Record takings for the Democratic Party since 2X1000. Fina: "The clubs will not close"

The Democratic Party is an economically healthy party: in 2024 the collection from 2X1000 recorded the record figure of 10 million 300 thousand euros, compared to 8 million 100 thousand euros last year. A growth that will largely go to the clubs, to the territories.

How do you explain the alarm that has circulated in recent days about the risk of closure of dozens of clubs throughout Italy?

“The clubs will not close. The offices that don’t work or that aren’t needed will close,” replies the Pd treasurer, Michele Fina, interviewed by AGI. In a note from the last few hours, Fina rejected the reading according to which the Democratic Party is preparing to eliminate the foundations resulting from the dissolution of the DS which are often owners of the properties rented to the clubs.

This has created mechanisms from which a debt situation has arisen which, Fina explains to AGI, the Dems are now able to remedy: “Meanwhile, the premise is that the national Democratic Party and its territorial structures are autonomous from each other others. And they are from an economic, organizational and political point of view. As treasurer of the Democratic Party, I don’t know nor am I required to know what the economic situation is of the clubs that are rented current e its legal representatives. The national Democratic Party has only one leased office which is that of the Nazarene college. In the territories there are very complex situations. Since the dissolution of the Left Democrats, many foundations have arisen, dozens of foundations: in every province, in every region. , even in individual municipalities”.

How does the Democratic Party relate to these foundations?

“The relationship between the Democratic Party and the foundations has been complex from the beginning because the Democratic Party is something very different from the DS and the foundations that were born after the dissolution to administer its assets. We, as the Democratic Party, are not in a difficult situation. From an economic point of view, we reached the collection record of 2X1000, reaching the figure of 10 million 300 thousand euros. In 2023 there were 8 million 100 thousand. And we decided to structurally link the 2X1000 to the territories. Since last year, as treasurer, I have decided to introduce a mechanism according to which part of the growth of the 2X1000 flows directly into local realities”.

How?

“The average of the three-year period 2020-2022 is calculated and seventy percent of all additional resources that arrive are donated to the territories. Last year, in this way, half a million euros were sent to local clubs and this year, in February, we will send around 2 million and 100 thousand euros. By linking the 2X1000 to the territories the growth becomes exponential circles like in Rome, last year over 80 thousand euros were sent, while this year we will probably send over 300 thousand”.

What impact will this have on the issue of exhibition of offices?

“It has a lot to do with the offices because for us the priority is not to close, but to reopen the offices, especially in the peripheral areas. We have chosen the path of re-rooting the Democratic Party at a territorial level. Compared to a very exposed situation from the in view of the debt, as in Rome where there is talk of 1.4 million or in Bologna where the exposure for the clubhouses reaches 4 million, today the Democratic Party has sufficient economic resources and the provincials have already called the foundations to pay the debt in installments . Not only in San Lorenzo, in Rome, there was an offer to buy back the seat of the Democratic Party and the same reasoning is also made in Bologna”.

But how did this problem arise?

“The Democratic Party has offices rented from private individuals and foundations. To understand, we must keep in mind that the Democratic Party is not formally the merger between the DS and Margherita. The merger exists at a substantial level, but not formally and when the Democratic Party is born there was the need to merge the real estate assets of the DS into the foundations. Now, even if the foundations are on paper something different from the Democratic Party, in many cases they are made by people who were active in the DS and who are now in the Democratic Party. Pd. People who consider those offices as their home. Today, they are their ‘grandchildren’. There is the same mechanism as someone who rents an apartment a fee, but often the payment times take longer, the price is regulated and neither party cares about it. Only in this case there is a need to keep the accounts in order. It went on like this for about twenty minutes. years This family relationship has done accumulate a debt. Today, after twenty years, we are in a situation where there is money and the party is growing. We can regularize the debt situation. What’s more: in some provinces a fundraiser has been started to buy back the offices.”

Also in Rome and Bologna?

“The two situations of Rome and Bologna are those with the most significant debt simply because they are among the cities in which the Democratic Party is strongest. The Democratic Party, it should not be forgotten, is the most structured party in Italy. A huge party that now can pay that debt. We are talking about offices, however, not about clubs. In Bologna there are structures used as warehouses for the materials of the Unity celebrations which, sometimes, are no longer used. let’s close the offices that are not needed and are not used. The offices that work remain. Furthermore, multiple clubs can use the same office: there are club offices where members do not meet because they find it more convenient and useful to meet in the nearby club In the next few months we will go club by club to see how many members there are and whether they can pay the rent with those members. If we find that a venue no longer meets or does not serve any purpose, we call the relevant foundation and remove the membership. the property from the rental contract. In some cases we can buy back the offices and capitalize on the Democratic Party. Even from private owners. We have hundreds of locations rented through private individuals, perhaps even more than those of foundations. Today we are the ones going to look for foundations to use the resources so as to remedy the situation. I as treasurer have the sole task of distributing the resources to heal, re-root and buy back. This mechanism is the novelty of this management. The heartfelt appeal is to use resources for this purpose. Then, of course, there are territories such as the regions that will go to elections and in that case it is understandable that more is invested in the electoral campaign”.