The centre-left primaries, introduced by Romano Prodi, recorded a collapse in participation: from 4.5 million in 2005 to around one million. A figure that highlights the distance between voters and the Democratic Party and the limits of an increasingly less representative system
Few remember it, but in Italy the father of the primaries is called Romano Prodi, the same one who a few days ago dismissed them in a contemptuous manner, saying that they are an excellent way to lose the match and end up like the Azzurri against Bosnia. Curious: until yesterday the left believed that voting at the gazebos for the prime minister candidate for the next elections was a propitiatory rite, a highly democratic gathering of the people. On 16 October 2005, when the former president of IRI took the field to lead the Ulivo, challenging six other competitors, the voters were almost 4 and a half million and 74 percent put the name of the Professor on the ballot who, alone, received 3 million 182 thousand votes, edging out Fausto Bertinotti, Clemente Mastella, Antonio Di Pietro, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Simona Panzino and Ivan Scalfarotto. Militants and bankers (among them the then CEO of Unicredit, Alessandro Profumo) formed a long queue, even paying one euro to support the future electoral campaign. Since then, however, the ritual has become increasingly tired and less participated. Of course, from coalition primaries they transformed into the vote to choose the PM candidate of the Democratic Party but, already in 2007, with Walter Veltroni, the turnout had dropped by a million compared to two years earlier, and to say that the opponents of the former mayor of Rome were Rosy Bindi and Enrico Letta. With Pier Luigi Bersani, challenged by Dario Franceschini and Ignazio Marino, with Matteo Renzi against Gianni Cuperlo and Pippo Civati, with Nicola Zingaretti who was threatened by Maurizio Martina, the collapse was then continuous, reaching just over one and a half million voters. Finally, when it came to choosing between Stefano Bonaccini and Elly Schlein, just one million voters went to the gazebos.
The numbers, I believe, explain more than any other consideration the failure of a system and above all the distance that now exists between candidates and the people. If the primaries aimed at involving not only the militants, but also the so-called civil society in the choice of who should lead the government (but also a city or a region), the turnout of the last twenty years demonstrates that the majority of left-wing voters do not seem interested in popular consultation. In fact, it is enough to compare the 14 million Italians who voted No in the referendum on justice with the million in the last Dem primaries, to understand that the choice of the prime minister candidate of the Democratic Party and, more generally, of the center-left is not something that arouses extraordinary interest among voters who look to the opposition.
But beyond this, the low turnout in the primaries also leads us to reflect on the maneuverability of the result. Remember when Schlein was elected? The vote of the PD members rewarded Stefano Bonaccini, who, compared to his deputy (at the time the secretary was part of the Emilia-Romagna regional council), was certainly more organic to the party, while Elly for a certain period had even boasted of not having a membership card. Yet, when the vote was open to everyone, that is, even to those who had perhaps never seen a section of the Democratic Party, the result was overturned. With some foresight, the old militants had glimpsed the danger of open primaries. These were not polluted elections but, certainly, conditioned, because even the voters of the 5 stars, of Avs and even, if they wanted, of the centre-right, were paradoxically allowed to determine the next secretary. A choice comparable to that of a listed company which, in order to decide, the CEO does not only turn to the shareholders, but also to anyone who wants to have their say.
This explains the de profundis for the primaries pronounced by their inventor. Romano Prodi, in fact, knows well that in a challenge between Schlein and Conte the winner would be the latter, who, despite counting on the votes of a party that is at least ten points behind the Democratic Party, would find himself at the helm of the coalition. Madness? Yes, but on the left they are masters when it comes to madness. After all, it is enough to observe how the Prodi governments ended, as well as those led by Letta, Renzi and Gentiloni: none have ever lasted an entire legislature. In short, Mortadella is right: if the left decided now who should be prime minister, it would end up like Italy-Bosnia. That is, with elimination.
