The delicate and difficult art of compromise Lorenzo Guerini – born in 1966, degree in political science, insurance consultant by profession – learns it early, in his birthplace in Lodi. In this case a miniature “historical compromise”: father supporter of the PCI, in the early 1990s he embarked on a political career in the ranks of the Christian Democrats. Twice municipal councilor in his native Lodi, he also performs the function of councilor for social services and in 1994 he was chosen as local coordinator of the constituting Italian People’s Party, heir to the DC. The following year he was elected first president of the recently established province of Lodi at the head of a broad centre-left coalition, becoming the youngest provincial president in Italy at the age of 28. Two terms, then the election as mayor of Lodi in the first round.
In the meantime, Margherita was born, then merged into the Democratic Party together with the heirs of the PCI-DS: this time the “historic compromise” is truly national. The landing in Parliament, after winning the parliamentarians wanted by the then secretary dem Pierluigi Bersani, takes place in 2013. With Matteo Renzi from the first hour, Guerini immediately becomes his eminence grise and his right arm before the climb to the leadership of the party (December 2013) and then to government (February 2014). Spokesman of the secretariat, then deputy secretary, then coordinator: he is always Renzi’s “Gianni Letta”, the indefatigable mediator, the creator of the Pact of the Nazarene with Forza Italia on constitutional reforms and the electoral law, the holder of the most delicate dossiers of the party and the government.
Renziano, of course, but above all democratic. Why Guerini doesn’t follow Renzi in the split of autumn 2019: the parliamentary chronicles tell of a very heated discussion during which “the Christian Democrat” – as Guerini is called by party mates for his art of compromise – pronounces his niet explaining to ex prime minister that “leaving the Democratic Party is a mistake you will regret”.
We don’t know if Renzi has ever repented (he, of course, says no), but what is certain is that Guerini has not repented, since he has continued to represent the Democratic Party – of which he is still today the leader of the internal minority of Base reformist – at the highest levels: defense minister already in Conte 2, he continued to be so with the broad coalition government led by Mario Draghi to the point of representing the prime minister’s most solid crutch on the front of the war in Ukraine. Precisely his being a bulwark of the Atlantic axis and one of the most convinced supporters of the need to help the Ukrainian resistance also militarily has aroused the not so hidden aversion of the president of the M5s Giuseppe Conte, who at the helm of Copasir would have wanted a figure in his eyes less aligned.
But in the end, thanks also to the support of the outgoing Pd secretary Enrico Letta, the agreement on his name held. It is a return, that of Guerini at the head of the control committee on the Secret Services: at the beginning of the last legislature, when the Democratic Party was in opposition to the yellow-green Conte 1, he had already held the prestigious position. Already bashful in political comments, it can be sworn that now Guerini, while supporting Stefano Bonaccini’s candidacy for the secretariat of the Democratic Party, will keep himself even more aloof from the internal quarrels of his party. Among the first dossiers to arrive, let’s say, is the sixth arms decree. With the 5 Stars already on the “pacifist” barricades.