Walter Veltroni's 2007 institutional reform project

On October 14, 2007, at the Lingotto in Turin, Walter Veltroni launched an ambitious project aimed at renewing Italian political institutions from within. The initiative sought to replace the bureaucratic continuity of the former PCI with a new institutional vitality, inspired by the student-led academic reforms of the 1970s.

The original vision focused on transforming institutions most separated from civil society, such as prisons, psychiatric hospitals, barracks, schools, and factories. These locations were identified as sites containing remnants of fascist-era continuity that the new political movement intended to radically reform.

While the project initially aimed to replicate the success of university assemblies—where students introduced new disciplines like sociology and psychology to modernize academic structures—critics suggest the movement eventually shifted from its revolutionary goals toward electoral logic and coalition management.