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Has the left been reborn in Italy?: who is Elly Schlein, the leader who made history and will be the new leader of the Democratic Party

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She is the protagonist of great political schism in Italy. Slender, tiny, agile and likeable, the promoter of the revolution in the Italian center-left. Elly Schlein, 37 years oldhe surprisingly won the race with the sung leader that had been presented by the Pd member, Stefano Bonaccini, president of the most “reddish” and social democratic region of Italy, Emilia-Romagna with the capital Bologna.

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The victory was also devastating. In thousands of kiosks throughout the peninsula where members and supporters of the Democratic Party voted, many of whom had resigned from the party in disagreement with the political line of recent years.

On Sunday, one million people voted by surprise and the response to the polls known in the early hours of Monday gave 53.8% to Ely and 46.2% to Bonaccini.

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Elly Schlein at the Democratic Party headquarters, following her victory in the party's internal elections.  Photo: EFE

Elly Schlein at the Democratic Party headquarters, following her victory in the party’s internal elections. Photo: EFE

As the wave of data poured into Schlein’s headquarters in a suburb of Rome, the figures proved that they had voted for it above all in the cities: Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Genoa, Naples and also in Sicily.

The map of numbers shows that the main area of ​​expansion of the Democratic Party is not the popular neighborhoods or the “red” regions, but what has been defined as the “metropolitan bourgeoisie”.

It is, above all, about bourgeois masses who aspire to a renewal of politics and a centre-left perspective. In Europe, the left identifies itself with social democracy, which has been asserting moderate changes and social demands since the days of Karl Marx himself.

It is no coincidence that social democratic ideas were born and spread from Germany, where Olaf Sholz’s SPD currently governs, or from Spain and Portugal, in the hands of socialist governments.

Stefano Bonaccini, the candidate who lost in the internal elections against Schlein.  Photo: AP

Stefano Bonaccini, the candidate who lost in the internal elections against Schlein. Photo: AP

From Obama campaign activist to leader of the Italian opposition

Elly Schlein, born in Switzerland and daughter of an American father and an Italian mother, both university professors, is herself the bearer of giving life to the “year zero” of the Democratic Party, which said goodbye to the internal vote of three million supporters at the time of the Roman Catholic Prodi. Because the million you voted for now is a low number compared to the golden age.

Elly has received awards from prestigious universities and has lived in the United States where he was a pro-election campaigner for Barak Obama as president.

Born from an agreement between the remnants of the Communist Party, which was the most numerous in the West, and the Catholic “democratic” wing close to the left of the centrist Christian Democracy, which ruled Italy for half a century, the Democratic Party was like a ball without a handle in recent years, clinging to coalitions in various governments and losing millions of votes.

“The little big revolution we have made is a clear mandate to really changeSchlein stated.

His plans are to assemble a growing consensus to fight precarity, inequality and the climate emergency, three major challenges he re-listed during his victory speech.

Elly Schlein, born in Switzerland and daughter of an American father and an Italian mother, both university professors, is trying to sow opposition to the Italian right.  Photo: EFE

Elly Schlein, born in Switzerland and daughter of an American father and an Italian mother, both university professors, is trying to sow opposition to the Italian right. Photo: EFE

The surprise and joy were greater because few expected it with as much faith as Elly showed. during his campaign promised a left turn and usher in the formation of a new language to mobilize youth.

His rival, Stefano Bonaccini, offered him his full cooperation.

Schlein said the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni “from now on has a problem with us”. The Democratic Party arrived exhausted in the parliamentary elections of September 25 and collected 17% of the votes against the vast majority of the center-right led by Giorgia Meloni.

Meloni sent Elly warm congratulations from the top of her political success. Currently, the coalition let’s say right AND up to 48.2% of the vote. His Fratelli d’Italia party rose to 31%, Matteo Salvini’s Lega to 8.36% and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to 7.4%.

The mandate of Giorgia and her team is five years and the stronghold of rights is currently indestructible. The Democratic Party has 17.4%, the 5 Star Movement 17.5%. They are the two main opposition forces, both centre-left.

Moreover, Meloni’s image has an acceptance rate of 53% by the Italians, while their government reaches 51%.

Elly Schlein in turn must organize a strong opposition to Meloni’s conservative government with immediate challenges and show a better role than her centre-left rival, the populist Five Star Movement led by former premier Giuseppe Conte.

We have a broad mandate for serious change”Ely Schlein noted. “We must obsessively respond to the phenomenon of growing abstention among those who did not participate, because among these people there are the lower classes at risk of marginalization,” she added.

When Giorgia Meloni launched a “commercial” in which she introduced herself as “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, a mother, a Christian”, Elly Schlein replied; “I am a woman. I love another woman and I am not a mother, but not because I am any less of a woman.

Italy now has two young women at the helm of the country, as ruler and head of the main opposition force. This is a beneficial fact to refresh the decadent politics experienced in recent years.

He Corriere della Serathe main newspaper of the country, wrote that “the sign of our time is the rebellion against the establishment, the system and everything that is perceived as old”.

“Elly Schlein is a novelty and an experiment,” the paper writes. “If people perceive that the usual are behind it, it won’t be a novelty that will last long. The same will happen if his strong position takes on an ideologically distant character from reality and addresses the country as he wants it to be and not as it is ”, he concluded.

Everyone expects Elly Schlein to be a big surprise again, even as leader of the opposition and head of a party looking for a renewal that the country needs more than everbecause democracy thrives on these great changes, as was also the case with the right led by Meloni.

Source: Clarin

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