The rejection of Jeremy Corbyn to submit his resignation immediately once you have confirmed the electoral debacle, choosing to move to the front of the formation to “driving the transition” to a new leadership, has aroused the suspicion of sectors moderate and centrist of the party. “We need to go much beyond a simple review of the electoral results”, she cried out —in an open letter published by the Sunday The Observer— a group of deputies who have just lost their seats (the earthquake conservative has led to 59 mps labour). The signatories also denounce the cronyism prevailing in the circle of Corbyn and the inability to eradicate the supposed dye-semitic associated to its leadership, expressed the fear that the conclusions of a commission appointed to analyze the fiasco of the legislative barely scratch the surface of this crisis.

Reading between the lines, the letter points to concerns that try to perpetuate a sort of “corbynismo without Corbyn” propped up by a majority between the bases. The primary process, which will culminate in march and April, has not yet started officially, but on the paper part as favorite Rebecca Long-Bailey, a protected of the present establishment of the labour. Promotion responds to the idea of the sector to the left, that has been the unpopularity of the still leader, and not his program of nationalizations and massive public spending, which has prevented getting the message out to the voters. Even before being declared candidate, Long-Bailey already knows that he will have at his side at the movement and Momentum of the powerful trade union Unite, encouragements of the unexpected victory of Corbyn in the primaries of his party in 2015.

labour have never elected a woman to the front of the formation (unlike the tories, who still remember the essential figure of Margaret Thatcher). Now, along with Long-Bailey has another woman, Emily Thornberry, as a reference in the sector more centrist and opposing pole of the corbynismo. Only she and Clive Lewis, a leftist who goes by free, have signed up to the list of applicants, which is expected to end by entering, among others, the moderate and europhile Keir Starmer.

The future winner will have to deal with a depleted rows. The main strength of the opposition appears as almost irrelevant in the new legislature before the relentless roller parliamentarian for the formation of Boris Johnson. “Our voters have given their vote to the Conservative Party to run the Brexit”, has been the diagnosis of the deputy-elect Stephen Kinnock about the loss of those fiefs in the north of England and Wales that the labour consolidated over decades. The traditional vote of the working classes. Though from the flanks very diverse (ranging from the defenders and, without any of Europe until the sector eurosceptic), the bulk of the co-religionists of Kinnock agree that the ambiguity of Corbyn during the campaign —by declaring himself “neutral” on a question that divides deep into the country— ended up as confirming the worst strategy.

the few days that the prime minister tory revalidara their place, the House of Commons approved the law that establishes the exit of the Uk from the EU to the 31st of January, with the backing of some thirty labour members who rebelled against the slogans of Corbyn. The disarray hinted at a growing temptation in the bosom of the Labour approach, if not embrace, that nationalism was rampant. In a speech delivered on Sunday in the trial of his impending candidacy, Long-Bailey appealed to defend a “patriotic progressive”. At the opposite pole of the ideological spectrum, Yvette Cooper, heavy weight of the wing less to the left, comes stressing the need to regain the vote of the “patriotic” former voters of the party.

The recent electoral defeat is the fourth in a row that add up to labour. After the three consecutive victories that led Tony Blair from 1997 onwards, the successive leadership of Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn were diverged progressively to the party of the blairismo, with little success in terms of votes. The last elections, the worst result for labour since 1935, confirm that the working classes have deserted in droves and the party is more favored by urban elites. Retrieve the first may involve the loss of the seconds. That is one of the great dilemmas that is faced in the third decade of the XXI century.

The analysis of Tony Blair —so exalted as censored among his own by the radical shift to the center that flesh— is summed up in this dilemma: to convert the party into a pragmatic and real to achieve the power, or resign themselves to a role of eternal opposition.