Jobs act and referendum, the two souls of the Democratic Party return to confrontation

The legislature is at the halfway point, there are no imminent electoral appointments, the situation lends itself to opening a new phase for the Democratic Party. It is this awareness, rather than ambitions to climb the Nazarene, that moves the many souls inside and around the Democratic Party who in recent weeks have sent unequivocal signs to secretary Elly Schlein. The latest in chronological order is the one on referendum repealing the Jobs Act, which sees those reformists and Catholics protagonists of the double event on January 18th, in Milan and Orvieto, on a war footing.

Graziano Delriopromoter of the Milan conference – which inaugurated the Democratic Community association and the political debut of Ernesto Maria Ruffini – said he was contrary to the referendum remembering that he was a minister in the Renzi government when the Jobs Act was passed. A “personal” opposition, underlines Delrio: “We approved the Jobs Act to overcome various shortcomings in the defense of workers’ rights: blank resignations, temporary workers’ compensation, precariousness, and even then the minimum wage, battle of the Democratic Party. I approve of the referendum, we will find a synthesis between everyone, but I don’t think the Jobs Act complex deserves a political battle of cancellation”.

In view of the secretariat

Position, that of Delrio, in contrast with the secretary’s line who, to those who approached her to submit the topic to her after the secretariat meeting on Tuesday, replied: “I signed the questions and we will certainly not miss out on our contribution”. A line shared by the majority of the party. Marco Sarracino will also vote against the Jobs Actdeputy and member of the dem secretariat, convinced that the referendum represents the opportunity to “heal the wounds” that the Renzi season has opened in the relationship between the Democratic Party and the world of work, school and the union.

“Today the Democratic Party is progressively regaining credibility with those who had not only stopped believing in us but identified us as the cause of the problem. The referendums are an opportunity to definitively heal those wounds.”

And it is Sarracino himself who recalls that all candidates for the PD secretariat at the last congress (Elly Schlein, Stefano Bonaccini, Paola De Micheli and Gianni Cuperlo) had expressed in favor of overcoming the Jobs Act, in light of the rulings of the Council which dismantled the system. And Artuiro Scotto is against the Jobs Act and recalls: “I didn’t vote for that law, I signed the referendum questions and I will vote to cancel it”. A match which, for the Democratic Party and its leader, became an uphill battle with the rejection from the Consulta sui questions regarding Autonomy. Therefore, the ‘driving’ effect that the promoters and supporters of the labor referendum were counting on to reach a quorum will be missing.

The internal debate

The discussion on the Jobs Act does not, however, exhaust the issues on the secretary’s table. Even within the Democratic left there are those who, for reasons somewhat similar to those of their reformist and Catholic colleagues, ask for open a discussion within the party. Gianni Cuperlo, afor example, he is struck “by the fact, and it is certainly not the responsibility of the secretary, that in the leading bodies of a party like ours, after the reports given by Elly Schlein, there is no debate in which the main exponents of the different sensitivities take the word. While then, in the following days, there are extensive interviews in the newspapers or meetings that the individual components convene. I think this is a problem because I remain fond of the idea that a party like ours is first and foremost a community where the governing bodies have a function.”

An idea that has been somewhat sacrificed in recent times, explains a dem parliamentary source, however promote unity in view of the electoral appointments and restore, also to the voters, the image of a united party. Now, as you observe Matteo Orfiniit is a good time to resume practicing discussion within the bodies of the Democratic Party: “We voted in rapid sequence for the local elections, for the European ones, for the regional ones. The budget law is behind us, as are the American elections and for the policies are two years away.”

The next appointment will be theremanagement, whose convocation is expected soon, and who will discuss the changes that have occurred in recent months, including the American elections and the inauguration of Donald Trump. If not now, when? It is also for this reason, says Orfini, that there is this liveliness among the cultural areas of the dem. But not only that. Particularly active, for a month now, is ROman Prodi. The noble father of the Democratic Party and the center-left he focused several times on the party led by Schlein: “We are in a transition, we need to prepare for a possible takeover of the government and the current structure and organization are not enough”.

A working indication that Prodi returns to offer to the secretary, to the party and to the entire centre-left, explaining that when “the debate on the new opens, we no longer think about how things are today, but whether in two years we manage to create a coalition that can reach the government.”

The question goes together in some way with that of Andrea Orlando. The former minister is among the exponents of the left dem which takes seriously the centrists’ request to open a discussion on the political culture of the Democratic Party. The issue, for Orlando, is not secular and socialist culture versus Catholic culture, but rather the approach to the market and the development model. “After the defeat in 2022, the issue was the survival of the Democratic Party so there was a bit of sacrifice of dialectics in favor of the search for unity. But today the discussion is right to have.”