Pina Picierno leaves the Democratic Party, of which she has been a member since its foundation. The MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament announced it today, in an interview with Claudio Cerasa’s Il Foglio. “I had a lot of doubts, I was more than torn, but I believe that out of respect for my political and personal dignity the time has come to leave Elly Schlein’s Democratic Party, which has become a different place from the one we founded and because I have always asked politicians for the strength and courage to conscientiously make the right choices. Now it’s my turn to have courage”, she declared.
Picierno’s farewell
Pina Picierno, a 45-year-old from Campania, is among the exponents of the “dem” with a higher institutional role: she was elected to the European Parliament and since 18 January 2022 she has been vice-president of the EU institution. He made this decision after years of gradual distancing from the positions of party secretary Elly Schlein. Picierno is part of the reformist current of the party, she recently voted yes in the referendum on justice, she does not look favorably on an alliance that is too “close” with Giuseppe Conte’s 5 Star Movement and she is firmly convinced of the need for solid military support for Ukraine.
And now? For the moment he has not yet said which party he will join. For her, “the house of the reformists is no longer there. You can’t be ambiguous with Putin’s fascism and extremism. It’s time to work on something new, to win the elections.”
“After the Margherita years we tried to unite the best democratic traditions of the country, to reconcile social justice with individual freedom, to bring together and keep socialist and liberal aspirations together. This was and should have been the Democratic Party – said Picierno -. But it has undergone a distortion which occurred due to inexorable slippages, without even a real discussion, without even the privilege of being able to discuss it in a congress, as I have asked several times. The Democratic Party that we wanted at Lingotto it no longer exists and it is necessary to take note of it, but the reasons why it was born still exist.
“We need a new broad political entity”
And again: “I believe that there is a need to restore dignity and a united perspective to millions of voters who in recent years have progressively abandoned the Democratic Party by choosing other proposals on the right or on the left or by staying at home. This diaspora – concluded Picierno – must be recomposed outside the alchemy of coalition and the reduction into tents and bushes, of old and new formulas. We need a coherent and popular reformism, capable of inspiring and triggering that spark of confidently building change. I believe that there can and must be a common commitment to create, by holding differences and stories together, a new broad political entity that holds together, that is born to unite different political experiences and personalities. I place myself at the service of this idea and this project”.
