Commentary
For the center-left, what’s missing is a broad base of the people
The right has an idea of what a party should be like: leader-focused, referendum-oriented, televised, focused on social media, revolving around a hard core of loyalists. The left has borrowed the same model.
The “broad alliance” among the opposition forces seems to have dissipated, after the back-and-forth over the nominations for RAI leadership posts, but most of all after some have been silent on the ongoing military escalation in Lebanon. The electoral alliances for Emilia and Umbria are a positive; there is bad news from Liguria, however, with Renzi as the poisonous Trojan horse.
The parties appear focused on their own internal equilibria, and nobody is working on launching a common project for mobilization that would be able to develop an alternative proposal. The mobilizations against differentiated autonomy are not enough. What is needed is clarity about peace.
What is also needed is generosity (the result of the whole alliance is more important than the individual results of those who make it up) and being willing to relinquish sovereignty, but we see no trace of either.
The right has an idea of what a party should be like: leader-focused, referendum-oriented, televised, focused on social media, revolving around a hard core of loyalists. This notion eliminates the idea of intermediate bodies, of organizing at the territorial scale. The left has borrowed the same model and has been putting it to use, reinforcing the national-level control room coalescing around the leader of the day. There is little internal debate, few places to do common work, and primaries have all but vanished. The twists and turns come from the top. It’s a pattern that runs through the entire political system, with very few exceptions. The difference is that the right thrives on the notion of messianic leadership, while the left without the people is struggling to pursue its basic reason for existing: to win in order to change the country.
The French Popular Front – a disobedient and confrontational alliance – nonetheless has a study center and consultation platform with 400,000 members. In Italy, the Prodi 1996 playbook – the “program factory” – and the Prodi 2006 one which put the focus on the primaries seem to be a very distant memory.
Meanwhile, Meloni is only strengthening her position. Her man Fitto will have oversight over Cohesion Fund resources and the vice presidency of the European Commission, and will play a major role in a Commission driven by Popular Party and conservative support.
The situation is becoming more and more stable, with the premier espousing technocratic affinities and touting the Draghi report. The neoliberal, warmongering, Atlanticist Meloni fits perfectly into the Union's leadership team and its right-wing turn. Major issues around identity remain: civil and human rights, her aversion to migrants, her hostility towards the LGBTQ world and women's self-determination, Valditara's ideas on education and the violent turn of the Piantedosi bill (everything will be criminalized: roadblocks, strikes, protests in prisons and migrant repatriation centers, the occupations of properties, etc.).
It’s not Fascism, but it is an authoritarian turn which is able to support neoliberal policies, as has already happened in France, Germany, the UK and Spain. Meanwhile, Forza Italia, marked by the legacy of Berlusconi and Pascale, is playing a different game, driven by the playbook of the Mediaset-Gedi group: by its covert overtures towards the PD, Forza Italia is whitewashing the ultra-right impulses among the government. Tajani is doing the same, with European backing from Von der Leyen and Draghi, as well as Confindustria and the country's largest economic groups.
In this context, the governing ambitions of the progressives are in danger of crashing and burning. Meloni appears credible in the eyes of the people and reliable to the European elites.
Widening the field, instilling life into it, allowing space for movements, summits, intellectuals, putting the program up for public debate is the only chance to shake up the situation and build hope for those who won’t surrender to the right, to neoliberalism, to war – especially to the ongoing escalation of death in the Middle East. How does one build a program? What position to take on war, weapons, Palestine, the redistribution of resources, welfare? Who will decide? Party leaders in a smoke-filled room? Does anyone really think that will be enough?
The right is exploiting “common sense,” while the center left is marching under the banner of “sensible policies.” Instead, it should go directly to those who are no longer acting “sensibly,” go beyond the resentment and disillusionment and ask them how they want to live and what they desire. This should be our greatest ambition: to organize a great and peaceful invasion of the political field.
Violations of international law, airstrikes, NATO, Israel’s new order, the war economy – these are the issues on which the difference between left and right will be played out.
A great pacifist and united demonstration could be the answer to the mad and murderous tragedy the West is engaged in. This is what is needed to give proof of the existence of a force that is willing to fight against the abyss we are hurtling towards.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/centrosinistra-quella-che-manca-e-uninvasione-di-campo on 2024-10-02