A President of the USA's pin is associated by the majority of militants as a sign of support to Florence's young mayor. The similitude Christian Democrat candidate has with Obama, and the old-minded attitude Party's militants have demonstrated by criticizing US Democratic President's pin.
The wind of change and the fear Democratic Party's militants have of it are the most two elements of centre-left coalition primary election's second turn.
It's very curios seeing in militants's faces - generous people, who spend all the day in pool station for free - the expression they make when they meet a young centre-left elector going to cast the ballot with an Obama's pin.
According to militants's objections, the President of the United States of America - who pertains to the American Democratic Party - is ideally connected with one of two challengers in Italian centre-left electoral competition.
The candidate associated to Obama is Matteo Renzi: Florence's young mayor and Democrstic Party's member who candidated despite of Democratic Party's establishment opposition.
Sincerely, the ideal connection between Obama and Renzi is not casual. Young Florence's mayor, a Christian democrat who inspires to a social liberalism as the US democrats, openly sentenced his model in politics is Barack Obama.
Moreover, the President of the United States of America obtained US Democratic Party's nomination after having defeated in a primary election the establishment's candidate Hillary Clinton by slogans like change and hope, the same Renzi adopted in his electoral campaign.
The curios fact is that Democratic Party's militants do not appreciate this ideal connection. Showing Obama's pin in centre-left primary election is strongly criticized as a will to show the support to one of the two candidates, in particular the one who is NOT supported by Democratic Party's establishment.
The Democratic Party's establishment supports Pierluigi Bersani, Democratic Party's national secretary and former Ministry of the Economic Development, who presented himself as the candidate who is able to guarantee current political class to keep the power in Party's structures and possibly in the future government.
There's nothing strange on Democratic Party establishment's support to Bersani, who is also supported by powerful CGIL work union, but it's frustrating listening several Democratic Party's militants to criticize Obama's pin just because the democratic President of the United States is associated with the idea of change and hope.
Maybe, the young elector who voted with Obama's pin strongly believes that Italy, a country in a deep economical crisis, needs hope and change to give a future to new generations and foster Italian position in the world.
Maybe, the young elector believes that in Italy a change is possible, and the political class which already governed the country must go home and let young politicians the responsibility of the state's administration.
The opinion of the young elector is not shared by the Party's militant, even if the militants too are young.
What happened in several Milan's pool stations is a demonstration that Primaries' challengers were not Renzi and Bersani, but the hope and the change against the stability and the recommendation, a modern social liberalism agains a old social democratic ideal, Barack Obama against Gerard Schroeder. In other words, the new against the ancient.
If centre-left electoral competition can be read in such a key, there's no dubt that the young elector chose the first ideal, and probably is sick of the second.
Unfortunately, all seems suggest that centre-left primary election will win the candidate who supports the ancient, and the will of hope and change - in contrary from what happened in the USA - will be a lost battle made by a courageous young politician with a young electoral staff.
The old mind Italian politics will triumph once again, and Italy still remains a periferic country in a more and more periferic Europe in the new globalized world.
Matteo Cazzulani
