Time.news – Otto secretaries (one with two mandates, to be precise) in thirteen years of history: that of the Democratic Party it is a long roundup of leaders, some more ‘long-lived’ than others, but all united by having to deal with the troubles of the currents and the relative ‘friendly fire’ on the headquarters. Bombing always ended with the defeat or, more frequently, with the resignation of the secretary in office. Let’s take a closer look at them, from the foundation to the resignation of Zingaretti:
WALTER VELTRONI: first national secretary, after winning the constituent elections of 14 October 2007, resigns two years later following the Sardinian regional elections where Renato Soru, outgoing governor and leading man of the Democratic Party, is defeated by the PDL candidate, Ugo Cappellacci. But the defeat to the 2008 policies also weighs heavily, attributed by the more left-wing soul of the Democratic Party to a precise choice: Veltroni, pursuing the principle of “majority vocation” refuses alliances with leftist parties, accepting only the one with Italia dei Valori and Radicali. Something very similar happens ten years later, when Matteo Renzi, still in the name of the majority vocation, refuses any alliance. Since then, Veltroni has progressively distanced himself from his creation and from politics in general, preferring to devote himself to a passion for literature and cinema.
DARIO FRANCESCHINI: on February 21, 2009 the National Assembly is convened which elects the deputy secretary in office Dario Franceschini as the new national secretary of the party, with 1,047 preferences against the 92 votes collected by Arturo Parisi. Neither the primaries nor the Congress are celebrated due to the proximity of the regional elections, against the will of a large section of the party that asked – just two years after the birth of the Democratic Party – a profound change of the ruling class. The primaries are set for October 2009 and the secretary in office is defeated at the congress – one of the rare cases – by Pier Luigi Bersani. Today Franceschini is still a ‘majority shareholder’ of the Democratic Party and, with Areadem, is able to decree the victory or defeat of a secretary or a candidate for the secretariat.
PIER LUIGI BERSANI: the Bersani secretariat opens with the release of Francesco Rutelli, who denounces the transformation of the Democratic Party into ‘a left party’. Bersani at the administrative offices of 2011 stipulates agreements with Italia dei Valori and Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà. In November he supported Monti and a year later won the coalition primaries (Italia Bene Comune). The coalition narrowly wins the 2013 elections, but Bersani fails to form the government, leaving the ball to Enrico Letta who will find himself leading a government of broad agreements. But to push him to leave the leadership of the dem, on April 19, 2013, is the failure to elect Franco Marini first and then Romani Prodi as President of the Republic, with the ‘100 traitors’ of the Democratic Party who voted against the official party line. After leaving the Democratic Party, Bersani helped found Liberi e Uguali.
GUGLIELMO EPIFANI: following the resignation of Bersani, it is Guglielmo Epifani who takes over through the vote of the assembly, on 11 May 2013. On 8 December of the same year, the primaries are celebrated which are won by Matteo Renzi who had received the support of various currents of the party, from Franceschini’s Areadem to the Veltronians, passing through some leading exponents of the party. The direct competitor, Gianni Cuperlo, is instead supported by the social democratic area of the party, with the outgoing secretary, Pier Luigi Bersani, Massimo D’Alema, Matteo Orfini’s Giovani Turchi. On the day of the Immaculate Conception, Matteo Renzi wins the primary and becomes secretary of the Democratic Party. Epifani is now a deputy of Liberi e Uguali, having followed Pier Luigi Bersani after the split in 2017.
MATTEO RENZI I: the first Renzi secretariat lasts from 8 December 2013 to 19 February 2017 when, after months of confrontation with the minority of the party, he resigns as secretary. During this time, Renzi also became prime minister, after a long war of attrition against Enrico Letta. He in turn resigned as prime minister on the night between 4 and 5 December 2016, after losing the constitutional referendum, at the end of a highly politicized and person-centered referendum campaign. With Renzi’s resignation, the party passes into the hands of the President of the Assembly, Matteo Orfini, who becomes its regent ad interim pending the convocation of the Parliamentino dem. But on February 20 the tear of Pier Luigi Bersani, Roberto Speranza and other members of the internal left is consummated, who go to form autonomous groups in Parliament.
MATTEO RENZI BIS: on 30 April 2017 Matteo Renzi wins the primary against the Minister of Justice, Andrea Orlando. Less than a year later, on March 4, 2018, the Democratic Party suffered the hardest defeat in its history, reaching 18% of the votes. The next day, Renzi announces his resignation at a press conference, which is formalized on March 12 in front of the party leadership, which appoints Maurizio Martina as interim secretary.
MAURIZIO MARTINA: at the National Assembly of 7 July 2018, the regent secretary, Maurizio Martina, is a candidate as secretary and is elected on the spot, with the task of guiding the extraordinary congress phase opened by his own intervention. On 17 November 2018 he resigns and President Orfini dissolves the Assembly, thus starting the congress phase held in March 2019 and which will see the victory of Nicola Zingaretti. Still in the Democratic Party, Maurizio Martina has been deputy director of FAO since 13 January.
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