He doesn’t have time to finish the sentence with which he announces his candidacy for secretary of the Democratic Party that Stefano Bonaccini is literally interrupted for half a minute by the applause of his fellow citizens and dozens of local administrators and militants who were waiting for him in the San Rocco hall in Campogalliano , the municipality in the province of Modena where he was born, where he grew up and where he still lives. Then the governor of Emilia Romagna begins to read the five A4 format sheets in which he wrote the reasons why he decided to run in the primaries announced by Enrico Letta for February 19th.
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Bonaccini’s reasoning revolves primarily around the very survival of the Democratic Party. “I’m sure of one thing – he says – if, as I believe, at stake for the first time since it was born is the very life of our party, and not my candidacy or my personal destiny (who cares about that), then it’s definitely worth it. Whatever happens”. Then he adds: «What is disconcerting is the idea that this time there could be our liquidation or that we could get lost by responding to the sirens of those who, despite being in the opposition like us, spend too much of their time attacking the Democratic Party and not who is governing. Our job is to get up and get back on the road. I am the most convinced that there is so much to redo and regenerate, but I say right away that a congress will not be enough: a real crossing in the desert awaits us». Then, after having recounted having lived weeks of reflection and feeling all the responsibility for the choice he is making, he adds: «I feel the weight because I am aware of how the Democratic Party is necessary for the very democratic quality of the country, representing ideals and values alternatives to more conservative positions and populist or sovereign tendencies”.
Bonaccini announces his candidacy for secretary of the Democratic Party: the speech interrupted by the applause of citizens and local administrators
The words on what the future of the party is imagined are also very clear, as is the criticism of those who have pursued the policy of governing at any cost. «We have five years of opposition ahead of us, but in five years we will have to have built a winning Democratic Party together – explains Bonaccini -. Who wins in the polls and does not govern due to alchemies born in Parliament. The season of being in government, even if you don’t win, is over. I think we even paid for it.” A message addressed to the Democratic Party – “I will not ask any current to support me nor will I want the support of any current”, and again “If we want the change to be profound and reach the citizens, the ruling class must also be renewed” – but in which he mentions also the Five Star Movement and the Third Pole, underlining that the Democratic Party “was born as a center-left party and we are now going to take back this space”.
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