A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #186 - HEGEMONY IS UPDATING, PLEASE WAIT UNTIL THE END (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

If voter turnout has not collapsed in Tuscany as in the rest of the 
country, this is certainly due to the numerous local elections which, 
for many reasons, and not necessarily all noble, have "forced" many 
citizens to go to the polls. ---- Already the local elections. What do 
they tell us? First of all, the PD takes back a significant portion of 
votes. ---- Which is certainly due to the new secretariat. Curious, 
because in the Florentine area a large part of the Party was 
pro-Bonaccini.[1]
The new Piddina leadership has certainly marked a turning point, 
especially linguistic, in the management of the party. Also not to be 
underestimated is the fact that the PD in opposition seems to be 
transforming itself like Dr. Jekill/Mr. Hyde (or Milton Friedmann/Karl 
Marx) for whom he tends to bring back the votes of those who, 
disappointed by that party, are once again fascinated by the words 
(which seem more inflected as in Mina's song of the same name than with 
any support to material reality).
The administrative elections in Tuscany have highlighted some changes, 
but nothing sensational. The ballot in Florence was widely expected, the 
one in Empoli where the PD and a left-wing list will compete is 
unprecedented, albeit with a very large gap in favor of the candidate 
from Piddino.
Also in this round there was a hiatus between the vote in the European 
elections and that in the local elections, where the citizens now vote 
for the name of the mayor, regardless of their political faith (assuming 
that it always exists).
After all, this is one of the effects of the thirty-year law on the 
direct election of the Mayor and the closure of any space for democratic 
debate. The municipal councils have now been emptied of the public (what 
are they doing in an armored assembly? Especially in municipalities 
under 15,000 inhabitants, where the majority bonus gives 2/3 of the 
seats to those
gets one more vote than the others) and skills (which are now residual, 
or go over the heads of the councilors who often don't even have time to 
read the documentation). The podestarial figure of the Mayor and the 
functionalisation of institutions have been prominently accentuated, 
where the real politics is now done by officials and managers. We are 
faced with a real post-democratic drift.
As regards consensus, I am talking above all about the PD (but we could 
talk about everything else) what was hegemony understood in the 
Gramscian sense has become above all a guarantee for the dominant 
classes and the ability to provide jobs with the connected structures 
(cooperatives , associations, etc.) which better explain the hiatus 
mentioned above.
A large stain that is no longer political but provides benefits, jobs 
and socio-economic integration.
In this scenario it is difficult to get politically excited about the 
victory of this or that other, if not for residual memberships now 
emptied of any concreteness.
For example, the outcry against the project of differentiated autonomy 
seems right, but it cannot make us forget that one of the creators and 
supporters of this unfortunate reform was Bonaccini and that without the 
horrendous modification of Title V of the Constitution, to be blamed 
entirely on the center-left, this path could not have been taken.
Or, it is certainly nice to see Schlein signing the referendums for the 
restoration of workplace protections, but how can we not point out that 
those protections were removed by the Renzian PD, which, unless in the 
meantime the entire Piddina community had been kidnapped and replaced by 
aliens, is always made up of the same people. Of course, coherence is 
not always an honorable quality in politics, but here it seems to me 
that it is being exaggerated.
There is certainly no intention here to repeat yet another do-gooder 
complaint. We are faced with a right in power that keeps all its 
liberal/authoritarian impulses intact. But it is not benevolent to point 
out that the path has been opened by decades of flattening, on the 
"left" on the worst neoliberal recipes. Where even a shred of criticism 
of the existing has disappeared. Which comes out, badly, only when you 
find yourself in opposition.
Abstentionism, as I wrote above, tempered by administrative elections, 
was very high this time. A trend that shows no signs of stopping. A 
clear sign that the majority of those entitled now consider it useless 
and outdated to insert the ballot into the ballot box. Somewhere, one 
thinks, there should be loud cries of alarm and of worry.
Posts continue to circulate on social media where it is specified that 
the right's vote not only does not increase in absolute numbers but 
decreases and, with abstentionism having exceeded 50%, the real 
consensus of the right would therefore be much lower than what is 
represented.
Fair analysis, if the other side of the coin wasn't missing. That is, 
those who didn't go to vote, it's true that they didn't give preferences 
to the right, nor to any other party that said they opposed the right. 
Electoral abstentionism is in reality not a problem at all for the 
ruling classes, of "government" or "opposition" it matters little (the 
dominant ones are there, vote or no vote, except for revolutions) who in 
fact do not they said a word about it.
Simply because the reduction in voting participation is the last of the 
various steps away from participation in political life in general. 
Fewer voters, fewer zebedee breakdowns. Evidently even the last screen 
of that post-democracy that Colin Crouch wrote about ten years ago has 
now fallen.
Participatory democracy, of which little more than the ballot box 
remained, is something from the 20th century.
The disconnect between the representatives and the represented is total. 
In this context the right is not flying, because it is true that it 
represents a minimal part of Italians, but it imposes itself, conquers 
the hegemony (this is political) of the discourse, which veers a bit as 
it pleases. Meloni does her homework as the EU asks her to do in its 
most devastating neoliberal perspective, of which Von der Leyen is the 
spearhead. You mercilessly attack any possibility of breaking out of the 
cage of financialization. Typical examples were the demolition with 
unprecedented violence of the citizen's income and the real state hoaxes 
on the 110%. Having done your homework, inside you pose as a 
sovereignist, you play with the legacy of fascism, but in reality you 
can't do more than this. If ever there was a social right, Meloni's is 
its true antithesis.
But what remains on the other side? Shouting at fascism, dismantling the 
entire part (I would say not exactly secondary) of class reaction 
(because "class struggle" is a dirty word) and reducing it to a 
pantomime on "freedom" understood in the most idiotic liberal spirit. 
How much of this matter can interest the precarious, the young 
unemployed remains a mystery.
We will see if the PD has changed direction, but the problem is not this 
or that single personality, the problem is the structure that has been 
created.
The ballot in the ballot box may be a significant gesture, but if it 
remains the one and only moment of political participation, I would dare 
to say that the majority who did not go to vote warned us that the 
system is not working like this.

[1]https://www.lanazione.it/empoli/cronaca/primarie-pd-schlein-al-fotofinish-nel-territorio-dem-spaccati-in-due-1e21ae51

Andrea Bellucci

https://www.ucadi.org/2024/06/30/egemonia-in-corso-di-aggiornamento-si-prega-di-attendere-la-fine/
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