Flavia d'Angeli Romano Prodi and his Unione [1] won the elections on April - but only just. The alternative Left, which was part of this centre-left coalition, is now faced with a challenge: how to block the road
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The elections illustrated the very complicated panorama of the Italian political situation. The Unione, Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, only just won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and got only two scilalols mOIC than the Centre-Right.
Although the Union won more votes than Silvio Berlusconi's House of Liberties [2] and gained support among young people, it failed in its objective of winning over right-wing electors. As a result, the victory had a bitter taste.
Prodi, by conducting a moderate electoral campaign, which did not denounce the evils of neo-liberal policies, lost a whole sector of his own electorate.
The good results of the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC) in the Senate (7.5 per cent), even though it was partly offset by a less brilliant score in the Chamber (5.8 per cent), demonstrates that there was a broad space for a radical criaque or the neo-noeral mode.
This space was not occu pied by the larger and more moderate forces of the alliance (the Left Democrats and Margarita): their disappointing results weakened the alliance.
In this context, the situation is looking very difficult for the PRC. The building of an alternative and anti-capitalist Left in Italy is now at a decisive stage. Locking itself into the government, as a majority of the party proposes, could turn out to be a very dangerous perspective.
The PRC's appeal to a sense of responsibility and respect for the discipline of the coalition will exercise a formidable pressure on the party to submit to the decisions of the Union, since Berlusconi's return to power will weigh heavily in the balance. The election of PRC Secretary Fausto Bertinotti to the presidency of the national assembly is likely to increase this pressure.
As the Critical Left current, we put forward an alternative hypothesis to the majority's at the last central committee meeting on 22-23 April.
The other opposition currents seemed to be avoiding the need for a battle in the party. So we stressed that the conditions for the PRC to participate in the government didn't exist. Prodi claims victory The good Communist cation reform and of the Bossi-Fini law on immigration; addressing seriously the question of wages; the refusal of any new privatizations; a real policy of disarmament.
The possibility of defeating the right-wing parties on a social level, and no longer