Pina Picierno: “This Lavrov camp has nothing to do with the centre-left. Make it accessible again.”

Pina Picierno, following her departure from the PD and the formation of Spazio Pubblico, is rallying the reformist camp. At the forthcoming elections, she tells Il Foglio’s ‘Festa dell’Ottimismo’, there will be “a joint list, born from the merger of Azione and Spazio Pubblico, and of all the reformists who wish to join us. Be brave; this home awaits you. Try to put Italy’s interests before the need to play it safe”.

“This Lavrov camp has nothing to do with the centre-left,” she adds. “Make it viable again, make it centre-left again, and the reformists will return.” Picierno says she is “absolutely convinced” that she has left the PD: “I believe it’s the best decision I’ve made in a long time.”

The reason is the ‘bipopulism’ into which, in his view, both coalitions have ended up. ‘We have moved from a state of bipolarism – as seen during the Ulivo era – where there was a centre and a substantial reformist movement, alongside influential extremist factions. From that situation, we have moved to a state in which the extremes have become the reformists. Both coalitions, on the right and on the left, have inexorably descended into a form of ‘bipopulism’ that is poisoning public debate in our country”. And he warns: “If we do not halt this populist spiral, we who uphold liberal democracy will not even be able to pick up the pieces”.

“Spazio Pubblico was created for this very reason, and I don’t like calling it a ‘third pole’,” he continues. “I think our country is much stronger and freer than this suffocating ‘bipopulism’. Italians are much stronger and much freer than the attempt to cage them within two coalitions where, on the one hand, there is populism with Giuseppe Conte’s clutch bag and, on the other, an incompetent right wing, because Giorgia Meloni had the opportunity and the numbers to change this country and failed to do so.”

The crux of the matter remains Ukraine. “To say that one supports Ukraine whilst denying that country’s right to defend itself is like a vegetarian who then eats a steak every evening.” According to Picierno, “the majority of that camp – which I have rightly termed the ‘Lavrov camp’ – echoes the rhetoric and propaganda of the Putin regime. When Conte says that Europe is creating a threat to justify rearmament, it is politically and morally unacceptable. Defending Ukraine means defending the rule of law.” And on Bonelli: “When he says that Europe should understand Putin’s real reasons, the hundred civilians killed this week are his reasons.”

Picierno does not believe that Conte, should he win, would readily agree to continue sending weapons to Kyiv. “The world we live in is not an easy one. The line between war and peace is becoming blurred. This world requires clarity and leadership capable of backing up a commitment with a sense of responsibility.” “Giuseppe Conte’s anti-European rhetoric is just as dangerous as the sovereignist stance of this country’s right wing.” The challenge with Carlo Calenda, he concludes, is simple: “To tell Italians: we don’t want you to have to hold your nose when you vote.”