The document bears the signatures of 16 regional, national and European parliamentarians. And, at the end of a series of procedural disputes, he pushes the big names of the opposing currents to ask Anthony Barbagallo to stop the congressional process and cancel the assembly in which, on Saturday, the regulation that focuses on the vote of members instead of the gazebos for the primaries will be approved.
Tension in the Democratic Party rose again yesterday. To the point of predicting an avalanche of appeals regarding the election of the regional secretary, scheduled between the end of March and April.
The last act of a tug of war which sees the area that recognizes itself in Elly Schlein, to which Barbagallo also subscribes, and the currents of Bonaccini and Orfini which bring together the majority of deputies is a document addressed to the national secretariat , the regional one and the guarantee commission.
The text, a page full of references to the statutory codes, bears the signature of 16 big names: the MEP Giuseppe Lupothe national parliamentarian elected in Sicily Anna Maria Furlan and then the deputies to the Ars Michele Catanzaro (group leader), Fabio Venezia, Ersilia Saverino, Tiziano Spada, Calogero Leanza, Mario Giambona. Other leading figures signed the document together with them: Antonio Rubino, Pietro Bartolo, Domenico Venuti, Eleonora Sciortino, Teresa Piccione, Marco Guerriero, Felice Calabrò.
It is a broad front, which plastically represents the ongoing clash. Given that other Ars big names, first and foremost Antonello Cracolici and Nello Dipasquale did not sign the attack on the outgoing secretary. Which in turn is supported by broad support outside the Ars, in the clubs and among the members. And the sharing of its choices by the national secretariat.
The dissidents who signed the document dispute the anticipation of the congressional rules leaked into the newspapers. In the first instance the choice to focus on the vote of the members (those in good standing with the registration as of last December 31st) and then the plan which envisages convening a sort of election day of the Democratic Party in which in a single day the presidents of city clubs, provincial leaders and the regional secretary.
The Bonaccini area and the one that recognizes itself in Orfini instead ask for open primaries. The leadership game is played on this, which in perspective also gives the future winner the final say on the candidatures in Parliament, i.e. on the internal balance within the Democratic Party between the representatives of the currents.
The attempt by the 16 signatories of the document to stop the meeting on Saturday in which Barbagallo intends to have the regulation approved must be read in this light. It would be a fixed point on the path capable of orienting all subsequent stages. But the sixteen internal opponents write in the document that they consider this road map to be “irregular and irregular”.
Hence the conclusion: «The convocation of the meeting on Saturday is null and void because it is contrary to the rules of the PD statute». It should be done by the president of the party, the resigning Antonio Ferrante and not by Barbagallo.
The sixteen signatories contest the possibility introduced by Barbagallo to participate in the party assembly even remotely, in online mode: «The convocation must be called exclusively in presence – it is one of the key passages of the document – in order to guarantee the possible vote secret. While the virtual mode would not guarantee the correctness of voting operations.”
The document ends with a warning to navigators. If the meeting is held anyway “we will be forced to present new and urgent observations to the guarantee commission”. What is not said is that Barbagallo is being asked to avoid rifts and a count that would irreparably split the party and instead reopen negotiations with the hostile currents to reach a shared path for the election of the regional secretary.