The Democratic Party has fallen apart over the use of Western weapons by Ukraine against legitimate military targets in Russia, that is, over the decisive and most important point of the resolution that the European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg in plenary session, approved on Thursday by a large majority on the continuation of financial and military support to Ukraine.

It’s not an offense, it’s a defense

Paragraph 8 of the resolution calls on EU member states to “immediately lift restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems supplied to Ukraine against legitimate military targets on Russian territory, as this hinders Ukraine’s ability to fully exercise its right to self-defense under public international law and leaves Ukraine exposed to attacks against its population and infrastructure.” As one might imagine, this is the real political point of the resolution, and so it is interesting to see what happened in the chamber on this point.

The premise: lifting these restrictions means offering the attacked country the possibility of defending itself to the full. The use of weapons against military targets in Russia is in fact an action of defense and not of offense. To understand this, just think about where the drones and missiles that, daily, destroy infrastructure and homes, wound and kill Ukrainian civilians, are launched from: they are launched from Russia, from Belarus or at most from the occupied territory of Crimea.

The Democratic Party’s no to weapons against Russian targets

On such an important issue for Ukrainian and European security, the PD delegation not only fails to express a unified position, but also differs from the overall orientation of the European political groups and in particular from that of its own group, the Socialists. The party’s indication was to vote against paragraph 8, dictated by the head of the delegation Nicola Zingaretti on “orders”, presumably, of the secretary Elly Schlein and the foreign affairs officer Peppe Provenzano. However, only 10 MEPs out of 21 adhered: Zingaretti himself and then Annalisa Corrado, Sandro Ruotolo, Alessandro Zan, Camilla Laureti, Matteo Ricci, Antonio Decaro, Brando Benifei, Cecilia Strada and Lucia Annunziata. It is significant that, with them, only 5 other Socialist MEPs voted against paragraph 8: three Maltese, one Irish, one Slovenian.

The bulk of the Socialist group in the European Parliament voted in favor, as did only 2 Italian MEPs from the Democratic Party: Pina Picierno and Elisabetta Gualmni. No one abstained. Nine were absent from the vote on paragraph 8: Stefano Bonaccini, Giorgio Gori, Giuseppe Lupo, Pierfrancesco Maran, Alessandra Moretti, Dario Nardella, Marco Tarquinio, Irene Tinagli and Raffaele Topo.

The Reformists’ Move: Hide

Subsequently, at the final vote on the document as a whole (including paragraph 8, approved by the Chamber), many of the absentees reappeared in the Chamber to vote in favor: Bonaccini, Lupo, Maran, Moretti, Tinagli and Topo. As for Tarquinio, with Cecilia Strada he abstained on the document as a whole. The “real” absentees, therefore, were only Giorgio Gori and Dario Nardella, both of whom were effectively not in Strasbourg due to institutional commitments. The former made it known that, on Article 8, he would vote in favor; the latter, on the other hand, would conform to the line and vote against.

As for Bonaccini, Lupo, Maran, Moretti, Tinagli and Topo, they would have jointly decided to leave the chamber during the most politically relevant vote, the one on paragraph 8, because they disagreed with the official line dictated by Zingaretti. This can be seen from a post on social media by Maran, which says exactly this. Let’s trust and do the math again. The “Dems” in Strasbourg in favor of Ukraine hitting Russian military bases with Western weapons would become 9 out of 21. Those against, adhering to the official line, would instead be 12.

The Schlein Line and the European Socialists

And now the considerations. The first: the reformist deputies, in favor of allowing Ukraine to fully defend itself, are almost half of the PD delegation (9 out of 21). But, with three exceptions (Picierno, Gualmini and the absent Gori a posteriori), they preferred to hide. An incomprehensible attitude. By voting unanimously yes on paragraph 8, they could have shown the weakness of the Schlein-Provenzano line. Instead, they chose not to expose themselves, especially on such a central point of the document (and of the quality of support for Ukraine), also risking being seen as friends to half of the attacked people. The lack of courage suggests that, at this moment, secretary Schlein has the party in her grip and is establishing an internal dialectic that is not very plural.

The second consideration. The Democratic Party, with the Schlein line, is clearly different from the European socialist family. In the Europe of 27, the socialists against the use of Western weapons against Russian military targets are the Italians and the Maltese. Not even exceptionally (except for one Irishman and one Slovenian) did the socialists of the other countries vote against this point. A masterpiece of self-exclusion.

The third. The broad Italian Schlein-Conte camp, on a crucial issue for the security of the continent, is dangerously close to Conte’s line, ever more. It was already evident with the choice of candidates (Tarquinio and Strada, but not only). It is becoming clearer and clearer. The reformists of the Democratic Party, who as mentioned are 9 out of 21 in the European Parliament, will have other opportunities in the future to weaken that line. We will see if they will exploit them or if they will flee the chamber again.

Italy out of the European line

So far we have talked about the Democratic Party. But we cannot remain silent about one last aspect. Italy in general has distanced itself from the European line on the protection of interests (Ukrainian and European), because when all is said and done, out of 76 MEPs from the Bel Paese, only 3 voted in favor of the use of weapons against Russian military targets: in addition to Picierno and Gualmini of the Democratic Party, only Massimiliano Salini of Forza Italia. All the others voted against, as dictated by the official line of their respective parties (PD, M5S, Avs, Fdi, Lega, Fi), or were not even in the chamber (or, like the reformists of the Democratic Party, they left and then returned). And this places the entire country outside the European perimeter. Not on the decibels of lawnmowers or on how yellow a mimosa should be, things that have been much joked about over the years. But on the security of the continent, on foreign policy.