Marco Follini’s point of view for Adnkronos
“Arthur Schlesinger, the great American historian who inspired John Kennedy and built the myth of the ‘new frontier’ finally wrote a book in which he theorized that American history was a long succession of ‘cycles’. Thus, there was the progressive cycle and the conservative one, and then the cycle of isolationism and that of interventionism on the international scene, etc. A continuous back and forth between the different characters of the country.
In the same way, one could say that even Italian politics almost cyclically alternates some of its tendencies. And in particular it passes from phases in which it tends to split in two, opposing right and left even very radically, to phases in which it tends to converge towards the centre. So that it would be appropriate to inscribe the first republic to the tendency, let’s call it that, centripetal, and the second to the centrifugal one.
The truth is that in our case the cycles more often mix and almost merge. On the one hand, in fact, we find ourselves in a phase of radicalization of the dispute. On the right, a much more marked and convinced spirit of identity prevails with Meloni than the one that marked the Berlusconi season. And on the left, the bewilderment of the Democratic Party and the more radical version of Conte’s M5S push in turn towards results far from any possible centrist drift. In this context, the mere talk of broad agreements, institutional agreements and a bipartisan spirit almost appears as a sort of political blasphemy.
But then, the other spring that pushes us towards a continuous shuffling of the cards returns to make itself felt. And so, it is enough for the centrists of Calenda to appear on the threshold of Palazzo Chigi and offer the government the possibility of weaving a small common plot in view of the parliamentary passage of the finance law and we will immediately go back to the beginning. With Berlusconi’s wing showing annoyance at the mere idea that an opposition piece contributes to modifying something of the majority system. And the left wing is also ready to describe the third pole as a kind of white relief offered too generously to the right-wing government.
The truth is perhaps simpler. And it lies in the fact that the politics of our house resent the monotony of patterns that repeat themselves too much. Thus, she tends to cultivate new fantasies, often even very imaginary, so as not to feel constrained by the rigidity of her formulas.
The most probable thing is that this majority lasts for the entire legislature. Maybe arguing, but without too many tears. And that the oppositions in turn find a way to come to terms with the thousand differences that cross them. In fact, the mixing of things that took place for the first time with Monti and a second time with Draghi cost the parties that wanted it (or suffered it) too much to induce them to repeat the experiment. And yet precisely the rigidity in which the bipolar scheme fixes the roles and writes the script of one and the other ends up giving life to a format that does not suit our stories and our habits. Thus, new variants are gradually added and unpublished patterns often allude to more imaginative schemes.
The fact is that the two main alignments are both less coherent than they like to tell. In fact, on the right there is a certain discontent of the junior partners – the Lega and Forza Italia – towards the dominance of the Melonian party in great electoral dust. And on the left, the cohabitation between the Pd in the post-congress version and the pentastellati in the post-grilla version promises to be even more tiring than what we have seen so far. Let us add that on foreign policy we can glimpse rather deep fissures, between the distinctions on the supply of weapons to Ukraine and certain unmentionable ties with Putin’s Russia.
There is enough to foresee that the two recurring cycles of our politics – that of grand agreements and that of opposing radicalisms – will continue to intertwine in the most bizarre and imaginative ways. But also useful, sometimes”. (by Marco Follini)
Source-www.adnkronos.com