Lessons from Milan

A candidate proposed by Italy's red-green party (Sinistra, Ecologia e Liberta) not only won the primaries of the left but proceeded to win a staggering 48% in the city which symbolized the hegemony of Italy's new right-a strong durable alliance of the anti immigrant Lega Nord and the populist entity of Forza Italia.

The soft spoken Pisapia-a lawyer with a reputation for standing for the rights of the accused (even those of his own political adversaries) and who never compromised his vision of integration for immigrants, has won in the heartland of berlusconism. He is a garantista for everyone not just for the rich and powerful.

He won by promoting a vision of good governance and building an alliance with a wide appeal to progressive Catholics, NGOs and intellectuals. His alliance stretched from classical liberals like Bonnino to the communist left. He also won by using a discourse of inclusion rather than one of confrontation. He did not talk a lot on Berlusconi but about culture and reconstructing and humanizing the city space. Interestingly he spoke a lot about the use of urban space, something which is ignored by the old left. In essence he was a moderate fighting on a progressive platform.

Some would say that he won because Berlusconi failed to deliver. But that in itself shows that the politics based on national egoisms and simplistic slogans are bound to fail.

This brings to mind a conversation I had with some time ago in which a Labourite defended his party's hard line stance on immigration by referring to the left losing a part of the working class vote in the Italian north. Pisapia exposed the superficiality of this analysis. The left can win by being left, albeit with a strong green and humanist tinge.