Commentary
Mattarella and the slap to the parties
We know, the political left is not there, it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. But the enlargement and consolidation of the democratic area remain inescapable objectives.
In the quirinal campaign that, in January 2015, led to the election of Sergio Mattarella, we were bombarded by the rhetoric on the need to elect a Head of State of international standing, with great relations in the world of economy and finance (it was the same identikit in which Amato could be recognized). After seven long years, the last two marked by the tragedy of the pandemic and by 145,000 deaths, punctually, like a mantra, we witnessed the repetition of the same narrative to push Mario Draghi to the Colle. But then the dense ranks of Draghi supporters, right and left, a few hours after the agreement on the re-election of Mattarella, dissolved in the thick fog of the politician.
We never supported the former ECB president’s move to the Quirinale. And, in our small way, we opposed the operation for many reasons that are not worth repeating here. Instead, we strongly expressed the urgency that it was time to elect a woman. Unfortunately we have seen once again the old tricks of male co-optation. In every sense. Because the Lega, in the name of the entire center-right, burned the president of the Senate like a bonfire (it seems with her active participation), and because the roses of the center-left withered even before they bloomed.
We were, however, the only newspaper that asked for the Mattarella II. For the simple reason that, after the farce of Berlusconi’s candidacy, we expected the spectacle that we witnessed this week. With the succession of blank ballots and abstentions, organized like teamwork to control the vote, with party secretaries resorting to extreme defensive measures, fearing the emergence of unforeseen names from among the voters’ ballots.
All the heads of the parties appeared in difficulty in exercising their respective leaderships, as well as in the very consideration of their own parliamentarians. In fact, they raised, day by day, in spite of the team orders, the consent towards Mattarella. Everyone sees that the parties, of which Parliament is a faithful mirror thanks to electoral laws that make them an army of nominees, are not in good health. And, as they say, flour is made with the wheat you have.
Now, we have just over a year of legislature ahead of us, and it should be used to battle over how to spend European funding, for the benefit of those who need it to work, to study, to heal people and the planet, to promote peace, for autonomous and plural information, to protect freedom and the safety of women. To strengthen our democracy against presidential drifts that are already surfacing in the words not only of the right wing of Meloni, but also of those of Renzi.
In the meantime, we see a first effect of the Mattarella II in the explosion of the right, which failed to manage the game despite taking on the role of the dealer. It is true that every election of the highest institutional office produces a reshuffling of the cards for a new political game. Between winners and losers, between right and left. So it happened in Mattarella’s first election: it was a Caporetto for Berlusconi who together with Renzi, united in the Nazarene pact, had chosen Giuliano Amato’s card. That pact was broken for reasons all internal to the Democratic Party.
But today it is the center-right alliance that has fallen apart. It will recover, because a large part of the country shares its ideas and impulses, but today it’s smarting more than others from the Mattarella II. Because without the mediation of Berlusconi, the broken couple of Salvini and Meloni are destined to give them a good reason, in a war to the last vote.
However, if Sparta cries, Athens does not laugh. In this week of fire, the ideas of the Democratic Party (apart from Draghi for president) did not arrive, having preferred to take refuge in pale identikits. LEU, objectively, who has seen it? The M5S with Conte and Di Maio played out a comedy about a divided household, and in this organization we can see a difficult coexistence.
We know, the political left is not there, it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. But the enlargement and consolidation of the democratic area remain inescapable objectives. For the moment we enjoy the applause and the standing ovation of Parliament towards Sergio Mattarella, a long liberating applause when the numbers reached the electoral quorum.
In a few words, in the style of maximum sobriety that distinguishes him, Mattarella spoke live on television for a few minutes, to reaffirm the commitment “not to shirk” from the responsibility to which he is again called, to “correspond to the expectations and hopes of fellow citizens”: almost the same phrases with which he accepted the previous mandate.
Congratulations to the new-old president.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/mattarella-e-lo-schiaffo-ai-partiti/ on 2022-01-30