Rome, June 2, 2015

Italian elections: And the Winner is …….

As many had foreseen, the results of last Sunday’s regional elections in Italy appear to indicate a period of renewed, accentuated and totally irrational turmoil, perhaps even terminating with yet another Government crisis and the call for early elections.

Thanks to extremely complex electoral laws and to the ease with which alliances and coalitions are created and broken, as is usual in Italy all sides claim victory, and it is not easy to perceive reality through the  smokescreen of triumphant statements.

At times, on the surface, the victory claims appear plausible: the ruling Democratic Party, led by the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, has, after all, succeeded in securing  five out of the seven contested regions, Silvio Berlusconi, generally considered a spent force in Italian politics, can boast of the fact that his party’s candidate won the elections in Liguria, traditionally a stronghold of the Left, while Grillo’s “Five Stars” movement has retained its position as Italy’s second largest political force and the Northern League, led by the wily, capable, Matteo Salvini has confirmed its surging  presence and  become the undisputed leader of the country’s right-wing electorate.

All but one of these claims, however, fail to stand up to a more in-depth analysis, and it is particularly interesting to  note how badly Renzi’s Democratic Party has fared in spite of its apparent success.

The party’s loss in the Veneto region, traditionally a secure stronghold of the Northern League, was expected, but the Democratic Party, in spite of Renzi’s outspoken support for it’s candidate, suffered an unprecedented debacle, gathering  the lowest percentage ever obtained by a left-wing party (including the Communists) in the history of the Republic.

The most humiliating and meaningful defeat, however, came in Liguria, traditionally a left-wing region, on which Renzi himself expended  much energy in the course of the electoral campaign. The  Renzi supporters were quick to  lay the blame for the disaster on the left wing of the Party, which ran a candidate of its own, obtaining a respectable percentage even though it was lower than what they had expected. The rift in the Democratic party, however, is not confined to Genova and Liguria, and is certainly  a phenomenon to which Renzi – especially now in an apparently weakened position – should pay the greatest attention, before it spreads to national level. In Liguria it was, in fact,  the arrogant attitude of the  mainstream party which was to blame, with the insistent support of an unpopular candidate whose name was produced through primaries the legitimacy of which were hotly contested. To add insult to injury, the Democratic fiasco gave Berlusconi’s struggling “Forza Italia” its only winning candidate in the contest, but  more about this subject later.

But  also in the “winning” regions, the Democratic Party faced  - and  will continue to face – severe obstacles, especially in Campania, where official support was given to the winning candidate in spite of his having been placed on a “black list” by Parliament’s own anti-Mafia commission, presided, among other things, by one of the leading political figures in the Party itself (Ms. Rosi Bindi). According to current Italian legislation, the winner, because of being a convicted criminal, will not be allowed to take up his position as Governor, and this will certainly add to Mr. Renzi’s embarrassment.

Also in the remaining Southern region, Puglia, the winner, locally popular, was not openly supported by Renzi and claims that, after his victory he did not receive the expected  congratulatory telegram or telephone call from the Prime Minister.

The remaining three regions  were widely expected to  remain firmly in Democratic hands, and so scarcely constitute a triumph for the party. It  has to be added that the party has experienced a dramatic drop in overall support, losing about ten percentage points and about two million voters from the unprecedented 41% triumph of last year’s European elections. This is  a severe blow to Renzi’s stated ambition of forming a “National Party”, which would include rival factions and remain a dominant  fixture in Italian politics.

As the venerable Italian proverb states: “Though Athens weeps, Sparta is not laughing”, and another of the self-proclaimed “winners”, Silvio Berlusconi’s one dominating Forza Italia, emerges severely, perhaps irremediably damaged, and this electoral experience could really signal the end of Berlusconi’s career as an active and influential political figure. The Berlusconi owned Media, of course, point out the  party’s victory in the hitherto hostile region of Liguria where one of a disappearing breed of loyal party faithful was elected Governor. This is certainly true, but while the victorious candidate bears, as it were, the “Forza Italia” label, his election is mainly due to the support of the Northern League and of other minor right-wing parties. Elsewhere, and on a national level, the party has experienced the most disastrous results in its history.

As for the “Five Stars” movement, it has to be said that its claims of “victory” are partly justified, first of all because it remains the country’ second political party, and also because it has recuperated some of the great numeric losses incurred after the 2013 elections.

The results, however,  were not as successful as some of the supporters had predicted, and there are limited reasons to celebrate.

It is worth noting that, in the course of this campaign, the Movement went through a drastic change in style, eschewing the rough, sometimes obscene language used in the past and  appearing on some of the main Television political talk shows, the men uncharacteristically dressed in dark suits and neckties, to the point of being compared to  Jehovah's Witnesses. The appearances of its flamboyant founder and leader, former comedian Beppe Grillo were cut to an absolute minimum, and this caused speculation as to whether the Movement was experiencing a leadership crisis.

Only one of the exuberant  victory claims appears fully justified, for the Northern League has definitely taken over the leadership of Italy’s political Right, and will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the future. This causes some concern because of the League’s strident  xenophobic and anti-European stances, and there is a real danger that their success will condition the Government’s more traditional pro-European and more tolerant immigration policies, especially since also the powerful Five Stars Movement – though certainly not  a political ally of the League – is basically critical of the European Union and resistant to  the massive inflow of migrants through the Mediterranean.

A pessimist view of the recent election could point out another winner: the abstention rate which  has now reached unprecedented levels with voter turnout seldom above 50%, and this in country which, until recently boasted of voter turnouts much closer to 80%.

It is too early to assess to what extent these results will condition the ruling party’s and, of course, the Prime Minister’s  prestige and decision  making power, but it appears undeniable that great changes should be expected, which could eventually influence Italy’s role within the EU leadership.

Carlo Ungaro

Rome, May 26, 2015

Regional Elections in Italy: Could Renzi’s honeymoon be over?

On Sunday, May 31, regional elections will be held in seven very sensitive regions in Italy, and it is thought that the results of these elections  will, on the one hand, partly clarify the political situation, at present particularly confused and chaotic even by Italian standards, and, perhaps, give some indications on possible future trends.

In Italy opinion polls cannot be made public for a number of weeks prior to elections, and, because of this, forecasting is made much more complex and  very much based on intuition and guesswork.  The more influential and wealthier political parties, however,  commission polls of their own, and the changing attitudes of the party leaders  can give an idea of the directions being taken by public opinion.

Still strongly influenced by the unprecedented 40% victory in last year’s European elections,  leaders of the ruling Democratic Party, equating the upcoming contest to a football game (not unusual in Italy), were forecasting a crushing 7-0 victory. At later stages, wiser counsels prevailed and the probable score was given as 6-1 (The Veneto region appears to be safely in the hands of the “Northern League”), or, in a “worst case scenario”, 5-2. In the past few days this  amusing and perhaps irresponsible outflow of optimistic numbers has ceased and Prime Minister Renzi himself has stated that even a score of 4-3 would be a victory, and what is essential in these cases is to win. In even more recent statements both Renzi and some of his Cabinet Ministers have  been quoted as saying that the outcome of local elections would not, in any case, influence the Government’s  path toward ambitious, albeit  controversial reforms.

The early expressions of confidence in the result were partly due to the virtual collapse of the once powerful Centre Right forces, with Silvio Berlusconi's “Forza Italia” party  in a state of apparently irreversible disintegration, with no credible alternative in sight. This evaluation, however, did not take into account the extraordinary surge in popularity of the “Northern  League”, once  almost exclusively regional but now active on a national basis, guided by the latest rising star in Italian politics, Matteo Salvini. Some irony has been expressed on the circumstance that Matteo Renzi’s most dangerous rival is also called Matteo and that also he, like the Prime Minister, owes his initial  appearance as a public figure to the successful  participation in a televised quiz show.

Salvini’s political stance is difficult to  define, but it can best be described as a continuation of his Party’s traditional xenophobic and – above all – anti European positions, in the capable hands of a youthful, well-spoken and very persuasive figure who uses his “boy next door” appearance to mask extremely virulent political positions. He has been assaulting the media and appears almost daily on one or the other of Italy’s innumerable TV Talk shows in which he invariably outshines his opponents in an admirable display of political savoir-faire.

Ever present in the background, stubbornly ignored by the more traditional parties, lies also the basically  Euro sceptic “Five Stars Movement”, headed by former comedian Beppe Grillo, which, until the most recent  opinion polls, held on to a respectable 20% of electoral support, but which, according to spreading rumours, has recently seen an increase of its popularity precisely in those regions (such as Campania and Liguria) in which the Democratic Party is seen to be facing an uphill struggle.

The picture has been further complicated by the recent electoral victories of the Podemos movement in Spain and of  the right wing candidate, Andrzej Duda, in the Polish  presidential elections. Both of these, radically different though they may be, share a fundamental anti-European stance in tune with the positions of the Italian Democratic Party’s main opponents, who have not hesitated to express enthusiastic support  for the  victorious  sides in Spain and Poland, thus touching upon  issues that ought to be far removed from those generally associated with local, administrative elections.

It has to be noted that, in Italy, local elections are based on a run-off principle, and the  person elected  as “President” has to obtain at least 50% of the votes cast. This is unlikely to happen in the first round of any of the seven contests, and even though the Democratic Party may come out  ahead in as many as five of them, the danger is that the  voters adhering to the other two parties will converge on the second placed candidate, in the name of anti-European and anti-immigration principles, thus depriving the Democratic Party candidate of victory at the second round.

All this leads to the supposition that the race will be a close one, and that the Governing party may actually come out of the contest in a weaker position than the one held  presently, depriving  Prime Minister Renzi’s hold onto the scattering of “independent” parliamentarians and, what is more important, on the growing opposition within his own Party.

In Italy it is extremely rare for a defeated political leader to resign, and so a Government crisis, though not impossible, is extremely unlikely, but it is certain that things will not be the same in Italy after May 31, and that Prime Minister Renzi will be facing a much more difficult struggle. It is not to be excluded, however, that Renzi – in case of a particularly disappointing result – could threaten  resignation, only in the aim of bringing his  dissident party members to heel. At the moment, most  Italian parliamentarians are terrified at the prospect of early elections  because many of them would  face almost insurmountable difficulty at getting re-elected without the goodwill and support of the leader. Many of them, furthermore, have not completed five years in Parliament and would therefore fail to qualify for the not indifferent pension which  is bestowed upon former Members of Parliament. This threat would almost certainly bring the dissidents back in line, and slightly offset the weakening effect of the  elections.

This situation could also have far-reaching repercussions on the European level, depriving the already vacillating EU leadership of the strong and reliable support of a reliable ally. In case of negative results, Renzi would be forced to mitigate his very strong pro-European stance thus further weakening the decision-making abilities of the Union and consquently diminish its already waning authority.

Carlo Ungaro

Rome, Italy,  April 6 2015

 Italy:  Search for stability or authoritarian drift?

For the past months the European political scene has been dominated by the  Ukraine, by    Greece and by the issue of terrorism. As an inevitable result, attention has moved away from Italy and its apparently fruitless search for political stability.

The current trends in the Italian political scene need to be viewed in the light of the fact that the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, although never elected to the Italian Parliament, has led his party to an astounding 41% of the vote in last May’s European elections, and that, according to recent opinion polls, his rate of approval, though dropping, is still over 35%. No political party or leader in the history of the Republic  has ever enjoyed such a position of  voter confidence since the early fifties and even that master vote-getter, Silvio Berlusconi, who has held sway over Italian politics  for the past two decades, never got much past the 30% mark.

Renzi,  whose ideological position can, at best, be described as nebulous, is an example of Italy’s new generation of Roman Catholic politicians, and, even if he is constantly being compared to Berlusconi, far from boasting of his  amorous conquests, he frequently speaks of his past as a boy scout. His one claim to fame, before he went into politics, becoming the “youngest ever” Mayor of Florence,  was his appearance on a  nationally televised quiz-show. For this personable youngster the event marked a fundamental turning point  because the show’s MC, the late Italian-American showman Mike Buongiorno, who actually introduced  the concept of quiz shows to Italian Television and who was also close to the Roman Catholic political hierarchy (two sins for which, it can only be hoped, he is being called to account in his after-life) took the young Matteo Renzi under his protective wing, thus directing his  steps toward a political career.

In attempting to sort out the Italian political scene, it would seem essential, first of all, to answer a fundamental question: “who is Matteo Renzi?”. The meteoric rise to national fame and finally to political power (he is both Prime Minister and Secretary of the majority Democratic Party) of an unelected, and virtually unknown individual in the teeth of furious, often disloyal opposition, mostly  from within his own party, certainly  indicates a strong and ruthlessly determined personality who does not seem destined to be a  flash in the pan phenomenon. He also appears to possess that innate touch of showmanship which, until the arrival of Berlusconi in 1994, was sorely lacking in Italian politicians  and which as yet does not seem to be fully appreciated by the majority of the old guard,  some of whom  don’t seem to realize that they are probably confronted by a political Juggernaut against which traditional means of resistance are fruitless.

Seen in a positive light, all of this could imply that, after two particularly disastrous decades, Italy is finally headed for political stability, a sharp contrast to the  volatility which has beset Italian Governments (about sixty of them, one of which lasted about seven days) ever since the foundation of the Republic in 1948. Italy, however, has a recent history which tends to make it resistant to the very concept of “stability”, and the idea of a politically stable  governmental apparatus  inevitably raises the spectre of a possible authoritarian drift. It is somewhat ironic that the alarm was raised by none other than Silvio Berlusconi, whose declared ambition, while in  Government, was precisely aimed at the attainment of greater power.

Alarm is caused by the two most relevant of the many “reforms” that Renzi is attempting to introduce – with considerable likelihood of success – through a Parliament which seems mesmerized by his dynamic  approach and terrified at the very  idea of having to face a General Election.

The first of these reforms concerns the elimination of one of the two branches of Parliament, the Senate, which would be replaced by a rather ill-defined body loosely modelled on the German Bundesrat. In a society such as Italy, this opens up likely vistas of “unpaid” nominees, selected through the murky processes so typical of this country’s political  scene, yielding considerable occult influence and remaining accountable only to the governing powers and not to a non-existent electorate.

The second “reform”, which critics fear could pave the way for an authoritarian deviation, is centred on the electoral law which needs to be changed by order of the Constitutional Court. The current electoral law does not allow the elector to express a choice on the name of the elected parliamentarians, who are, instead, chosen arbitrarily by the party leaders and are therefore accountable only to them should they wish to seek re-election. The current projected law is, according to critics, even more restrictive because not only  are candidates chosen and submitted to the electorate by the party leaders, but the party which achieves the relative majority in an election obtains a significant “premium” in parliamentary seats and thus rules Parliament with an absolute, unassailable majority for the duration of the Legislature.

In the days of the  so-called “First Republic”, Italian elections were held according to a proportional system, which was thought to be the primary cause of instability and was subsequently subjected to modifications tending towards  “majority” or “first past the post” rules. All of these systems presented defects and caused problems, but they did maintain a direct link  between the electorate and the elected, which has now almost ceased to exist and which will become even weaker through the new proposed  electoral law. The preceding systems also made the Government accountable to Parliament, which could cause its own dissolution and the need for new elections by denying its vote of confidence. This is unlikely to happen if the Parliamentarians’ re-election depends exclusively on the will of the party leaders. It is, in fact, scarcely credible that Parliamentarians, elected to their well-paid  positions through the benevolence of their party leader (who will also be Prime Minister), will cause the downfall of the Government thus ensuring their leader’s hostility and virtually certain exclusion from future electoral lists.

This, of course, will contribute to greater “stability”, but risks also greatly to weaken – indeed, almost eliminate – the system of “checks and balances” which is at the heart of any truly democratic form of government.

This alone could suffice as a warning, but the situation is further aggravated by the perennially sycophantic attitudes of the Italian media (electronic and printed), which is imbued with an instinct for hagiography in favour of those who appear to have a firm grip on power for the foreseeable future. This certainly does nothing to allay the fears currently being raised by the Renzi Government’s lust for  Constitutional “reforms”. The Italian mainstream media – if one  makes exceptions for smaller, minority newspapers or radio stations on the extreme left or right – appears reluctant to express critical views on a personality with a firm long-term grip on power: one never, for example, reads  even the slightest hint of critical appraisal of the Pope or the President of the Republic (elected for a seven year mandate). On the contrary, these personalities are treated with an obsequious reverence which perhaps goes beyond their own  wishes. Since there is no Constitutional provision  to limit the number of consecutive mandates an elected Prime Minister can seek, it will be in the interest of those who manage the mainstream media to instil a favourable attitude in the electorate thus ensuring the longest possible run for  a Prime Minister who will become more and more  beholden to  the good will and support of the media and the economic and political powers behind it.

This will most probably bring about a period of “stability”, but in Italy the concentration of power in the hands of a single leader over a long period could be dangerous, and the risks appear to outweigh any possible benefits.

Carlo Ungaro

BERLUSCONI - HAS THE ARTFUL DODGER MET HIS MATCH?

Article published by "Open Democracy"  on August 12 2013

It is never easy to write  about the  Italian political situation, but after  the  verdict handed out by the highest court confirming a four year jail sentence, for tax fraud,  against the  previously indestructible former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi,  epochal questions arise over the future of this  fragile government,  over  Mr. Berlusconi himself and, even more so, over  Italy’s  own political destiny.

 More than ever before,  Mr. Berlusconi’s actions and behaviour  bring to mind Charles Dickens’ “Artful Dodger”,  even up to the words of defiance  uttered  very shortly after  the  news of the verdict reached him, and reiterated in a much publicized  pubic appearance a few days later. However, unlike Oliver Twist's friend, Berlusconi will not end up in a penal colony, or, indeed, in a prison cell, but will continue to be an uncomfortable presence in  Italian political life and will pose a real threat to the  government’s stability and  survival.

The government’s survival

It has to be remembered that the present Government in Italy has one of the largest majorities in the Republic’s history, bringing together, after weeks of sterile negotiations, the two main political parties,  Berlusconi’s “People of Liberty” and the  Centre-Left “Democratic Party”, until recently   opponents in a cut-throat electoral campaign, unprecedented for  its acrimony and verbal violence.  Paradoxically, however, this  vast, apparently unassailable majority, does not keep the government alliance  from being extremely fragile and  unstable, held together  mainly by the  fear, shared by both protagonists, of having to face the angry and disillusioned Italian electorate again after an election, held in February, which had cost both of them millions of votes, most of which went to Beppe Grillo’s maverick “Five Stars” movement, a veritable thorn in the side of both  the leading parties.

After the  verdict delivered on the first of August, more than one political commentator has defined the Government as a “dead man walking”, the main burden falling not on Berlusconi’s movement but on the   majority Democratic party who will have a difficult time explaining to their electorate  their choice to continue sharing  the burdens of government with a  party led by a  convicted felon. The next few days, therefore, will be quite crucial in determining whether this  brave experiment at a “grand coalition” will have any chance of survival beyond the Summer.

At the moment, after 100 days in which virtually nothing has been achieved,  one has the eerie feeling of  witnessing  an oneiric situation, in which the members of the government are clinging to a raft which is floating out of control down a  treacherous river. They know that the rapids are  not far away, but dare not touch the shores (i.e. end the experiment and  call early elections) because they know that these are populated by hostile tribes, and  thence the brave   insistence that “the show must go on” for the good of the country,

The  prevailing feeling, however,  is that,  sooner or later, some catalytic event will cause the   government’s  implosion, the only question   being how long this situation can endure.

Mr. Berlusconi’s future

But what about Berlusconi himself? Has he really reached the end of his political career? Many would wish to think so, but he has been written off more than once in the past and has always  managed to stage  an incredible comeback. According to recent legislation, no person  having been sentenced to two years or more imprisonment   should be allowed to sit in Parliament: and here comes the first uncertainty which will have to be tackled by his  present  allies:  Berlusconi has been sentenced to  four years, but, according to  another  strange instrument of Italian legislation, the first three years of his sentence are condoned, and so, “de facto” he should serve only one year.  A  political-legal battle will take place  to determine which of these terms  needs to be considered, and  further  doubts arise as to whether the Democratic Party will, in any case,   find the political courage to vote for the removal from the Senate of the  leader of their  principal ally in Government. By the month of October,  an additional sentence of up to three years’ interdiction from public office will probably  be  issued, but this should not necessarily stop him from running his political party “from the outside”, just as Beppe Grillo has done, being interdicted from seeking office because of a  preceding penal sentence. By playing the part of an innocent victim of a “left-wing judicial conspiracy”, Berlusconi could even increase his party’s as well as his own  popularity and cause further turmoil on the Italian political scene: the paradox here would be  that the Democratic Party would end up being damaged  more than any other, because of the verdict  against its main opponent.

There has been insistent talk of asking the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to grant Berlusconi a “presidential pardon”, but there are strong doubts as to whether this path will be undertaken, also in view of the fact that Mr. Berlusconi is facing even stiffer sentences in the near future, for crimes  of a rather graver nature, among which the accusation of having had sexual relations with  a minor.

Last Sunday a large demonstration by Berlusconi supporters was planned in the Centre of Rome. Buses were laid on, and the participants were offered a free meal. The crowd was  vociferous, but  disappointingly scanty, and this is also a factor that Berlusconi needs to consider before  taking any  potentially rash decisions.

Italy’s political future

The real question goes well beyond Berlusconi’s personal fate or the Government’s immediate  chances of survival, and concerns the  future of the democratic process itself in a country  in the throes of an economic, political and moral crisis  unprecedented since the immediate post-war years. Italy’s history  shows that a state of turmoil and  confrontation has been a constant  for centuries, and that Italians have   always  overcome their difficulties, mainly by  shrugging them off as matters concerning “others” (i.e. the Pope, and the Emperor in the distant past, the  Political parties or the “Caste” in the present day). This attitude of cynical sagacity may,  however, no longer be possible, given the immediacy of  all communication and the highly felt  apprehension for the future, combined with the dramatic fall in the standard of living, with no immediate prospect of  a turn-around.

ALL QUIET ON THE ITALIAN FRONT

Article published by "Open Democracy" in June, 2013

To the inexperienced eye, all appearances would seem to indicate that the Italian political scene – normally rather colourful and volatile – has quieted down  to a considerable extent, to the point of having become rather humdrum and devoid of  general interest.  Extremely significant municipal elections have been held in many  cities (including Rome), both on the continent and in Sicily, with no major surprises and  in an atmosphere of  good-humoured tranquillity. The conclusion, therefore, would seem to indicate that all is quiet on the Italian political front (a circumstance, in itself, likely to arouse suspicion and apprehension), but the reality is, instead  really  quite different. This extremely odd  “grand coalition” government,  even  more incongruous than its  “technical” predecessor, emerges  greatly weakened  and condemned to  impotence, as, indeed,  it has already shown, having emerged as  one of the most unproductive governments in recent Italian history. Paradoxically, its survival, at least over the next few months, appears guaranteed, but only  by   the understandable fear, by both of the leading parties, of facing  an increasingly angry and unpredictable electorate in case of early elections. Even a superficial analysis of the vote, held over the past two weeks, and still  having to be concluded in Sicily, indisputably shows that again, just as in the case of February’s national elections,  there have been no winners, but only losers, this time including  the maverick “5 Stars movement” founded and led by former comedian Beppe Grillo.

Four key factors have emerged from  these  local elections.

Firstly the ever increasing rate of abstentions. In a country where, even a couple of decades ago, a 90% electoral turnout was considered normal,  the percentage of voters has dropped to just over 50%,  and  the  non voters thus  form a considerable  political force. There are mixed reactions to this phenomenon. The prevailing feeling is that  the exceptional rate of abstention, and, above all,  its vertiginously  rapid  increase,  denotes  a growing sense of disillusionment and anger on the part of the electorate, and that  this widespread feeling could  play into the hands of any new  populist  movement, especially if  “right-wing”, anti European and hostile to immigrant labour. More optimistic, or at least cautious,  observers, however,  seem to  believe that this is a normal  trend which brings Italy closer to older established democracies,  the examples of France, the United Kingdom and the United States are usually cited, in which the rate of   abstention is normally just as high, even higher,  with no  doubts being expressed on the legitimacy of the emerging governments. This optimistic, or more positive assessment, however,  fails to take into account a fundamental aspect of political life in Italy, as compared to the other    countries indicated as examples. The Italian electorate’s role in the democratic process  has always been limited to the vote,  after which things tend to be  “left to the politicians” until the  next  electoral appointment, with no significant participation to the political  process at the grass-roots level. This is what, in the prevailing view, makes “turn-out” such a vital issue in Italy..

The second element to emerge – but which has to be taken with a great deal of caution – has been the virtual collapse of the maverick “Five Stars” movement led by former comedian Beppe Grillo. Triumphant at the outcome of  its first ever national electoral test last February, the “Movement” emerged as Italy’s strongest single political party, thus creating a  virtually unmanageable three-way tie with the  left wing Democratic Party and Mr. Berlusconi's “People of Liberty”, basically the  greatest loser in the process.

Also the further  weakening of  Berlusconi’s party has to be taken into account,  mainly  because, paradoxically, in spite of its miserable showing last February, it still is an influential participant in the “grand coalition” and, for the time being, seems  to be in a position to call many of the  shots, through a masterful use of the constant threat of causing  paralysis by  refusing to play the game, as temperamental  children threaten to do  on the play-ground.. As a perhaps marginal, but not insignificant corollary, it has to be noted that Berlusconi’s traditional ally, the “Northern League”, torn by vicious internal rifts and fighting,  has lost  key positions and major cities in an area which has always been considered its home ground (i.e. the North and the North East).

“If Athens cries, even Sparta can’t laugh” was the saying that emerged at the end of the  Peloponnesian conflict (Fourth Century BC), and it is  much quoted in Italy these days in order to illustrate the paucity of the Democratic Party’s victory. The paradoxes, which abound in the sometimes indecipherable Italian political context,  are confirmed by the fact that  the  leading political party, victorious in February’s general elections,  which has just made a record-breaking clean  sweep of all the municipal elections,  winning them all and leaving none to the opposition, in reality has emerged weakened, and not strengthened by the experience. And this ongoing, apparently incurable weakness in Italy’s centre-left  “Democratic Party” is the fourth of the above quoted factors  to be taken into account.

The  deeper reasons behind the exceptional rate of abstention will have to be examined with care and competence in the near future, when it will be possible to   break the numbers down into age,  professional and other groupings: a superficial view, as yet unconfirmed,   seems to indicate that  it affects the younger electorate in greater numbers.

It is difficult to  foresee what the future holds in store for Grillo’s movement, but there are signs of a growing disaffection not only in the electorate, but also within the movement itself, due  to Grillo’s excessively dictatorial stance, to some very obvious tactical and strategic mistakes   made   at a moment in which the movement was  on the crest of the wave, as well as to the  confusion which seems to reign over the movement’s official position on many key issues.  The fact is that, politically speaking,  the entire movement, from Grillo down, is basically  made up by political amateurs who proved to be no match against their much more seasoned peers  in the traditional parties.  There is time for   regrouping and recovery, but  at the moment the trend  appears rather negative,

Berlusconi’s party,  a bit like Grillo’s, suffers from the fact that it is essentially a one-man show, and the “Cavaliere”, as he is known,  has never really attempted to groom  younger party members in the art of political leadership. In fact, he always appeared to be rather suspicious of  political allies who threatened to be seen as “charismatic”, and has systematically and ruthlessly eliminated them. The crisis within the party is very deep, and Berlusconi’s advancing age (he is 77) and his  judicial  problems which might end up making him  legally ineligible to run for office are all elements which add to the visible discomfort of Italy’s centre-right.

By contrast, the Democratic Party suffers from a lack of leadership and  of internal cohesion. A Party Congress will be held in the Fall, but  the danger of a split is  ever present, and would certainly further complicate  the situation.

The present government, holder of a massive parliamentary majority, has not achieved much in these first weeks of existence and arouses  almost no   confidence  in the  Italian public opinion. Grounds for optimism have always been tenuous, and are now  very quickly disappearing.

ITALY'S DOOMED QUEST FOR STABILITY

(This article was published by "Open Democracy" in May 2013)

Rome, Italy, May 6 2013

Italy’s brave attempt at  forming a new Government  has been facing severe and growing difficulties from the very beginning. The effort is haunted, above all,  by two separate  problems each of which could   bring about the Government’s early downfall. There are  two “ghosts” at the banquet  who appear  determined and capable of  ruining the festivities. On the one hand,  the event appears dominated by a particularly burdensome and unwelcome  “Convitato di Pietra”  (The “stone guest” at Don Juan’s dinner table) in the form of  Beppe Grillo’s  powerful “Five Stars Movement”, while, on the other hand it is easy to spot an even more  insidious and dangerous threat, posed by the  internal instability which has brought about a very improbable mixture of personalities and ideologies. The resulting political compromise could  well turn out to be   destined to exhaust its energies, weak as they are, in the struggle for survival.

If, therefore. to all appearances, especially judging by the prevailing   international media reports,  Italians should be basking in the prospect of a newly found political stability, a more realistic  vision  would  suggest a very different picture. True, a Government  has been formed and granted a massive vote of confidence by both Houses of Parliament, and it is led by the youngest  Prime Minister in the Republic’s history. The calumet of peace is apparently being shared  among  previously warring factions,  some very respected technical figures have been placed at the head of  key economic ministries and the  Government has the largest female presence in the history of the country. The euphoria – albeit cautious – exhibited by  the Markets and by some of the leading  international media does not appear shared, however, by public opinion in Italy, ready, perhaps,  to  acknowledge the brave effort undertaken by Prime Minister Enrico Letta, but aware that this brilliant spectacle is marred by the presence of what  could be best described as the shadow of disaster, a veritable Phantom of the Opera, lurking  in the beautiful, historic houses of Parliament, ready to profit from any sign of failure or even weakness.

The term “Convitato di Pietra”  refers to  the cumbersome presence of a dinner guest such as the “Commendatore’s” statute in the various versions of “Don Juan” - I particularly refer to Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. In this case,  the  extremely uncomfortable presence of the largest  political party to emerge from last February's election, Beppe Grillo’s “Five Stars Movement”, incongruously, and some would say undemocratically, relegated to the role of opposition, is certainly  unwelcome, uncomfortable and potentially fatal, even though it does not, by itself, represent the greatest danger to the Government's stability. This danger – and it is  a constant and pressing issue – is found within the  Government alliance itself which is quite likely to fall apart at any moment,  perhaps mainly to the benefit of Grillo’s movement.

The experiment of a “Grand Coalition”, more or less on the German model (the first such attempt in Italy since 1947), has been  much talked about and described as  the only possible solution to the political impasse resulting from last February’s elections.  Some  basic  historic  misinterpretations have, however, been  brought into play, either wilfully or through  a superficial grasp of history. The post-war instance of coalition –  between the Christian Democrats and the Communists – has been much quoted as an example of working together in times of crisis, and, indeed, Italy's democratic republican Constitution owes its existence to  that  moment of joint endeavour. The situation, however, was totally different then, and the two sides were adversaries but not enemies: indeed. Many of them had struggled, even fought,  on the same side against Fascism, and, of course, the “opposition” – i.e. the Fascists – were seen as a defeated enemy and not  part of any political set-up or alliance. Historical parallels  are tempting to draw, but they can  be dangerously deceptive.

The Letta Government therefore,   newly born as it is, already shows  serious structural faults, and these  initial, apparently minor cracks in the show of unity appear bound to widen into irremediable  rifts.

The fact is that the apparent  unity, as  well as the vast majority obtained in the initial votes of confidence, are primarily based not so much on the desire to give the country   a much needed leadership as, instead, on  the evident fear, shared by  the three leading coalitions (Former Prime Minister Monti’s centrist coalition has to be added to the  two principal players), of having to face the electorate again, as would be inevitable  if either Berlusconi’s centre-right or the beleaguered,  perhaps  hopelessly weakened centre left led by the Democratic Party, should  find it impossible to continue in what is basically a charade of political  cooperation.

The most dangerous paradox to emerge from the situation is that the Democratic Party finds itself to be heading a Government bent on fulfilling many of Mr. Berlusconi’s campaign promises and almost none of those  which gave the Democratic  Party itself victory – fragile though it was – in the polls. The paradox can be labelled “dangerous” because  the Democratic  Party’s electorate    has already been showing signs of disquiet,   and could well provoke a  definite internal split , separating the two main currents which were never quite able to coexist comfortably,  the  “Catholic” faction against the more left-wing bloc which includes many former Communists.

All this is further complicated by the sidelined but vociferous presence of Beppe Grillo’s “Five Stars Movement” – which could well end up reaping the advantages of having  kept clear of the  dubious, presumably unsavoury intrigues which have  led to the formation of this  uncertain  coalition. At the moment Grillo actually serves a useful purpose, and his presence and popularity are used, with the almost unanimous support of the media, as a means to persuade sceptics, both at home and abroad, that this government  constitutes the only  means to prevent Italy’s sliding into a “populist nightmare”. To this effect Grillo’s movement is continually   being paraded as an Italian equivalent of UKIP, or of Golden Dawn or other far right populist movements in Europe, but the comparison is  unjustified and completely misleading.

The  prevailing sentiment of fear within the  members of  the coalition is certainly justified by the latest opinion polls. Should elections be held in the very near future, it appears that the Centre Right (i.e. Berlusconi) would come out on top, but with  a limited majority  which would  make it impossible for it to form a Government, while  Grillo’s “Movimento”, although perhaps losing a few votes, would still emerge as the largest single political party, The   current Democratic Coalition, narrowly victorious in the last elections, would be the  biggest losers, relegated to third place: in other words, a dramatic repetition of the current situation with a reversal of the roles played by its most important components, and, as an additional  negative  prospect, a further growth in the number of abstentions

It is, therefore, fear, and  only fear which keeps the coalition going, and  a Democracy in which the governing parties live and act  in fear of the electorate does show  preoccupying signs of  fragility.

It is to be expected, therefore, that even should the present formula survive,  all its energies will be concentrated on keeping  the “Grand Coalition”  alive,  with little or no  forceful action taken to address the  immense problems  which  currently  are causing  unrest and growing anger  in the population.

ITALY’S POLITICAL SITUATION. HUBRIS AND NEMESIS IN SLOW MOTION

This Article was published by OPEN DEMOCRACY  on April 26, 2013

The Media, both Italian and International, as well as the financial markets, appear to have responded with understandable but scarcely justified  optimism, almost enthusiasm, at the outcome of the  deepest crisis  encountered in the  short history of the Italian Republic (founded  in 1946)..

It has to be said that, by Italian standards, the presidential elections, which took place between the 18^th and the 20^th of April, were not particularly  disorderly: or drawn out:  for example,  one of the most popular of the 11 presidents who have led  post-war Italy – Sandro Pertini – was elected on the  sixteenth ballot, whereas the  re-election of the incumbent Giorgio Napolitano was concluded in six. The  outcome of this electoral process, however, enhances the feeling of decay in the country’s political and social structure, and is bound to have negative reverberations.

Moving at a breakneck pace, the  newly elected  President has  given  the task of forming a “grand coalition” government to Enrico Letta, of the majority  Democratic Party. Should Letta succeed, he would be the youngest Prime Minister in the world, serving under the oldest  Head of State – Napolitano, born in 1925, barely noses out Queen Elisabeth,  1926.

Starting on Thursday, April 18, a body of about 1000 “great electors”,  formed by a joint session of Parliament with the addition of regional representatives began the  electoral process, which, though relatively brief,  has brought about a deep and probably long-lasting crisis in the Italian democratic system.

In the past, the  basic  superficiality of the Italian approach to  political problems had discouraged foreign observers from using over dramatic terms in describing them and  from hinting at the possibility of a tragic outcome: Somehow, at the last moment, the Goddess Nemesis, in her Italian version, had always spared  her intended victim, allowing life to continue without missing a beat.

But the  unbelievable hubristic attitude adopted by the main Political Parties in Italy, as shown on the occasion of the complex procedure devised  for the election of the President of the Republic could well indicate a much more dramatic outcome than what normally emerges from political sparring in Italy.

In spite of the existence of a very unfair  electoral law, designed to muzzle opinion rather than to encourage it, the remarkable, almost incredible, electoral victory of comedian Beppe Grillo’s “Five Stars Movement”,   appeared to give a clear indication  that  Italians had voted for a radical change. Grillo’s “Movimento” emerged as the single largest party in Italy, with almost 25% of the popular vote  attributed to an electorate composed of people of various ages, of different political  provenance and of all professions. It was evident that this very variegated electorate had really had enough of the political posturing which had become particularly  unproductive and sterile during the past two decades and had voted as they did in the hope of  a change.

At first, the  leading coalition, the Centre-Left led by the Democratic Party, which holds an absolute majority in the lower house but not in the Senate,  really seemed to  have  accepted the message and began, albeit sluggishly and with visible reluctance, to  undertake token gestures in the right direction (e.g. pay cuts for Parliamentarians, reduction of  political expenditures, attempted dialogue “outside the box” with Grillo).

The imminent election of the new Head of State, appeared, however, to have reversed these timid  approaches to  innovation, and the most negative aspects of the old secret  dealings  re-emerged with a vengeance. Only Grillo’s Movement, later followed by a minor left wing  party, SEL, acted with transparency and  a  few  very interesting candidates had been nominated through  an online method of selection. There seemed little chance, however, that the voice of Grillo’s electorate would be heard and the two “old” parties, with the addition of  outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti’s Centrist party evidently coalesced on  the selection of personalities who, by now, are politically  burned out and  by and large mistrusted by the population.

The astounding re-election of an 87 year old veteran politician by a Parliament ostensibly bent on “innovation”, may well buy some time, but is difficult to imagine that a viable, lasting and, above all, efficient Government will be formed in these tense circumstances. Before the end of the year, in all probability,  elections will have to be called and the traditional parties  may well suffer another humiliating defeat, as they did last February, but this time, perhaps, with even more damaging long-term  results.

The choice of Napolitano – the first incumbent  Italian president to be re-elected to a second term - does not, at this stage,  have as much relevance as the method of selection and the consequences of the main parties’ conspiratorial behaviour. The result, though  much acclaimed by the mainstream media,  is far from popular and is being seen  as a product of all too familiar unsavoury back-room deals and will not be respected by the majority of the people. In the current fragile state of Italian political life, this  exercise in political wheeling-dealing while the country is visibly in a state of collapse will be bound to leave   traces and to create a bitter legacy for the future.

The concept of a “grand coalition”,  forcing  a coexistence between two rival parties, can work in some Social  structures – such as Germany – but is unlikely to last long in Italy, especially in the climate of tension and reciprocal  distrust between the two principal rivals (the Democratic Party and Mr. Berlusconi’s “People of Liberty”) which has poisoned the political atmosphere for years and has brought about a virtual paralysis in Government activity. The situation, difficult enough, is further complicated by the sometimes erratic behaviour of Beppe Grillo’s “Five Stars Movement”, which, having emerged as the strongest single party from last February’s election, is in a position to wield considerable weight..

It is what could be called a no-win situation with the principal loser, of course, being Italy itself.