Italy’s Democratic Party: a pro-European barrier against nationalism

In the run-up to Sunday’s elections (25 September), EURACTIV Italy looks into the Democratic Party’s programme and how it relates to the EU.

Read the original article in Italian here.

Democratic Party (PD), led by Enrico Letta, who also heads the Jacques Delors Institute, presented a programme that describes the EU as indispensable in tackling EU and Italian issues. Strengthening the EUwould also allow European interests and values to be defended around the world, the programme adds.

In its programme, PD explicitly proposes EU Treaty reform. The aim is to abolish the requirement for unanimity rule in some policy areas, and implement the proposals made by the Conference on the Future of Europe. The programme is also in favour of enlargement, and increased coordination on foreign policy and security issues, and with regards to the digital and green transition.

The programme also advocates a common defence and foreign policy, to make Europe a reliable international player in defence of peace, solidarity and development, starting with the strengthening and prioritising of a cooperation policy in the Mediterranean.

PD’s programme also condemns Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and calls for European diplomatic action to put an end to the conflict. It also calls for support for Kyiv, without, however, mentioning whether such support should be military, or whether it should come from member states or from the EU.

In its programme, PD also says it backs the EU’s Next Generation EU fund, the Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package, and the digital transition. It also says it backs the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plan, including structural reforms, which are repeatedly mentioned throughout the programme.

At the same time, it suggests transforming the EU’s Stability Pact into a so-called “Sustainability Pact” so that investments for the ecological transition are accompanied by gradual and sustainable fiscal consolidation. The party also says It supports the EU’s proposals on own resources, such as the global minimum tax on multinationals and the carbon border adjustment mechanism – a carbon levy at the border which aims to reduce emissions.

The likely reason why PD has the EU featured so much in its programme is the fact that being pro-European sets the party apart from what is being proposed by “the right-wingers who consider Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban privileged counterparts or reference leaders,” the programme states. “A government of these right-wingers would be dangerous for Italy: it would disrupt the efforts and progress made so far after the pandemic outbreak and isolate Italy from the rest of Europe,” it added. “The Italian right-wing proposes an obscurantist and isolationist vision of the country, opposed to Europe, ambiguous on the Euro, denialist on climate change, permeable to disinformation and foreign interference, … in open conflict with the European values of the state of law. Giorgia Meloni’s right wing, together with its European allies, has never voted in favour of the NRRP, in Italy or in Europe,” it also says. PD presents itself as the pro-European barrier against nationalism in Italy.