It will happen that you look each other in the face, the day after your first public speech on some national talk show, and timidly lie to each other, “Yes, come on, he actually was good.” Yes, but anticipating the media defeat in front of Garbatella’s underdog. And you will have that strange feeling of de-ja-vu, yet another sample of that phantom Center – which does not exist – developed in a test tube by a group of observant Catholic adults from the centre-left political class – this one certainly exists, which on each other’s lists for decades, without a shred of preference.

Monti, Calenda, Renzi

Yesterday it was Mario Monti, who in any case took his 8% and more with the newly formed Scelta Civica, in just a month and a little more of the electoral campaign, avoiding the victory of Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right in the 2013 elections and guaranteeing a draw in Pierluigi Bersani, who then allowed himself to be ridiculed by the 5 Star Movement in live streaming. Then it was the turn of Carlo Calenda, who entered the Democratic Party almost anointed by the Lord, for whom the then secretary – his tenure was very short – Maurizio Martina temporarily opened the membership, as one opens and closes the shutter of a delicatessen, to let him make the card. Ours was already a child-prodigy actor in Rai dramas (at the time they weren’t called “TV series”) and the son of such a mother, as well as the grandson of Felucca, in the aftermath of the crushing defeat of the Democratic Party in the 2018 elections, he ran to become the party card, almost as if he were Captain America saving the Earth, presenting himself as the one who would have brought the moderate vote back to the center-left. It ended up that, after having briefly blocked the democratic horizon, he went to join the other reject (politically, mind you) thrown out of the Nazarene, Matteo Renzi. The latter was the other, in chronological order, therefore, the penultimate, horse of the Center. To his defense and credit, in truth, it must be said that Matteo Renzi has never cared that much about establishing the center area, nor even a true moderate party. More profitable for the Tuscan was to create a permanent electoral committee, which would allow him to return to Parliament, despite his departure from the Democratic Party and the income from Saudi Arabia. Operation accomplished, at least until now.

The time of a certain Ernesto Ruffini

Now it’s the turn of Ernesto Maria Ruffini, director of the Revenue Agency who has resigned and is falsely meditating on his possible entry into politics. And be careful, because writing “such” in relation to the character is quite outrageous (yes I know, I will pay bitter consequences). In fact, Ruffini has important births, with all the accoutrements of high-ranking and powerful family, almost as if we were faced with a feudal lord with blood ties that range from the Roman and Catholic Church (ours is the nephew of Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini), up to to state affairs (his father, Attilio Ruffini, was multiple minister in four Christian Democrat-led governments between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s and one a handful of times he was also undersecretary). In his family he only needs one cadet in the army and one in the judiciary. Lastly, in the first biographies that are going crazy on the web, it is written “he was on the knees of President Mattarella”, presupposing a childhood spent among the high poppies of the Christian Democracy. In short, not the first to pass by. On the contrary. If that one – Elly Schlein – has three passports (including two in the top five of the most powerful in the world), this one has All the Saints in Heaven.

And as you can see, when we try to talk about the Center, we talk about everything except, in fact, the Center. This happens because the Center does not exist in Italy. It’s a pandering word to say everything and to say nothing. It is a word which in the language of the political class, especially of the centre-left, means: we are at the end of our rope, we will never win the political elections and we must find a way to gather a few more votes for the coalition. This is how small-scale co-optation operations begin, sifting through the family trees of certain upper middle classes and state apparatus, trying to identify expendable profiles. But the truth is that politics, especially today, is a very difficult and obscure subject. More than noble birth and belonging to a powerful family, nowadays it is important to have a true and credible narrative. Or rather, real, intuitive motivations, easy to talk about because they are based on reality. And this is the vulnerability. If that – or rather those, given that the Sisters of Italy are two and also fierce – is hungry for power and is well connected to the corners of politics, as well as the communications industry and now has strong connections with the government apparatus of the major powers in the world – here, in the center-left, we languish in characters and stories. We have a citizen of the world who takes three weeks to say a few words on the Stellantis affair, a champion of populism from which they perhaps steal the symbol of the Movement – the only truly attractive treasure in the market of 22nd century politics – and the maravilha duo of the left -the left that let a black guy into Parliament who seemed to be the champion of the exploited people in the tomato fields of Southern Italy, but in reality he had a wife, brother-in-law and mother-in-law who profited from desperation. Not to mention the other one who got his wife elected to Parliament. Here, in this chaos of bad luck, wanted and sought, in the center-left we are wondering who can carry the flag of the Center. Don’t you think it’s all a bit bizarre?

Nobody will get inflamed

Given that the Center does not exist in Italy, it makes no sense to say that it is necessary to create a center party, hoping to convince at least some of the moderate abstentions to return to the vote. Or, hope that by completely inventing leaders who are not leaders, trying to build parties that have no history, but at most can aspire to be electoral lists, we can regain that part of the moderate electorate that found the proposal of Giorgia Meloni. In this case, in fact, it would be necessary to contrast a character who can compete, both on a political and media level, with the current Prime Minister. But it isn’t there. With all due respect to the table that a few days ago saw Romani Prodi, Dario Franceschini and Cardinal Matteo Zuppi sitting around a plate of tortellini. “Will it inflame people?”. No. Ruffini will not inflame anything. And not even Giuseppe Sala, nor Franco Gabrielli. There is nothing to ignite. The moderates in Italy, like the liberals, are few and if there are they have already widely expressed their vote.

Lastly, there is a constant in the centre-left: all those who lend themselves to the role of moderate leader, sooner or later are spat out by the PD itself. A constant that is incredible. Even before they can acquire a minimum of political credibility, they are eliminated and left to their pathetic fate as Carneadi. The Centre, therefore, for the Centre-left and, more particularly, for the Democratic Party, not only does not exist, but must not exist. And it represents a sort of media pillory that no one survives. And this, apparently, is the contradiction in terms that, for example, Romano Prodi and all the center-left Popolari have not yet understood. Or they don’t want to admit.

To date, what remains to be done by the center-left? Understand how and when the relationship between the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia will seriously crack and lay the foundations for a future “red-blue” government, repeating the experiment that one of the many moderate outcasts of the Democratic Party carried out at the time. If we want, the most famous of the renegades of the Italian democrats. There are more points of contact between the Democratic Party and Forza Italia than between the latter and the Brothers of Italy. The center in Italy today is Forza Italia itself and it is time for the very fine thinkers of the Democratic Party to take note of it.