Bersani's failure, the "white semester" and Napolitano's "ten wise men"

I went to Italy for the first time since the election, and it was more or less like being slapped in the face. I would have never guessed that the stall situation would last this long, and most of all, that there would be absolutely no way out.

I arrived here in Italy on Friday. By that day, Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the left coalition, had already given up and had told Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Republic, that he was unable to form a government as he did not receive enough support in Parliament. Napolitano had indeed asked him to find out whether he had a majority; if he did, he would have become PM. But that attempt led to a stall. Bersani tried to persuade Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement to support a potential left government, but all he got from Grillo were swear words. Meanwhile, Berlusconi's party called for a government "of broad agreements", which means a coalition of the main leftwing party and the main rightwing party. But Bersani immediately said no to that. On the other hand, Grillo called for a Five Star Movement government, but this option was never taken seriously by the President.

So, since nobody had been able to find a solution, it was again Napolitano's turn. On Friday night, the situation was so chaotic and looking so desperate, that the media started to talk about the possibility of Napolitano's resignation. 

 President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano

The President, who is elected by parliament since Italy is a parliamentary system, is on a seven-years mandate. During those seven-years, he normally has the power to dissolve parliament. So, generally speaking, the President could simply say "Let's have another election". But this is where things get even more complicated: Napolitano is coming to the end of his mandate, which is due in May 2013, and during the last months of office a President is in the so called "white semester". In the "white semester", a President's powers are more limited, and he cannot, among the others, dissolve parliament. This is why on Friday night the media was hypothesising an early end to Napolitano's mandate: in other words, before forming the government, the parliament would have chosen the new President, who then would have been able to call for a new election. All I could think while listening to the news was "First the Pope, then Napolitano?!".

But this is not what happened. After what I am assuming was the longest night of his life, Napolitano announced on Saturday morning that we was going to stay in office until the very end, because he could at least try "to create more favourable conditions" for future decisions.

This is what the President decided: Mario Monti, the appointed technocratic PM, remains in office with his cabinet (Monti indeed spontaneously resigned, but was never formally  voted down by parliament); Napolitano then appointed two special commissions whose task is to come up with "programmatic proposals of institutional-social and economic character", which, ideally, should be approved by all parties. My understanding is that Monti's government and these commissions should remain in power at least until the new President is elected, then, possibly, we might vote again.

While I think that Napolitano was able to find a temporary solution which saved Italy from another poor figure (as his resignation would undoubtedly have been), I am appalled by some of the people that he appointed among those "ten wise men" who are supposed to perform some sort of miracle. Apart the fact that they are all men (really? Not even a wise woman in Italy?) and aged 70 or more, virtually all of them are representatives of the old ruling class, even though not all of them are politicians. To me, they look very unlikely to bring about any real change.

Here is a list of the "ten wise men":

-Prof Valerio Onida - University of Milan constitutional law expert
-Luciano Volante - former parliament speaker from Pier Luigi Bersani's party
-Mario Mauro - senator in Mario Monti's party
-Gaetano Quagliariello - senator in Silvio Berlusconi's party
-Prof Enrico Giovannini - statistics agency ISTAT head
-Giovanni Pitruzzella - Market Competition Authority head
-Salvatore Rossi - Bank of Italy deputy head
-Enzo Moavero Milanesi - European Affairs minister
-Giancarlo Giorgetti and Filippo Bubbico - parliament commission heads

BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21981679

Partito Democratico: born to lose? And what if Renzi were the candidate?

I know I am a little late, but I said that I would write a comment about the Italian elections and I intend to do so. Hundreds of articles have been written; if you want to read a quite opinionated one, the following by The Economist, titled “Send in the clowns” (referring to Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo) can give you a pretty good idea.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21572763-how-beppe-grillo-and-silvio-berlusconi-threaten-future-italy-and-euro-send

Therefore, much has been said about Berlusconi’s comeback and about former comedian Beppe Grillo’s huge success. Less has been said about the poor result of the Partito Democratico (“Democratic Party”), the left-wing party which was considered the favourite and which, according to polls, should have won by a comfortable majority. Why did it only get a miserable 31% then?

In my modest opinion, because Partito Democratico is born to lose. And it seems to do so almost intentionally.

The party held a primary to choose its candidate, and party leader Pierluigi Bersani won against Matteo Renzi, mayor of Florence. 

Pierluigi Bersani and Matteo Renzi

Fair enough, you might think, if Bersani won, he won. True, yet the following thing needs to be considered. The whole party was against Renzi. They tried in every possible way to politically kill him, they even labelled him “Berlusconiano” because he had lunch with Berlusconi once. Why did they hate Renzi so much? Because Renzi has always campaigned for political renewal. If he were PM, he would seriously send home all the old party militants who still sit in Parliament only because of party lists.

So, the party chose to secure seats for its old folks, while blissfully ignoring that there are a lot of people out there who are fed up with old parties and old politicians, and who would have warmly welcomed a young (he is only 38) and energetic candidate such as Renzi.  I think that what people in Italy really wanted was change. And I believe that, if Partito Democratico had pushed for Renzi and supported him as a candidate, today we would have a completely different picture.  

If Renzi were the candidate, a lot of people who voted for Grillo, or who did not vote at all, would have voted for him. I am sure of it, even if a lot of people are, I think, somehow ashamed to admit so. But I have also heard from a lot of friends the sentence “Well I love Renzi and I would have definitely voted for him, but Bersani… oh no, God no”.

But the party greatly underestimated how tired people are. And they literally gave away to Grillo’s movement millions of votes.

As a result, everything is a mess now.  I am not saying that we deserved it, but certainly Partito Democratico did. Let’s see if they learn the lesson now.

As comedian Maurizio Crozza said yesterday, “We are doing really badly now without a government. Almost as much as we did when we had one”. 

Italian election show!

Well, you might have all already heard about the mess that resulted from the Italian general election. I promise I will write a comment about it, but I want to wait to see how the situation evolves, since at the moment it is in complete stall.
For now, if you want to have some fun while finding out some interesting facts about Italian politics, you can watch this special by The Small Opinion about the election, in which I feature as an "expert" about Italy. I had fun, and I did my best!

Italian Election Comedy- A TSO Show special

Ok everyone, as I mentioned I am involved in some interesting projects at the moment, and here is one: if you want to see me in my international debut as an “expert” on Italian politics, do not miss this event next Monday!
I will be commenting the result of the Italian general election live on the Australian The Small Opinion, (on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114468855002310709549/posts) that recruited me after finding this blog.
There will be more guests, and we will have serious discussions, Italian-themed games and, in my case, possibly a mental breakdown if the result of the election turns out particularly disappointing.
So if you would like a laugh at my expense, watch me trying to explain the huge mess that is Italian politics!

Here is the event on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cne88ic0ql78q7dgc88vup5nuek  , you can all join from there! 
While here is the Facebook one: http://www.facebook.com/events/412780428814874/

All are welcome!

Boris Johnson's picture appears on Berlusconi's electoral leaflets without the mayor's permission

I haven't posted anything in such a long time, but unfortunately I am extremely busy at uni and I am also working on other projects (stay tuned for those), which is all well but at the expenses of my blog.
I just wanted to signal you this hilarious article published by The Times, which reports a piece of news of the Italian newspaper "La Stampa".
It looks like Berlusconi recruited Boris Johnson, mayor of London, as a testimonial for the candidates of his party "The People of Freedom". Unfortunately, nobody told Mr Johnson about it, and when he found out he got really upset.
Berlusconi's party sent out electoral leaflets to Italian residents in London featuring the following picture:

You can see Mr Johnson, in the middle, shaking hands with Guglielmo Picchi and Raffaele Fantetti, candidates for the department for residents in the UK.
Apparently, Boris Johnson was really mad when he discovered that his picture had been used without his permission, because it makes him look like he endorsed "The People of Freedom" while that is not true. He even asked for the leaflets to be withdrawn.
I would comment that this move made Berlusconi lose all his votes from residents in UK, but since I live in London myself I can guarantee that virtually all expats already hated his guts, so it just can't get any worse. Still, another memorable gaffe from Mr Berlusconi.

Link to the Times article (you can only read the whole article if you are subscribed though): http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3690431.ece

Berlusconi: "Racial laws biggest fault of Mussolini, who did well in other respects"

Well, I haven’t posted anything lately, but now I have something really valuable.

As you all know, today, 27^th January, is the Holocaust Memorial Day.

Although generally we all tend to associate the tragedy of the Holocaust with Hitler’s Nazism, it is important to remember that Mussolini played an important role too.  Racial discrimination was imposed in Italy with the Racial Laws (Leggi Razziali) starting from 1938 for the first five years of Fascist rule. There were concentration camps in Italy, and even some really big ones.

Today, in occasion of the events taking place in Milan to mark the Memorial Day, Berlusconi made a surprise appearance.

Here is a part of his statement:

 “Today it is difficult to stand in the shoes of those who had to decide back then […] Italy, out of fear, preferred to join forces with Germany rather than to fight it, and the extermination of the Jews was imposed in that agreement. So the racial laws were the biggest fault of Mussolini, who actually did well in other respects”.

He then added:

“Italy does not have the same responsibilities that Germany has, even if there was a connivance that at the beginning wasn’t entirely conscious“

There are no words to comment what Berlusconi said. I think all I can do is apologise on his behalf.

I want to hope that his statements will at least remind us all, once again, how important it is not to forget such terrible things. 

Video (in Italian):

Berlusconi, Santoro and Travaglio: memorable episode of "Servizio Pubblico"

Last night, Silvio Berlusconi was a guest at the Italian TV programme “Servizio Pubblico” (Public Service), aired by private TV channel LA7. The show had been long awaited, for several reasons: above all, because the host of the show, Michele Santoro, and Berlusconi have an on-going row that started many years ago. Santoro is one of the victims of the so-called “Editto Bulgaro”, a statement that Berlusconi made in 2002 while he was in Bulgaria about three Italian TV personalities who, according to him, had made a “criminal use” of public television. When used by Berlusconi, the phrase “criminal use” simply means that those three people, namely comedian Daniele Luttazzi and journalists Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro, had said unpleasant truths about Berlusconi or had criticised him too much. Following the “Editto Bulgaro”, Berlusconi sued RAI, the Italian public television, and Michele Santoro was fired (but then reinstated after he won his cause for unfair dismissal).

The idea of Berlusconi and Santoro facing each other was exciting enough; furthermore, among the guests there was also Marco Travaglio (fyi, my favourite Italian journalist). Travaglio is famous for being extremely well-informed about almost everything; it’s like he has a database in his head. Above all, he knows EVERYTHING, and I really mean everything, about Berlusconi’s connections and about his trials. Travaglio is also known for his sarcastic and critical tone, and for targeting Berlusconi more often than not (I personally disagree: some people claim that, if it weren’t for Berlusconi, Travaglio would be unemployed;  but those who regularly read his articles know that Travaglio has been, and still is, extremely critical even towards Monti).

Journalists Marco Travaglio and Michele Santoro

The show was followed by 9 millions Italians. Everyone was wondering what would happen: would they fight? Would Berlusconi leave before the end? What would Berlusconi say to Travaglio?

The first part of the show was going relatively well. Berlusconi was simply being himself. He resorted to all his old favourite topics: when he was in charge the Italian economy was doing extremely well; he never paid a woman to have sex, it’s just that he is very very generous; all the people he knows who are charged with Mafia ties are innocent and are actually really nice guys; and (my favourite one), the evil plotting Communists, who always pop up when he has to blame someone for every single thing that is wrong in the world. So, just what we could have expected from him.

Things started to go very wrong after Travaglio talked. He made what I regard as a beautiful speech about not so much Berlusconi’s mistakes, but about his lacks when he was PM: he could have used all his years and his power to defeat the Mafia, but he didn’t; he could have fought fiscal evasion, but he didn’t; he could have taught the respect for the laws and the Constitution, but all he did was trying to change them to his advantage.

After this, Berlusconi wanted to read a letter to reply to Travaglio’s; a letter that, he specified, he didn’t even write himself. The letter was simply a list of all the civil cases in which Travaglio has been involved over the years; Berlusconi actually called him a “professional calumniator”. At this stage, Santoro started yelling that Berlusconi was just wasting the show’s time. After trying to reply, Berlusconi, who was sitting in Travaglio’s spot, got up to go back to his seat, which was at the moment occupied by Travaglio.

When Travaglio got up, before sitting down, Berlusconi did the most offensive thing of the all show: he pretended to clean up the chair where Travaglio had been sitting.

And, when Santoro told him off angrily, Berlusconi replied: “You can’t even take a joke”. That's the man who represented our country for almost 20 years. A minute's silence, please.

Today, reading hundreds of comments about the show, I understand that many people think that Berlusconi came out as the “winner” of the debate, while Santoro was “pathetic” for yelling and just playing Berlusconi’s game. Personally, I don’t know if the show will make Berlusconi lose or gain votes; I think that Berlusconi was just being as he has always been: telling his same old lies and looking like he actually believes them.

I’ll be partial now, because as I mentioned I really admire Travaglio, but I think that he came out as the actual winner, as he showed more class than Santoro and Berlusconi combined: he did not yell, he stayed calm and simply replied: “Clearly I’m not a criminal, because if I were, you (=Berlusconi) would have, to the very least, appointed me as President of the Senate”.

For those who understand Italian, at this link you can see the whole show: http://www.serviziopubblico.it/

I only include the video of Berlusconi cleaning Travaglio’s chair, just to show that I did not make that up. You really don't need to speak Italian to get what's going on. He certainly is the one and only political leader in the world who could do such a thing and not even surprise anyone… Political absurdity, made in Italy.