The Italian Democratic Party (PD) culminates this Sunday with its primaries a process of refoundation started five months ago, after being outclassed in the legislative elections by the far right, and which will decide on the new direction of one of the most important forces of European social democracy.
Stefano Bonaccini, the president of the progressive bastion of Emilia-Romagna (north), and the deputy Elly Schlein, supported by the most left wing, are the two candidates to take the reins after the recent crash of the PD at the polls, the last in the recent regional ones, when he again fell behind the ultras of the Brothers of Italy (FDI), the formation of Giorgia Meloni.
On Sunday at 8:00 p.m. (19:00 GMT), polling stations will close, where all residents in Italy over the age of 16 can go, while, in a controversial decision, “online” voting will only be allowed in cases justified.
Before, PD activists had already expressed their preferences, when during a first “screening” to bring out two finalist candidates, Bonaccini, 56, obtained 52.87% support.
His moderate and continuist profile contrasts with that of his opponent, since Schlein, 37, represents the oppositional left, which starts with 34.88% support and a very significant push in urban areas such as Milan and Rome.
The winner will take on the immediate challenge of organizing a strong opposition to Meloni and standing out in this work on the populist movement 5 stars (M5S), the third formation in Parliament, receiving many voters that the PD has lost in recent times. years.
Both candidates were highly critical of the results of the latest regional elections two weeks ago, in which the PD came second in Italy’s two wealthiest regions, Lombardy and Lazio, including the capital is Rome and where he lost the regional government.
Even if the most painful night for the formation was that of September 25, when it collected less than 20% of the votes against 26% for the FDI of Meloni.
“We came out with an insufficient result, but we came out alive. On our backs, we bear the responsibility of organizing a serious opposition to the right”, declared its leader until now, Enrico Letta, relieved that the PD saved the furniture and positioned himself four points behind, above the M5S.
Even so, since taking office as general secretary in March 2021, Letta – who served as prime minister in 2013 and 2014 – has failed to halt the slow decline of the PD, heir to the late and influential Communist Party. Italian.
Founded in 2007, the formation ruled Italy -with ups and downs- between 2013 and 2018 and returned to the executive in 2019 with the M5S, after the collapse of their pact with the far-right League , directed by Matteo Salvini.
This fickle coalition, which culminated in the coming to power of banker Mario Draghi, confirmed a deterioration that had already dragged on for years one of the rare major Italian parties not to have a personalist leadership.
Unlike Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia (FI) or Salvini’s La Liga, in its 16 years of existence the PD has had 11 secretaries, fractured into countless splits and varied its discourse from classic social democracy to the liberal center promulgated by Matteo Renzi.
As an ideological rearmament before the primaries, the party approved a “manifesto” in January with its priorities: the fight “against all inequalities” and the climate crisis, the defense of democracy, feminism, Europeanism, civil rights and the rejection of “all wars”.
In addition, he has recovered an important part of the historical leaders who broke with the PD in 2017 to create the left-wing “Articolo Uno” faction, which the new leader must de facto integrate into the party.