L’antiamericanismofor the left, it’s like a vintage dress. Sooner or later, the opportunity arises to go back to wearing it. Nostalgia for a Barricadera youth, Third World instinct or indefinite pacifism. The reasons are not lacking, sometimes they add up. With all due respect to the tutelary deity, that Enrico Berlinguer who confessed to Giampaolo Pansa that he felt safer under the umbrella of NATO. It was 1976: full Cold War. Now that the war is hot, many are unmarking. Also and above all in the Pd, more or less legitimate son of the Berlinguerian Communist Party. The times of democratic centralism are long over, today the political line is being discussed. And how. The secretary dem, Enrico Letta, he knows well. He advocates aid to the Ukrainian resistance and an increase in military spending. Not everyone agrees on social media and in circles. According to a swg survey, the Latvian positions on the war are appreciated by 77% of its potential voters, a low figure compared to 93% of Meloni.
At page The Democratic leader’s Facebook and that of the party are targeted. And i Opposition comments hit the spot. Thus, the open letter written by Letta to Michele Santoro, journalist and former DS MEP, pacifist, becomes a sort of boomerang for the author. “Completely agree with Santoro – writes Angela Celletti -. And you, secretary, spare us the lecture on the good and the bad: your line on this war is completely flattened on that of Biden”. “You have become the extreme defenders of neoliberalism and Atlantism”, insists Natale Magliarella. The basic thesis is clear: the Atlantic Alliance is not all that different from the Russian Federation. Iole Paladino explicitly: “Do not pass NATO as an incubator of democracy and peace, Turkey is an integral part of it and has prisons full of journalists and dissidents”. The line between anti-Americanism and pacifism is very blurred. “Why didn’t you go to make up the resistance in Baghdad? – asks Ivano Possieri – Santoro has given you a good lesson, if you have a pacifist soul, go back to reason”. Tougher Alessio Nanni: “You should all resign for the deaths you are causing by sending weapons, you are fanatical warmongers”.
Few examples of a widespread discontent on the social base which is counterbalanced by a very compact vertex. Even Peppe Provenzano, standard bearer of the internal left, says he is “in favor of aid to Kiev”. Paola Prestinaci’s social excommunication is ready: “For the first time I disagree with her”. And down like.
Among the rare distinctions are the positions of the former parent company Graziano Delrio, opposed to the increase in spending on weapons, and to the MEP Pierfrancesco Majorino, who says “no to the logic of military escalation”. There is something for them as well. To Delrio, who on Facebook invokes “European unity”, Antonino Sgrò replies as follows: “I am afraid that the worst enemy of the United States of Europe is the USA”.
From the virtual in reality the tones fade, but the substance changes little. Just take a tour of the Houses of the people of a democratic stronghold like Bologna to realize this. Starting with aesthetics. The Ukrainian flags do not stand out, but pacifist rainbows. Just like in 2003 during the Gulf War. The “Tosarelli” is no exception. “I don’t understand anything anymore – a volunteer from the Arci who sympathizes with the Democratic Party – shies away – they should come to an agreement”. Other than resistance, the thesis follows the vision of the CGIL, which has a seat just a few doors away. Ivano Mignani presides over the club in via Andreini, where the provincial secretariat will soon find a home. “It would be better to get to disarmament – he says -, but now the situation is not favorable”. “NATO? Has it thought of strengthening itself in the East without calculating the consequences, Americans do not only move for ideals but also for their business“. “NATO has made many mistakes, especially in the Balkans”, agrees Enrico Verdolini, head of the Davide Orsini club and secretary of the Young Democrats of Emilia-Romagna. Which he hastens to specify: “This does not justify the Russian aggression”. And then: “It is right to help the Ukrainians, but caution is needed. And it is wrong to increase military spending”. His deputy, Vinicio Zanetti, is the only strong Lettiano met during the tour. He is angry with Santoro and Santori. “I don’t understand and I don’t justify the pacifist left”, he says of Michele. While to the municipal councilor Mattia, former leader of the Sardines, he replies: “It is embarrassing to speak of a Pd equidistant in this conflict: Ukraine has the right to defend itself; we, in their place, would have done the same”. Irreconcilable souls of the same party.