Glance n.1 by Giovanni Faleg – pic by Giulio Bernardi (from Flickr. All right reserved)

September 27, 2010

Round up

Ed Miliband new UK Labour leader

Labour has chosen its leader: shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband has won the election to be the new leader of the Labour Party. Ed defeated his brother David by a thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35%. According to the BBC, Ed’s dominance across trade unions and grassroots granted him victory in the leadership race, despite David’s acquisition of the majority of support from Labour’s MP in Westminster.

“A party of idealists, not just managers”

What does Ed’s victory mean for Labour? Essentially, it translates into the end of the New Labour era of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. During the campaign Ed, the “change candidate”, explicitly positioned himself at the left of his brother, who had been a close ally of Tony Blair from the first days of New Labour. Accordingly, Ed’s understanding of the future of Labour points out a reappraisal of ideology to overcome the Blairite/Brownite divisions. He calls new generations to change the party into “a movement and a cause”. As far as policy is concerned, Ed will prioritize measures aimed at taxing the rich, tackling inequality and reforming British industry. His programme include the reform of the state to make it more accountable, elderly care and the creation of skilled jobs, a graduate tax to replace tuition fees and halving UK’s deficit through measures such as higher bank levy.

“Red Ed” will surely increase Labour’s popularity with trade unionists and traditional Labour voters. At the same time, however, he will have to address the criticism coming from the Labour’s old guard, and respond to those who claim that his manifesto is not appealing to non natural Labour voters.

In sum, what is to be expected from Ed’s leadership is an ideological rally of Labour and a return to a more social-democratic vision, which entails a withdraw from the New Labour project. If strong enough to placate internal squabbling, Ed’s leadership has the potential to bring Labour “back to the future” of European social-democracy, and hence to provide an update of the concept of progressive politics, which seems to have disappeared from the manifestos of centre-left parties in Europe.

Veltroni and the 75s, or “a chorus of disapproval”: Bersani’s leadership under attack (again)

The most recent – surely not the last – attack on Pier Luigi Bersani’s leadership of the Partito Democratico (PD) came quite unexpectedly, on mid-September, from former PD leader and co-founder Walter Veltroni. The disagreement revolves around the nuovo Ulivo project, referring to the large democratic alliance of center-left parties that should provide Italy with an alternative to Berlusconi’s moldering Popolo della Libertà, in order to bolster economic – and social recovery. Led by PD’s first leader, 75 Veltroniani MPs joined forces and signed a document to denounce Bersani’s political line and calling for a reassessment of the party’s internal balance of power. Veltroni and the 75s advocate a reappraisal of the original majoritary mission (vocazione maggioritaria), meaning that the party should develop concrete policy proposals and broaden the span of its electoral targets, without playing too much tactics and seeking alliances with other fractions. A vision of leadership in and for the PD, which is at odds with Bersani’s project of a broad democratic alliance that explicitly recalls The Olive Tree (L’Ulivo) political coalition led by Romano Prodi between 1995 and 2007.

There ain’t no heroes

In a very delicate phase of Italian politics, Veltroni and the 75s’ move contributes to fraction, rather than unite the PD, its immediate implication being the creation of yet another movement within the party. Furthermore, Veltroni’s attempt to make an official – and public – count of the forces at his disposal is dangerously ill-timed, since it comes after Berlusconi’s call for early elections following the dramatic split with Gianfranco Fini, the co-founder of the Popolo della Libertà. Instead of accepting Bersani’s olive branch and giving full support to party leadership in view of new elections, Veltroni has made a prodigious demonstration of the fact that the Partito Democratico is nothing more than a bunch of naysayers squabbling over their relative power within the party. Curiously enough, to achieve its aim of a strong and unitary party, Veltroni has sought to knock down its leader. Sad, and quite inappropriate.

Wrap up

When Leadership is change

Ed Miliband’s attempt to end the new Labour era, and Pier Luigi Bersani’s efforts to start a new Olive Tree adventure to rally Italian center-left factions reveal a curious paradox: center-left progressive politics in both the UK and Italy is showing a drastic backward movement. Its leaders champion, respectively, the return to a more radical vision of the “old” Labour Party and a revival of the consensus politics that was banned after the collapse of Prodi second cabinet in 2008. The difference is that, while Ed points out the importance of rediscovering ideology in British politics, Bersani acknowledges the need to play tactics and build alliances within Italy’s center-left microcosmos in order to accomplish urgent reforms. Moreover, the two leaders are facing fierce internal opposition to carry through their programmes. However, both the Labour Party and the Partito Democratico need a strong leadership today more than ever. It will be their leaders’ responsibility to reframe the concept of progressive politics and reassure voters that the end of the new Labour and of the majoritarian PD will not come to the detriment of the credibility of their political agenda.