Time.news – The long lines at the gazebos are images that seem destined for archives. The pandemic has changed everything and has challenged everything, including political participation. In the Democratic Party this observation is shared by almost everyone, regardless of current. For this reason, the 11,000 voters of the Turin primaries are, for the dem leaders, a small army to be safeguarded.
Covid effect
The fear of contagion is still present in Italians, is explained by the general staff of the Democratic Party, and it is not surprising that the figures for the next appointments will not be much higher. In any case, the main tool of democratic life within the Democratic Party is not touched. “Perhaps we, looking only at our navel and thinking only of our interest, could also have missed the primaries”, explained Letta last night in Bologna, during an initiative in support of the candidate Matteo Lepore: “But if we want to win the political elections, we have to go through the problems, solve them and overcome them “.
The sign of the strength of the Democratic Party
In short, for Letta deciding to do the primary “is the sign of our strength and we will win the elections only if we are strong and determined“, he adds. Not only that: but after a year of pandemic and remote politics, that of Turin represented a step forward towards normality, even in the political confrontation. The leader of the dem group in the Senate, Simona Malpezzi, in fact underlines that” the primaries in Turin were the way to regain possession of a physical space after the pandemic that changed us profoundly. Participation was not taken for granted, it will not be for the next appointments either, we are no longer used to mass participation. But they are also a way of regaining possession of our being together “.
Better than the center right
The Roman deputy, former councilor of the Veltroni junta, Roberto Morassut sees no warning signs from the results of Turin and remarks the difference between those who choose their own ruling class and those who rely on decisions made from above. A not too veiled reference to the center-right which has chosen its candidates in the municipalities during the summits among the leaders. “The primaries are a tool for participation that is always better than a decision taken from above”, explains Morassut. “There is a confrontation that involves tens of thousands of citizens who, depending on the period, can be more or less, but this is relatively important”.
The Capital challenge
The capital could give oxygen to this participation. In Rome, in fact, there is also a vote to elect candidates in the 15 municipalities and this could raise the bar for participation. The local party secretary, Andrea Casu, aims to surpass the 47,300 voters in the 2016 primaries, those won by Roberto Giachetti.
The idea of the quorum
Who seems worried about the data of the primary is Senator Luigi Zanda who, in an interview, explains: “After many years, the primaries would need to be fine-tuned. I believe that we should begin to reflect on whether to reserve the election of the secretary, leaving the primaries open to voters for the choice of institutional positions. However, “he admits,” the low attendance worries: a criterion should be found to introduce a sort of quorum“.
The candidate’s alarm
Less optimistic is one of the candidates from Turin. Enzo Lavolta waited for the dust of the internal challenge to settle to have his say on the state of the art in the Democratic Party and within the center-left coalition. “These primaries confirm the concerns that we had highlighted. The center-left must have the humility to recognize that it has not been able to involve our political community in the right way “.
A reference to the distance between Pd and M5s in the city of Turin. Lavolta was in fact an unwelcome candidate even for a part of the Turin M5s. On the contrary, the victory – albeit of measure – of a candidate who looks to the center like Francesco Lo Russo seems to have definitively removed the possibility of collaboration between the two parties. Hence Lavolta’s alarm: “If we present ourselves to the voters in this way, we give the city to the right. There remains a big regret, that is, not having expanded the coalition immediately. Now we need to get to work so that the Democratic Party does not make the mistake of withdrawing into itself “.
The abacus dem
Despite these difficulties, the abacus in the hands of the dem leaders speaks of 7 provincial capitals out of 14 in the vote in which the alliance between the center-left and the Five Stars is already a reality. Then there are the remaining 112 municipalities in which to work. These numbers are comforting in themselves, given that in 2016 it was lost in important cities such as Rome and Turin due to the absence of these agreements. In Rome, for example, the candidate Roberto Giachetti ran against the rest of the center-left who had expressed, among others, Stefano Fassina. In Turin, the outgoing mayor of the Democratic Party Piero Fassino had a fight with the other candidate of the left, Giorgio Airaudo, with the result that both Rome and Turin went to the Five Stars.
From this point of view, the Democratic Party has made some steps forward, which do not yet secure the result, but which lead to optimism, even where the challenge is – on paper – more complicated. In Rome, for example, there remains the unknown of the appearance with the M5s, which today seems far away: “We will measure ourselves after the first round, we will see how it will turn out. But we are convinced of winning”, says a member of the general staff dem.
.