European: not only M5S, the red-greens launch the competition to the Democratic Party

In the end, looking at the candidacies presented so far, in the (was?) progressive camp the real opponent of the Democratic Party does not seem to be the M5S so much as the red-greens of the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra. Obviously having made the necessary proportions, given that Avs is listed at around 4 percent and the Democratic Party at 20, what is certain is that the Fratoianni-Bonelli couple has made a commitment to break the eggs in the basket of Elly Schlein.

Massimiliano Smeriglio, elected in Europe in 2019 with Nicola Zingaretti’s Democratic Party, runs with Avs; Like this Ignazio Marino, former mayor of Rome and former member of the PD; Like this Leoluca Orlando, five-time mayor of Palermo, who joined the Democratic Party in 2021 and left precisely to run with the red-greens. But above all, the name of Ilaria Salis, for a long time associated with the Democratic Party in political backgrounds. Instead, the teacher imprisoned in Hungary for over a year, accused of attacking neo-Nazis, accepted the candidacy from a list that reflects her past militancy in social centers a little better. A small takeover bid, so to speak, embellished with the presentation of Christian Raimoformer municipal councilor in Rome – to be precise in Montesacro – in a Pd-led council.

To describe the strategy we need to take a step back and go back to the election of Schlein as the secretariat of the Democratic Party. That is, a personality external to the Dems who came precisely from the red-green world and who therefore risked drying up the electoral base, not exterminated but not to be thrown away, of Avs. Pacifist, ecologist, feminist: with a Democratic Party secretary like that, why would a voter choose a list of 3-4 percent? In short, what was under discussion was the very vital function of the small patrol of the radical left which, unlike Articolo 1 (half born from the old Sel), had never accepted being incorporated by the Democratic Party. If with a moderate Pd the red-greens enjoyed a certain quiet life, their own balance in the coalition, with the further mission of trying to act as bridge-patchmen with the M5S, the Schlein turn has broken the small certainties. And hence the gauntlet, partly mutual, see the Democratic candidacies of Cecilia Strada – she too is always very critical of the Democratic Party and close to the radical left – and of Eleonora Evico-spokesperson for Green Europe who resigned in controversy with Angelo Bonelli and elected to Parliament by Avs in 2022.

The campaign for 2 thousand on the Italian Left, i.e. the party promoting Avs together with the greens, is a clear reminder of the battles that Schlein’s PD would like to wage but which with a ‘reformist’ minority aggressive in influencing its agenda it cannot embrace full. The invitation to voters and taxpayers is therefore to choose a ‘clear and direct policy’. Example: ‘Free Palestine? No beating around the bush, the answer is Yes; or, ‘tax the richest? No beating around the bush, the answer is Yes; “egalitarian marriage? No beating around the bush, the answer is Yes.” Dry questions, direct answers, precisely, without mincing words. It’s not written there but it’s understood: those that the Democratic Party of ‘but also’, perhaps by its very nature, is often led to do.