Analysis
Lesson from France: The left will win when it acts like the left
Italy digests the French results. Ilaria Salis: ‘When the left fearlessly proposes “leftist things,” fueled by the social and cultural struggles, when we emancipate ourselves from our subservience to the ideology of neoliberal capitalism, that’s when anti-fascism can win.’
For the Italian center-left, the day after the victory of the pro-democracy forces in France was one of deep reflection. After Sunday night's enthusiasm, it was time to do some thinking.
The PD kept banging the drum for unity: “We lost the elections because we were divided,” said PD foreign affairs representative Peppe Provenzano, and Schlein also touted this as a necessary condition for an alternative, while not in itself sufficient: “We must continue to carve out our own path in Italy,” she told La7 on Monday evening. “The Popular Front managed to unite under a coherent project and was able to get so many people out to the polls. We don't want a test-tube alliance, or one that is against somebody in particular, but one that is for a project.”
On Friday's group photo at the Supreme Court with all the other opposition leaders fighting against differentiated autonomy, she added: “We are not only united against [differentiated] autonomy, but also on schools, healthcare and industrial policies. I’m not vetoing anyone, even Renzi can join.”
Andrea Orlando stressed the importance of a left with clear policy proposals, which would be able to win the votes of young people and win back those of the working classes: “It’s only in Italy that the word ‘socialism’ makes people throw a fit. Nonetheless, it is the way,” the former minister added. Sandro Ruotolo, from the party’s secretariat, also pointed to the need for an alliance that would be “as inclusive as possible, which does not, however, mean a watered-down program: in the European elections, we, the PD, returned to being a main competitor because we said and did leftist things. The centrist recipe has failed.”
Elsewhere in the PD, the analyses struck a different tone: the success of the moderate Keir Starmer was emphasized, and the misgivings about Mélenchon were in no way diminished; most of all, some stressed the differences between the PD and the forces further to the left on foreign policy.
The M5S and Green-Left Alliance were the most convinced that the French success came from the clarity of the policy proposals on offer: “To beat the extreme right, we need a courageous proposal, an environmentalist and leftist one, a feminist one,” said Nicola Fratoianni. “The New Popular Front was the only new option that was able to stop the extreme right, including among the working class, because it offered a courageous program: raising the minimum wage, reducing the retirement age, fighting climate change. Those who, in France as in Italy, consider the left irrelevant – while dismissing it with contempt as ‘radical’ – should know that doing so will only temporarily postpone the victory of the far right.”
Newly-elected MEP Ilaria Salis was even more categorical: “When the left fearlessly proposes ‘leftist things,’ fueled by the social and cultural struggles, when we emancipate ourselves from our subservience to the ideology of neoliberal capitalism (Macronism), that’s when anti-fascism can win.”
The M5S also stressed the need for strong policy proposals: “The final defeat of the National Rally will be achieved only if the next government offers strong answers in the social and economic sphere, for those hotbeds of hardship that Le Pen’s propaganda is still exploiting,” said Chamber of Deputies group leader Francesco Silvestri. All these ideas were very far from those expressed by Azione and Italia Viva, with Renzi and Calenda praising Macron for “holding strong” – more proof that in Italy, the construction of an alternative front is still in its embryonic stage.
Former PD secretary Nicola Zingaretti had some optimistic words: “We are finally uniting a people that was divided in September 2022. The vote in France helps a lot: let’s see who’s going to keep saying they won’t work with A, they won’t work with B...” Marco Grimaldi of the Italian Left was full of buoyant excitement: “In Italy, we’re ahead of the French: we’re trying to put forward a proposal on social issues, not just a pact of non-aggression, and we’ve already won the municipal elections together.” Riccardo Magi of +Europa was less sanguine: “There are substantial differences in the approaches to governing, and also on international positioning, but building an alliance is a necessary path. We need to try.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/la-lezione-francese-si-vince-facendo-cose-di-sinistra on 2024-07-09