“Center” is finally back – HuffPost Italia

The politics of Italy requires, and above all, profound change, if not necessary, in the current rapidly growing dramatic social context. It is needed for the new political agenda and is needed in the new European and international context. Everything has changed, even if only in connection with the birth of the “best” government. Without taking anything away from Draghi Sarkar’s skills and talents, as is evident. But now a new stage has opened. And in the new phase there is hardly any room for the revival of the Grillina brand of populism, in which all its anti-politics, jurists, democracy, apathy, tangible experience have clearly confirmed the old inability to govern. And, at the same time, the apparently sovereign approach has had its heyday.

The two subcultures and the two political modalities largely detached from reality, on the other hand, require a profound and significant change. Not surprisingly, the questions that are emerging in an increasingly strong and disruptive way bring us back to a season where politics was the hero. Both through the return of organized and democratic parties, and with the rediscovery of political cultures and, above all, with a new and qualified ruling class. In addition to re-proposing bankruptcy and with the slogan “one is worth one”. A practice that has contributed in a powerful way to disqualification of government action and, unfortunately, to ridicule politics outright.

For these simple but noble causes, other characteristics and other ingredients are needed in the social and political context. It is certainly not through political change or parliamentary opportunism that the main political issues on the table can be addressed and resolved. It is with concrete modalities that since March 2018 – that is, after the last political elections – we have had the upper hand in the parliamentary and government history of our country. One political page, ie, is closed and the other has to be reopened. Completely different and fundamentally “other” than the previous one. And the return of politics cannot fail to coincide with a method of government and an action that completely rediscovers the characteristics that accompany the best seasons of politics in our country. Which, in a nutshell, we can summarize with a slogan, however, contains within it a significant and profound cultural and governmental history. i.e. “centre politics”.

A “centre politics” that can be summarized in a series of decisive elements for a new quality of politics: from a culture of government to a culture of mediation; From rejecting the fundamentalism of the political struggle to respect for the adversary; From the culture of the state and its democratic institutions to the centrality of the Parliament; From the rediscovery of representative democracy to the rise of pluralism in all its forms; From the value of dialogue and confrontation to the importance of political cultures and parties as essential tools for a new quality of our democracy. In short, the exact opposite of Grillini’s anti-political populism and late Northern League sovereignty.

And it is in the same context as contemporary that a central political presence is necessary. With three basic elements. The return, in fact, of a “center party”; The return of the “political culture of the center” and, last but not least, the return of a ruling class that derives its legitimacy through the method of democratic selection from below, and not by co-option and change loyalty to the head . Three crucial elements for restoring quality in a democracy and credibility in politics itself.

And the political initiative that we started with Clemente Mastella as ‘Noi di Centro’ and with the formation of a national party, organized and rooted in the region, aims to achieve those objectives. A political project and a political initiative that aim, as is equally clear, to create a “centrist poll” and a political and government project with other formulations and other parties allergic to the populist and sovereign dual drift. An initiative that is registering consensus and adhesions precisely as a phase dominated by other sub-cultures and other governmental practices has been completely externalized and for the sake of rules and for a democratic culture.

Now the question is whether this political and government project should be accelerated and strengthened in view of the next election. Starting with the upcoming national political elections. An appointment is too important to counter this with old categories and outdated sub-cultures that have only harmed and disqualified the same government action. A “centre”, as is evident, is a dynamic and innovative element in politics and which, above all, is capable of restoring momentum and power to a government action, which is no longer capable of shifting from real and imaginary representations of social cannot ignore. interests and critical world and he, ultimately, also knows how to undermine the reformist culture that has been sacrificed in recent years at the altar of populism and anti-politicism and populist propaganda.

Of course, in order to achieve this goal, those smallness and human suffering – which have always existed, unfortunately – must be overcome, in order to continue to cultivate their garden politically. Even a frivolous person is ready to blow up a real political and government project. But by now the general conditions have changed and in the face of the increasingly obvious and obvious failure of populism on the one hand and the impossibility of continuing to resort to “technocrats” on the other, politics may simply return to being the protagonist and central. , And when politics comes to the fore again in our country, the “centre politics” is destined to play a decisive and decisive role for the entire democratic and parliamentary system.

It is for these reasons that “centre” and “centre politics” have come to the fore again. Without arrogance and without presumption but with the awareness that it is democracy without the return of politics that risks are still preserved and valued in our country.