The Italian Social Democrats have a new leader: Elly Schlein. Not only is she the first woman to head the PD, she also wants to completely transform her party.
The world of the Italian Social Democrats has been upside down since Sunday evening. 37-year-old Elly Schlein was elected the new chairwoman of the Partito Democratico. Actually, Stefano Bonaccini, 56 years old and president of the Emilia-Romagna region since 2014, was the clear favourite. At least among the party members, more than 50 percent of whom had preferred him as the new chairman. Schlein reached only 32 percent of the members of the PD. However, the decision was not made among the members, but among the "people of the democrats", as the party calls its electorate.
Before the primarie, the Democrats had hoped that at least one million people would take part in the vote, in which all Italians were eligible to vote. In the end it was 1.3 million. That's low compared to the 2007 and 2009 primaries, when there were well over 3 million. But in view of the breaking points and divisions that have taken place within the party, the lost parliamentary elections in the autumn and the lost regional elections in Lombardy and Lazio a few weeks ago, and above all in view of the loss of identity that the Democrats have manifested over the years it is a vote of confidence that no one dared hope for.
Now Elly Schlein should make it. Woman against woman, the PD leader against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Schlein had already announced during the election campaign that it should be a duel. "I'm a woman, I love a woman, I'm not a mother, but that doesn't mean I'm less of a woman," she had imagined. That was a clear message to Meloni and her motto: "I am a woman, a mother, an Italian and a Christian." After the announcement of her election victory, Schlein repeated her declaration of war: "We will pose a problem for the government."
Schlein was born in Switzerland, her father is American and her mother is Italian. She is particularly proud of her maternal grandfather, who was a staunch anti-fascist and Socialist Party senator.
Schlein discovered his passion for politics early on. Before enlisting in the Democratic Party in 2013, she volunteered in Chicago in 2008 to campaign for Barack Obama. She completed her law studies in Bologna in 2011, where she also founded an association during her studies that deals with migration and problems in prisons. Migration was also one of her main areas during her time as a member of the European Parliament. In 2020 she left Strasbourg and became deputy to Bonaccini, who was elected President of the Emilia-Romagna Region for the second time.
So Schlein is not a blank slate, even if it is sometimes said in Italy that she has no experience and is a career changer. The answer comes from the other side, but she has proven that she has her own mind and that she can also take uncomfortable positions if necessary.
After only two years, she resigned from the PD in protest against the party leader at the time, Matteo Renzi. She only recently became a member again after deciding to run for party leadership. She is considered an advocate of a conscious left turn in the party. This means measures for social justice, the fight against the low-wage sector and for the environment. "You co-governed for ten years, you could have pushed through many things, but didn't do it," she tells her party. If the current government holds, it has almost five years to show the Italians that it could do better. Provided the party supports them.
In her victory speech, Schlein assured that she would "work for cohesion" and that the days of wing fighting were over. The party has a vital task ahead of it, to win back the trust of the citizens. "The radical change that we have planned cannot only take place in the mind."
Schlein wants to set up her new team in the next few days, there should be many new faces. Unlike the domineering Renzi of his time, she is not concerned with rottamazione, scrapping old members, but with motivating passionate comrades-in-arms.
Whether she succeeds remains to be seen. It is to be wished for, if only because the opposition has so far been quite headless in the face of the right-wing governing coalition.
