When a party likes to “win easy”
There is a race, in this electoral competition, in which the Democratic Party likes to “win easy”. It is not the real one, that is political elections as such, those to be held on September 25 and that the Democratic Party, the pivot of the center-left coalition (composed not only of the Democrats and Progressives, but also of + Europe-Civic Commitment-Greens and the Italian Left) will lose, however, and also in a disastrous way. The center-right coalition, ahead in all the polls, in fact, will win the elections, and even hands down, as they say, transforming a relative majority in votes into an absolute majority in seats. But, on the programs presented by the various parties and coalitions, and in particular on the theme of civil rights (of LGBTQ + people, immigration, ius soli and ius scholae, law on euthanasia and end of life, cultivation, domestic use, of cannabis), there is no story. In the eyes of those who care about civil rights and defend them, as we are here, we of Luce!, a few stories. The program presented by the Democratic Party is that the best, the most complete and articulated and, obviously, the most innovative one too. But, out of respect for a level playing field, it is better to see them and get to know all the programs of the main parties, starting, of course, precisely from that of the dem, but limiting ourselves only strictly to issues of rights. Not before, however, some basic reflections.
Rebus standing thus: the inert Parliament and the judgment of Professor Carla Bassu
Let’s start with a general consideration, thanks to the professor’s opinion Carla Bassoconstitutionalist at the University of Sassari, among the youngest, the best and the most alert, on these issues (his idea behind the law on double surname), today a candidate with the Democratic Party in the single-member college of Northern Sardinia (Sassari): “The abrupt termination of the legislature blocked a series of measures aimed at aligning the legislation on rights with the constitutional provision, guaranteeing treatment consistent with the principle of equality. Gender equality, ius scholae, end of life, rights of LGBT people: the risk is that of regresson these issues, but we must not give up because the rights must be consolidated and extended, recognized (not granted) to those who are unreasonably discriminated against ”.
In fact, it went just like that: ddl Zan died in the Senate, after a tiring approval in the Chamber of Deputies. He reads on the end of life which, in the Chamber, has not even reached the point of exhausting the general discussion. Ius scholae which has even remained closed in the drawers of the Montecitorio constitutional affairs commission. Cannabis (cultivation for therapeutic use) ditto with potatoes, did not even take a step inside the classroom. In short, a zero-sum legislature, in terms of civil rights as such. Which, from the previous legislature to the one that is ending (2018-2022), have never managed to proceed. To find an equal and egalitarian law we must go back to when, in 2015, the Renzi government launched, and brought home, the law on civil unions. He reads that, moreover, without the consent of the then centrist parties (NCD and Ala) he would never have seen the light. Although, it must be said, Renzi’s own Iv has, in essence, ditched the Zan bill in the Senate, in this last term now over.
“Today, from the point of view of the enjoyment of rights citizens and non-citizens they are almost entirely assimilated: civil liberties and social rights are in fact the prerogative of all people. Only political rights are still reserved for citizens, regardless of whether they participate and actively contribute to the life of the community and this is really contradictory ”, Professor Bassu continues the reasoning. “There citizenship it is a juridical status to which rights and duties correspond which is recognized to those who belong to a specific community. In concrete terms, the award criteria should reflect a consolidation sense of belonging based on precise indicators: language, principles and constitutional values. To those who master Italian as a mother tongue, attend the schools and meeting places of the place where they grow up, absorbing the teachings that society is capable of giving, citizenship must be recognized and not granted “, concludes Bassu, speaking, in this case, of the ius scholae.
The three pillars of the program of the Democratic Party of Letta
But let’s get to programs, starting from the Pd. When Enrico Letta presented to the press the program of the Democratic Party (author Professor Antonio Nicita), renamed Manifesto for Italy of 2027 (sic), launched this slogan: “Rights. Environment. Work. Three pillars that hold within some fundamental themes to modernize the country “. The electoral program of the Democratic Party therefore focuses strongly on the protection of rights and contains the main workhorses of the center-left: the approval of the ddl Zan and egalitarian marriage, the guarantee of the application of law 194 on abortion, the introduction of the The right school and of end of life lawthe legalization of the self-production of cannabis for personal consumption under the policies of contrast to the mafias. Because – said Letta – “if these rights win, Italy and the rights of the Italians will go backwards”. Three fundamental pillars: sustainable development and ecological and digital transition; work, knowledge and social justice; rights and citizenship. Here, of course, we are concerned only with rights, understood as civil rights and not with all the others.
Civil rights galore: the Democratic Party holds on to its historical battles, but they are a dream book
“In the wake of the articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution“, Writes the Democratic Party in the program,” we must overcome the contrast between civil rights and social rights. The choice is between an Italy withdrawn into itself and an Italy open to differences“. The goal, therefore, is to give the country “laws of civilization so that the basic rights of millions of people are recognized and protected”. As we tried to do, without success, during the legislature, when the Democratic Party, on these issues, also spent a lot of money. The dems are committed to promoting the full equality of LGBTQI + people through the passing of the law against hate crimes (the so-called Zan Ddl) and the introduction of egalitarian marriage, now recognized in 130 countries including 17 Europeans (essentially: gay weddings). To carry out the law on the end of life. And of course to approve the Ius Scholae to give citizenship to the children of immigrants who have been studying in Italy for at least five years.
It must also be said, however, that the electoral program of the Democratic Party does not mention explicitly the recognition of children of same-sex couples, which in Europe has almost always been introduced with the approval of egalitarian marriage, extending parental rights / duties, including adoption to homosexual couples. Civil unions differ from egalitarian marriage precisely because they do not provide for them, as well as wanting to underline a more general status difference (in the 2016 debate on Cirinnà law, parliamentarians from various political forces insisted on the desire not to equate gay couples with the “traditional” family). In 2016 the Democratic Party followed the line of its then secretary Matteo Renzi who removed the adoption of the partner’s son from the law, considering it too divisive. And if it is true that the Democratic Party has, as a party, promoted and supported the Zan Ddl on homotransphobia, there was no lack of dissidents.
The demands of the LGBT + community have in fact traditionally divided the two souls of the party: the Catholic heiress of the DC-PPI-Margherita, more cautious, if not openly against it, and the leftist, heiress of the PCI-PDS-DS, on the other hand, in favor. A division which is proposed today with regard to the recognition of children of same-sex couples, gay adoptions, the simplification of the process for gender change on documents and drug therapies for adolescents transgender which, in fact, do not appear in the program. A division that is reflected in the candidacies: in Padua, for example, there are candidates in the plurinominal college Alessandro Zan, promoter of the law against homotransphobia and supporter of the recognition of the children of gay and lesbian couples, and in the uninominal one Giampiero Della Zuanna, who in 2016 it proposed a version of the law on civil unions that explicitly excluded parenthood and which intended to punish gay couples who had children with surrogacy with jail. The usual contradictions typical of the dem world …
The programs of other center-left parties
Not too dissimilar are the programs of others coalition parties center-left, from IC (Civic commitment) by Luigi Di Maio and Bruno Tabacci, a moderate party but which has, internally, deputies – now re-nominated – such as Caterina Licatini, in Sicily, who have spent a lot of money for the approval of the law on cannabis for therapeutic use (the modest amount). Or how, of course, +Europawhich sees in the outgoing deputy Riccardo Magi one of the standard-bearers of both the pdl on cannabis (initially signed by Magi-Licatini) and end of life, a battle that, outside Parliament, has long been contested by the Radicals, from whom Magi comes, and by associations such as Luca Coscioni, whose (political) standard-bearer is the former deputy of the PR Marco Cappato. Not to mention, of course, the left wing of the coalition, i Verdi-YES by Bonelli and Fratoianni, who, on these issues, feel ahead of everyone.