The Three Perspectives of the Left and the Gradual Loss of Its Electorate

Abstract

Several months before the new parliamentary election, the prospects for the Democratic Party (PD) already looked unfavourable. Following its defeat in the constitutional referendum (held on 4 December 2016), the decrease in its electoral appeal over the subsequent year-and-a-half seemed unremitting, and attempts to revive its fortunes—with the resignation of Matteo Renzi as Prime Minister and his replacement by Paolo Gentiloni in an effort to rekindle a sense of confidence in the PD and its government—came to nothing. PD voters seemed lost—both from the numerical point of view and from the point of view of their perceptions of the party; for many of them no longer understood what was distinctive about their party’s outlook or the type of society it was aiming to achieve. The problems involving the Italian PD are actually very similar to those of the European Left as a whole.