PD, the candidate blogger speaks

On Sunday, October 14, more than three million people voted to elect the secretary of the nascent Democratic Party. Five candidates (Veltroni, Bindi, Letta, Adinolfi, Gawronski), one favorite (Veltroni). He swept the favorite. But among the five competitors there is a name that has staked almost all of its electoral campaign on the Web: recruiting people, organizing lists, looking for resources, only via blog. Mario Adinolfi, perhaps the only truly “new” name that faced the new party, faced the challenge based mainly on his blog and direct communication via the internet, most likely one of the first European cases. We met him.

Punto Informatico: What are the results of the “day after”, in the heat of the moment?
Mario Adinolfi: The result of our lists is good: 1.3% in the 52 colleges where we were present. And now Walter Veltroni is the first secretary of the Democratic Party, the most important Italian party, the only leader voted by universal and direct suffrage. He can legitimately now set himself as a model for 21st century politics: whether it will be direct democracy or it will not.

PI: One of the first impressions is that in the end Italians still have a lot of faith in traditional media, is that right?
MA: It absolutely is, but something is moving. Over the next five years, the way in which political opinion is formed will radically change.
All this in favor of the web and blogs, which will end up heavily influencing traditional media as well.

PI: A challenge, that of the PD, which – at least according to the numbers – seems to have been won. Would you have imagined a similar turnout? Is it really – as some say – a denial of Beppe Grillo’s criticisms, or, rather, is it the other side of the same coin?
MA: To say, as some have done, that Grillo is anti-politics and October 14 was the answer to anti-politics, is colossal idiocy. My problem is that the vast majority of the V-day people didn’t get them to vote in the primaries.
My work and that of Generation U, from tomorrow, will be to build a bridge and explain to everyone that politics has different shades of tone, but then we have to take on the responsibility of trying to really change things. With the patience of democratic processes.

PI: As we know, we are always discussing the data (if we think that the commission for the verification of the 2006 elections is still standing). Is the percentage attributed to you correct? Also give us a few more precise figures on your local results.
MA: We were present in 52 colleges out of 475, where we obtained with the Generation U lists over four thousand votes out of three hundred thousand valid votes expressed in those colleges, with a percentage equal to 1.3% nationally, with extraordinary peaks of consensus such as 11% in the Bari boarding school, 2% in the two Biella boarding schools, 5.5% in the section where the most voted in Rome (Pietralata district, 1500 valid votes, where we beat Bindi and Letta), 5% in Montesilvano, 2.1% in Ancona, 2% in Afragola.
Obviously the national figure calculated on the 475 colleges gives us 0.13%, but in 423 we were not there, I think this needs to be explained. Having taken an average of 1.3% where we have made lists of 20-year-olds only with the internet and blogs is a good result and a great first step.

PI: Do you have something that you regret in this long journey? It is true that the role of mayor of Rome has already given Veltroni greater visibility from the start, but if on the one hand almost all traditional media have given little space to outsiders, on the other Veltroni himself has repeatedly declined direct confrontations. A good strategy? A circle that has fed itself around the “strong man”?
MA: I have no regrets, we fought the good fight, using the network and blogs better than anyone else and making them cross over into traditional media, like when I filmed with my mobile phone and then poured a few minutes of the door meeting on YouTube. closed of us candidates with President Prodi.
I remain convinced that Veltroni would have done well to accept the televised confrontation.

PI: But we come to perhaps the most difficult question. Many of those who have supported you in this test of “e-democracy” are asking themselves: “What now?”. What will be your – yours – contribution to Italian politics?
MA: I will be a member of the constituent assembly of the Democratic Party and from 27 October I will defend the great achievement that we have achieved in three million: direct democracy becomes the protagonist of the way in which the ruling classes are chosen. It is a novelty of a method of historical significance.
Now I hope that we will take steps forward precisely in the field of e-democracy linked to the mechanisms of direct democracy. I want a Democratic Party that respects the company banner, that pushes itself to imagine forms of decision on the most important issues, passing, for example, through internal referendums in which you can also vote online.

My appeal now goes to bloggers: I think our experience this time has taught us that it can really be done. This tool – which is not a mere communication tool – can be used as an instrument of political struggle. The blog is a medium that contains a message. And it is a political message of horizontality and equality, of rejection of the oligarchic domination of pre-established positions of power. We will bring this heritage into the Democratic Party. To really change this **** of a country.

Curated by Luca Spinelli