If voter turnout has not collapsed in Tuscany as in the rest of the
country, this is certainly due to the numerous local elections which,for many reasons, and not necessarily all noble, have "forced" many
citizens to go to the polls. ---- Already the local elections. What do
they tell us? First of all, the PD takes back a significant portion of
votes. ---- Which is certainly due to the new secretariat. Curious,
because in the Florentine area a large part of the Party was
pro-Bonaccini.[1]
The new Piddina leadership has certainly marked a turning point,
especially linguistic, in the management of the party. Also not to be
underestimated is the fact that the PD in opposition seems to be
transforming itself like Dr. Jekill/Mr. Hyde (or Milton Friedmann/Karl
Marx) for whom he tends to bring back the votes of those who,
disappointed by that party, are once again fascinated by the words
(which seem more inflected as in Mina's song of the same name than with
any support to material reality).
The administrative elections in Tuscany have highlighted some changes,
but nothing sensational. The ballot in Florence was widely expected, the
one in Empoli where the PD and a left-wing list will compete is
unprecedented, albeit with a very large gap in favor of the candidate
from Piddino.
Also in this round there was a hiatus between the vote in the European
elections and that in the local elections, where the citizens now vote
for the name of the mayor, regardless of their political faith (assuming
that it always exists).
After all, this is one of the effects of the thirty-year law on the
direct election of the Mayor and the closure of any space for democratic
debate. The municipal councils have now been emptied of the public (what
are they doing in an armored assembly? Especially in municipalities
under 15,000 inhabitants, where the majority bonus gives 2/3 of the
seats to those
gets one more vote than the others) and skills (which are now residual,
or go over the heads of the councilors who often don't even have time to
read the documentation). The podestarial figure of the Mayor and the
functionalisation of institutions have been prominently accentuated,
where the real politics is now done by officials and managers. We are
faced with a real post-democratic drift.
As regards consensus, I am talking above all about the PD (but we could
talk about everything else) what was hegemony understood in the
Gramscian sense has become above all a guarantee for the dominant
classes and the ability to provide jobs with the connected structures
(cooperatives , associations, etc.) which better explain the hiatus
mentioned above.
A large stain that is no longer political but provides benefits, jobs
and socio-economic integration.
In this scenario it is difficult to get politically excited about the
victory of this or that other, if not for residual memberships now
emptied of any concreteness.
For example, the outcry against the project of differentiated autonomy
seems right, but it cannot make us forget that one of the creators and
supporters of this unfortunate reform was Bonaccini and that without the
horrendous modification of Title V of the Constitution, to be blamed
entirely on the center-left, this path could not have been taken.
Or, it is certainly nice to see Schlein signing the referendums for the
restoration of workplace protections, but how can we not point out that
those protections were removed by the Renzian PD, which, unless in the
meantime the entire Piddina community had been kidnapped and replaced by
aliens, is always made up of the same people. Of course, coherence is
not always an honorable quality in politics, but here it seems to me
that it is being exaggerated.
There is certainly no intention here to repeat yet another do-gooder
complaint. We are faced with a right in power that keeps all its
liberal/authoritarian impulses intact. But it is not benevolent to point
out that the path has been opened by decades of flattening, on the
"left" on the worst neoliberal recipes. Where even a shred of criticism
of the existing has disappeared. Which comes out, badly, only when you
find yourself in opposition.
Abstentionism, as I wrote above, tempered by administrative elections,
was very high this time. A trend that shows no signs of stopping. A
clear sign that the majority of those entitled now consider it useless
and outdated to insert the ballot into the ballot box. Somewhere, one
thinks, there should be loud cries of alarm and of worry.
Posts continue to circulate on social media where it is specified that
the right's vote not only does not increase in absolute numbers but
decreases and, with abstentionism having exceeded 50%, the real
consensus of the right would therefore be much lower than what is
represented.
Fair analysis, if the other side of the coin wasn't missing. That is,
those who didn't go to vote, it's true that they didn't give preferences
to the right, nor to any other party that said they opposed the right.
Electoral abstentionism is in reality not a problem at all for the
ruling classes, of "government" or "opposition" it matters little (the
dominant ones are there, vote or no vote, except for revolutions) who in
fact do not they said a word about it.
Simply because the reduction in voting participation is the last of the
various steps away from participation in political life in general.
Fewer voters, fewer zebedee breakdowns. Evidently even the last screen
of that post-democracy that Colin Crouch wrote about ten years ago has
now fallen.
Participatory democracy, of which little more than the ballot box
remained, is something from the 20th century.
The disconnect between the representatives and the represented is total.
In this context the right is not flying, because it is true that it
represents a minimal part of Italians, but it imposes itself, conquers
the hegemony (this is political) of the discourse, which veers a bit as
it pleases. Meloni does her homework as the EU asks her to do in its
most devastating neoliberal perspective, of which Von der Leyen is the
spearhead. You mercilessly attack any possibility of breaking out of the
cage of financialization. Typical examples were the demolition with
unprecedented violence of the citizen's income and the real state hoaxes
on the 110%. Having done your homework, inside you pose as a
sovereignist, you play with the legacy of fascism, but in reality you
can't do more than this. If ever there was a social right, Meloni's is
its true antithesis.
But what remains on the other side? Shouting at fascism, dismantling the
entire part (I would say not exactly secondary) of class reaction
(because "class struggle" is a dirty word) and reducing it to a
pantomime on "freedom" understood in the most idiotic liberal spirit.
How much of this matter can interest the precarious, the young
unemployed remains a mystery.
We will see if the PD has changed direction, but the problem is not this
or that single personality, the problem is the structure that has been
created.
The ballot in the ballot box may be a significant gesture, but if it
remains the one and only moment of political participation, I would dare
to say that the majority who did not go to vote warned us that the
system is not working like this.
[1]https://www.lanazione.it/empoli/cronaca/primarie-pd-schlein-al-fotofinish-nel-territorio-dem-spaccati-in-due-1e21ae51
Andrea Bellucci
https://www.ucadi.org/2024/06/30/egemonia-in-corso-di-aggiornamento-si-prega-di-attendere-la-fine/
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