Open seas. The local PD takes Elly to Ventotene, alongside Prodi, Gabrielli and the young Democrats

The national political landscape is in disarray (see Kyiv and the primaries), but the Lazio branch of the PD is taking the Nazareno to Ventotene (Elly Schlein will be there, joined by the distinguished figures of Romano Prodi and Franco Gabrielli), for an immersive experience of the issues that should perhaps serve as the driving force behind the party’s programme.

And so here they are, the Democratic Party’s ‘caravels’, ready to set sail from today until Sunday: the occasion is the fourth edition of ‘Generazione Ventotene’, a political training programme initiated by regional secretary Daniele Leodori in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Italy and the Italian Democratic Party delegation within the S&D Group in the European Parliament. On the island where the pure spirit of Europe first took flight, the young Democrats will also listen once more to their secretary, Virginia Libero, ten days after the impassioned speech that made her the talk of the town for the line “we will not be the soldiers of your wars; we will organise the deserters”. Every topic will be discussed, whilst the party must work out how to sort things out internally in the meantime (treasurer Michele Fina will also be present; he was described yesterday in La Repubblica as having reservations about the primaries, despite his clear allegiance to Schlein). And ‘everything’ means, first and foremost, Europe (a panel discussion on the new Mediterranean Pact featuring Prodi and Zingaretti), even if the lingering question will be: what is to be done, with Vladimir Putin posing a threat at our borders? Meanwhile, the broad coalition will try to put aside for a moment the worry over ‘who will lead the centre-left’ with a panel marking the 80th anniversary of women’s suffrage, featuring Luana Zanella, Alessandra Maiorino, Maria Elena Boschi, Michela Di Biase, Cecilia D’Elia and Anna Finocchiaro. The debate on security featuring Gabrielli and Nardella is, almost certainly, likely to be the least divisive, for if you talk about Europe you must talk about Ukraine once again, and if you talk about ‘building alliances’ (another panel), you find yourself in Dante’s circle of ‘primaries that aren’t primaries’, until the issue of fake news (Russian?) bursts onto the scene at the fringes of the session ‘Social media: a new public space for politics’. But what is Europe doing, and what about the PD? “‘We face enormous challenges,’ says Leodori, ‘and we can only tackle them by building a stronger, more united Europe, capable of being a protagonist rather than a spectator. The Ventotene Manifesto concludes with “the path ahead is neither easy nor safe, but it must be taken and it will be”. I am certain that, thanks in part to the younger generations, we will have the strength to take a step forward and follow that path’.”