Defeat for Italy's democrats

Ezio Mauro, chief editor of the left-liberal daily La Repubblica, ascribes the defeat of the Democratic Party (PD) in the regional elections in Sardinia that led to the resignation of party leader Walter Veltroni to the cultural and political deficits in the party's reform programme: "The Democratic Party is at present without a leader while Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reaffirmed himself as the undisputed leader of the Right amidst general applause. … The true problem is that there was no discernable contrast to the Right's way of thinking. The long-term, reformist, Western idea of a Left that knows how to use the constitutional and national spirit to establish a dialogue with the entire country and change it was lacking. … This is owing to the inability of the entire leadership of the [Democratic] Party to construct a clear political culture as a reference point for voters and an ideological structure for a modern progressive force – which is the essence of what Italian reformism should be today. This cultural deficit is a political deficit."

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