuseppe Conte or to what could emerge on that side. A scheme that worries the marginalized reformist components of the PD. Schlein – explains Niko Stumpo, animator of the current movement supporting the secretary – is the only one we have. Not everything is wrong as Prodi and Gentiloni say and there is no alternative to Elly: Prodi is 90 years old, Salis is better left alone, Manfredi is good but no one knows him. So it’s useless to talk about something that doesn’t exist. There was only Schlein accompanied by a chorus where everyone had to sing their own music: Renzi had to do Renzi, otherwise what was the point? And if possible, Calenda must also do Calenda.”
In this kind of “choir” where the Democratic Party plays the role of the tenor of the left, it is clear that Democratic Party reformists risk being voiceless and out of place. Intolerance grew between them and broke the existing silence. “Schlein has to decide – explains Stefano Graziano, a reformer who defends DC’s cunning – whether he wants to go to Palazzo Chigi or whether he wants to take someone to Palazzo Chigi. In the first case he has to legitimize himself, he has to speak to the country not only here.
And it has three mandatory stages ahead: a congress, a referendum on justice, and coalition primaries. An impassable itinerary.” But also, one hopes, a war path he may not take.
