The Partito Democratico (PD), Italy’s traditional centre-left party, has a new leader. In an open primary, Elly Schlein, the 37-year-old radical left-wing lawyer, beat the favourite,
Stefano Bonaccini, the more experienced governor of Emilia-Romagna and a former Communist Party member who now embraces centrist political policies.
The media buzz surrounding Schlein’s election has heralded her as a breath of fresh air that could rescue the PD from its recent electoral debacle. The centre-left flagship of Italian politics suffered a devastating defeat in last September’s general elections, which saw another female political leader, Giorgia Meloni, sweep to power, heading a mainly right-wing coalition.
Schlein was elected thanks to the mobilisation of young left-wingers who are not party members but voted for her in the primaries. Her opponent Bonaccini was the favoured candidate with the party members in the first round of voting, proving that the hard-core membership of a political party is often out of touch with what potential party sympathisers consider good leadership.
Middle-aged men historically dominate the PD, like many traditional European political parties. Its fortunes took a nosedive when the once charismatic centrist and pro-market Matteo Renzi became prime minister for a short time.
Schlein left the PD in 2015, as she increasingly opposed the labour reforms of the then-prime minister and party leader Renzi.
Now Italy’s traditionally male-dominated politics have Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and a de facto leader of the opposition Elly Schlein – two female leaders with entirely different ideologies.
Schlein has Swiss, American and Italian citizenship, is openly bisexual, a feminist and passionate pro-European who projects herself as a “real” leftist. She appeals to society’s most disenfranchised, rather than the champagne socialist elites that Europe’s traditional socialist parties have courted. The international media has labelled Schlein as Italy’s version of US representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
When the media buzz surrounding the election of a new political leader fades out, Schlein will have to show whether she has the pragmatism to raise the PD from the 17 per cent support it currently has in the Italian electorate.
In one of her first speeches on becoming a leader, she declared that her priority was encouraging more left-wing supporters to become party members.
In the primaries held in 2005, when Romano Prodi was elected party leader, 4.3 million leftist supporters voted. In this year’s election, only 1.1 million cast their votes. Like that in many other European countries, the Italian electorate is becoming increasingly disenchanted with traditional politics.
Schlein must address one of the first urgent political issues: the extent of Italy’s support for the Ukrainians
The PD has its roots in a fusion between the Communist and Christian Democratic parties of Italy’s past. Schlein, who belongs to the PD’s more socialist wing, must present a fresh and unifying vision for the different souls of the party. If she fails, the PD will continue to be perceived as suffering from an identity crisis, swinging through a divide between a more centrist, economically liberal wing and the leftist one with a more progressive and socially aware soul.
Schlein must address one of the first urgent political issues: the extent of Italy’s support for the Ukrainians. Her predecessor Enrico Letta embraced the pro-NATO stance of prime minister Mario Draghi to send lethal weapons to Ukraine. So how will Schlein react to the government’s pro-Ukraine military support?
In a recent interview with broadcaster La7, Schlein said: “We support Ukraine’s right to defend itself through every form of assistance, but as a pacifist, I do not think that weapons alone will end the war.”
Some political observers predict that Schlein’s radical views will drive the PD further to the left, similar to how Jeremy Corbyn dragged the British Labour Party, making it unelectable.
With just 17 per cent of political support and often trailing behind the populist left-wing party Movimento 5 Stelle, the PD has suffered from stagnancy in the past two decades and is seen as having abandoned the working class. Its former left-leaning supporters now have no difficulty turning to the extreme right and left parties like the Lega, M5S and Fratelli d’ Italia.
Like in most other European countries, Italy’s social realities demand solutions that can no longer be found exclusively in manifestos of the right or left of the political spectrum. Good pragmatic political leadership is scarce, and it is dangerous to predict new leaders’ performance by examining their political credentials.
Traditional political parties, including the PD, must regenerate themselves through a collective effort that will go beyond the charisma and actions of their leaders, however qualified and inspired they may be.