The Zingaretti aberration
Not surprisingly, the attempt to reinvent social democracy came to nothing. The rightward drift is now set to continue. Toby Abse looks at the dysfunctional parties, factions, fiefdoms and tokenistic gestures which dominate electoral politics
The sudden and dramatic resignation of Nicola Zingaretti from the position of secretary (ie, leader) of the
Partito Democratico (PD) marked the end of a serious attempt to reclaim it as a vehicle for social democracy, and to undo the poisonous neoliberal, anti-trade union and anti-working class legacy of Matteo Renzi.
Whilst the crisis unleashed by Zingaretti’s resignation - via a Facebook post on March 4 - did not end in a total victory for those Renzian neoliberals who had remained within the party after Renzi’s own September 2019 exit to form the breakaway