The primaries remain a big puzzle for the Democratic Party

The primaries remain a puzzle in the Democratic Party. Roberto Speranza asks us to avoid them, “they would be a political mistake”, but for the ruling Democrats the road that leads to the gazebos seems clear. This is stated in the electoral law which will be discussed again when parliamentary work resumes. The leaders, Schlein and Conte, who have been fully on the field for months now, say it.

Roberto Speranza, left of the Democratic Party, is among the exponents who supported Elly Schlein at the congress and among those who inaugurated the “correntone” of Montepulciano. “A political mistake and should be avoided,” he says in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

The criticisms of Speranza

A position which, from the left of the party, the one that refers to Orlando, Provenzano and Sarracino, say “has not been agreed upon and is not shared”, so much so that it has always been maintained that “there are only two ways to select the leadership: choosing the head of the party who gets one more vote, or the primaries and, in this second case, the only possible candidate is Elly Schlein”.

Despite this, according to parliamentary sources, there is no shortage of fears and above all concern the risk that a fratricidal race could turn the clock back to autumn 2022, with the Pd and M5s running separately in the elections and, in doing so, handing victory to the centre-right. A risk also feared by some “noble fathers” of the party who, although they do not deny the gazebo method, feel the need to precede it with a program (and even something more).

The positions of Prodi and Bersani on the primaries

Romano Prodi, now four months ago, warned for example that “the primaries need to be rethought” and that a project must be put before them in which all the parties of the coalition can recognize themselves, otherwise “it’s like electing the captain of the team that loses against Bosnia”.

Pierluigi Bersani has a similar position, who does not question the choices of the leaders, the only ones who are responsible for agreeing on the best method for choosing the leadership of the coalition. The only condition posed by Bersani is that there be agreement on the values ​​in which one recognizes oneself and, consequently, on the program underlying the alliance, before entering into the tender. For the rest, the former PD secretary is ready to make himself available like any militant.

Bettini’s “award” and Franceschini’s precedent

Goffredo Bettini is more clear-cut, for him, “the primaries present considerable risks” as the winner has to “empathize” with different electorates who are distrustful, if not openly hostile, towards each other. For this reason, Bettini had proposed his own “praise”: to put on the programme, as required by the Stabilicum, the name of a high personality from the world of culture and institutions. A completely symbolic indication, although politically significant, postponing the choice of the prime minister until the result has been achieved and, in any case, respecting the prerogatives of the President of the Republic.

A similar ruling, but before there was even talk of reform of the electoral law, had been proposed by Dario Franceschini. The senator and leader of Areadem had in fact imagined freezing the primaries, having the parties run each on their own, and then uniting in Parliament. Something that sounds like “march divided, strike united”. An option that has expired, in fact, with the Stabilicum being discussed in Parliament.

Franceschini himself has been attributed in recent days with a “moral suasion” on center-left leaders to renounce the primaries. Rumors rejected by the interested party who defines the background as “totally baseless. As I have told everyone”, Franceschini then underlined, “in private and several times also publicly, I continue to believe that the primaries are a great opportunity for democratic mobilization as well as the only realistically possible way for the coalition to identify the common candidacy for prime minister”.

The PD line emerging from the Nazarene

From the Nazarene the line that emerges is the same as always: the chosen primary or the party that gets one more vote than the others will express the leader. Among the members of the internal majority of the Democratic Party it is explained that “the issue is not whether you win or lose the primaries” but how you get there. Because, the reasoning goes, if we have to wait for the approval of the electoral law, for which we look to late autumn, we risk having little time available to heal those fractures which, with a race for leadership, which has in fact already begun, as demonstrated by the debate triggered by Conte on woke culture, are destined to become profound. And this, adds a member of the Democratic left, after there were no primaries in the regions where we won. Translated: if it went well in the regions, why not try it at a national level too?