Interview with Giorgio Tonini: good Letta, the PD needs a new reformism

Senator Tonini, you were a protagonist in the birth of the PD (you held important positions in the party and in parliament).

Since 2018 he has retired from the national scene and has been involved in the institutions of the special autonomy of Trentino Alto Adige.

With her we would like to investigate the reasons for a historic defeat such as the one suffered by the PD in the last elections.

In the meantime, we would like to understand, to begin with, what was the "alchemy" that was produced in Trentino to reach an agreement, which proved to be successful, in sharp contrast to the national figure.

If by "large field" is meant an alliance of the Democratic Party, both with the "center" of Calenda and Renzi, and with the "left" of Conte, this miracle did not occur even in Trentino.

We have managed "only" to avoid the most absurd and suicidal division, that between the Democratic Party and the centrists.

And we could only do it in the Senate.

The decisive ingredients of this positive "alchemy" were two.

First of all, the special autonomy of our Region, which has given us, at least in the Senate, a different electoral law.

We have continued to elect the six senators of Trentino Alto Adige with the glorious "Mattarellum", which we have never been surpassed.

If not with the elimination, following the reduction of parliamentarians, of the seventh senator, who was then the so-called "best loser".

So here we voted with the dry majority, of the college, English: the first who arrives is elected, all the others stay at home.

While in the rest of Italy, the majority of parliamentarians were elected with the proportional, here, at least in the Senate, the proportional simply did not exist.

This "technical" data led to find agreements between neighboring forces,

all the more so since our result was irrelevant to the national proportional figure of the parties.

So we presented common candidates in the three colleges of Trentino (and, in a different way, also in that of Bolzano), electing the senators of Trento and that of Bolzano and missing the election of our candidate for a handful of votes (200). Rovereto.

The right stopped at two elected officials (Rovereto and Valsugana) and the other two (Merano and Bressanone) went to SVP.

So, in our region, the right wing in the Senate had to settle for two out of six elected officials.

Net of the “German” colleges, we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

So we presented common candidates in the three colleges of Trentino (and, in a different way, also in that of Bolzano), electing the senators of Trento and that of Bolzano and missing the election of our candidate for a handful of votes (200). Rovereto.

The right stopped at two elected officials (Rovereto and Valsugana) and the other two (Merano and Bressanone) went to SVP.

So, in our region, the right wing in the Senate had to settle for two out of six elected officials.

Net of the “German” colleges, we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

So we presented common candidates in the three colleges of Trentino (and, in a different way, also in that of Bolzano), electing the senators of Trento and that of Bolzano and missing the election of our candidate for a handful of votes (200). Rovereto.

The right stopped at two elected officials (Rovereto and Valsugana) and the other two (Merano and Bressanone) went to SVP.

So, in our region, the right wing in the Senate had to settle for two out of six elected officials.

Net of the “German” colleges, we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

by electing the senators of Trento and Bolzano and missing the election of our candidate in Rovereto by a handful of votes (200).

The right stopped at two elected officials (Rovereto and Valsugana) and the other two (Merano and Bressanone) went to SVP.

So, in our region, the right wing in the Senate had to settle for two out of six elected officials.

Net of the “German” colleges, we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

by electing the senators of Trento and Bolzano and missing the election of our candidate in Rovereto by a handful of votes (200).

The right stopped at two elected officials (Rovereto and Valsugana) and the other two (Merano and Bressanone) went to SVP.

So, in our region, the right wing in the Senate had to settle for two out of six elected officials.

Net of the “German” colleges, we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

we drew (2-2) and 3-1 was within reach for us.

In the Chamber, with the national scheme, always net of the SVP, it ended 3-1 for them.

Politics.

The good practice of working together, with a Democratic Party that has been able to exercise a dialogic function, of inclusion and cohesion, putting aside a misunderstood party pride and working with humility for the coalition, in the awareness that if the coalition is strong and successful the Democratic Party is also strengthened.

As indeed it was.

A job that after the defeats of 2018 (to the policies in the spring and to the regional ones in the autumn) has built opposite results to the administrative ones of 2020, with the victory of the plural, open, autonomist, civic center-left, in almost all the major centers, starting from Trento and Rovereto.

And that, after the confirmation of these political elections, we hope it will lead us, next year, to regain the government of the Autonomous Province and the Region. 

Seen from afar and from the periphery of the far North, that of a contradiction in terms: a reformist party, a left-wing party in government, lacking a government proposal, also because it lacks a political strategy that would even make its affirmation possible .

We have not been able (or been able to) introduce ourselves to the Italians by proposing the continuation of the Draghi government, with his person and his agenda, both of which are appreciated by a large majority of Italians, who, on the other hand, could not find this option on the ballot paper.

But we have not been able (or known) to make a new proposal succeed the season of the Draghi government, which had a sufficiently broad basis of political consensus to be competitive.

And therefore we are reduced to speaking only "against", both the opponents and the lost allies,

I'm not Massimo Cacciari and I don't like contemptuous judgments about people.

I respect Enrico Letta, I appreciated and shared the contents of his letter to the members of the Democratic Party and the proposal for a Constituent Congress.

I am also grateful to him for not only having allowed, but supported and favored our Trentino “happy anomaly”.

I also think that the last thing the Democratic Party has to do today is to look for a scapegoat, find him in the secretary and think of burning with him, as is done on New Year's Eve, the mistakes and limitations of all of us.

I hope that we all manage to remain lucid, to look our problems in the face, but also the strengths that exist and from which we can start again.

The cause of the defeat was the division of our camp.

If you had voted with a fully proportional system,

the right would not have had the votes to govern, because it is not a majority in the country.

Today it has the seats to do so, thanks to the fact that the three souls of their coalition, although very divided among themselves on fundamental issues, were able to present themselves united in single-member constituencies, while our three, which also governed together for almost the entire legislature , they presented themselves in no particular order, giving victory to the opponents.

A collective suicide, with the aggravating circumstance of futile reasons.

The emblem of this disaster is the college of central Rome, the famous ztl stronghold of the left, where Carlo Calenda presents himself against Emma Bonino, both end up on the ground and the right-wing candidate passes easily.

This triumph of collective stupidity must be stopped and only the Democratic Party can do it,

Yes, of course it impresses me.

To use the fortunate image used forty years ago by Claudio Martelli at the Rimini Conference of the PSI, the Democratic Party today struggles to represent both the merit and the need, both the emerging and the desperate classes, both the excellent young people, and to find the just recognition of their talents must go abroad, both the young neet, without art or part, reduced to hope only in the income of citizenship.

Not surprisingly, the Democratic Party has lost on both fronts.

The strongest and most competitive young people (and not only), especially in the North, preferred Calenda and Renzi.

And the most fragile and lonely young people (and not only), numerous especially in the South, have felt the Cinquestelle di Conte more sensitive to their cry of pain.

This double hemorrhage can bleed and kill the Pd.

But also condemn a structurally and polemically divided center left to a minority and subordinate destiny.

Without a reformist force to carry out its function, that of building an alliance for change, between merit and need, our field would be reduced to the permanent and sterile clash between a technocratic center and a populist left.

As I said, I agree with Letta's proposal.

We must make the new management group spring from a high confrontation, which nourishes the ambition to field a shared thought on Italian society and on the role of reformism.

Only in this way will we be able to get out of the trap of the zero-sum game of crossed vetoes, which condemned the center-left to defeat and opened the doors to a far from invincible right: both in terms of basic, uncertain and confused orientations, and on that the quality of the proposals, largely demagogic and unworkable, both on that of the consensus, where no breakthrough occurred, but a mere, however spectacular, internal redistribution within their field, together with a meritorious ability to join forces while our camp was being torn apart in an incomprehensible fratricidal war.

In the meantime, there will be an opposition to be organized.

Even here it will not be easy, since the opposition is made up of three forces, each with its own objectives.

What kind of opposition? 

The opposition, in the democracy of alternation, is a government that is preparing to replace the current government by beating it in the elections.

Pd, centrists, Cinquestelle, we have not been able to build a common thought on Italian society while we governed together, first with Conte and then with Draghi.

We will have to do it while we are, together, in the opposition.

And the Democratic Party which, by virtue of its role, has the greatest responsibilities, objective if not subjective, of the failure to meet by the government, now has the primary responsibility to rediscover the thread of dialogue and collaboration from the opposition.

In Germany, a three-pronged center-left governs: SPD, Greens and liberals.

The ability to evolve of all three of these forces made this possible.

The same courage must now show all three points of the Italian center-left.