Mastella Resigns, again

Only this time, Prodi decided to accept Mr Mastella’s offer. It sounds as though someone reminded Mastella that it does not look all that good for a government to have a Justice Minister who is under investigation for corruption. Then again, maybe Mr Mastella found out that the allegations against him (and many of those who are members of his party, from what I’ve read) were highly likely to be transformed into charges. Again, not good for a justice minister to be facing charges, especially in today’s Italy, where regard for the country’s politicians appears to be a rock bottom levels.

One may also conclude that the light seen by Mr Prodi must have been quite bright, although he has resisted appointing Antonio Di Pietro to the position of justice minister, most probably because he knows that Di Pietro would start overturning too many stones. And such an approach would most definitely fatally fracture Prodi’s ever more fragile coalition government.

Of course I will not mention that Mastella was probably doing his level best to keep Prodi out of other investigations, which could have led to Prodi himself facing allegations of wrongdoing. And this situation does not, in any way, explain why Prodi may have been reluctant to accept Mastella’s initial resignation.

The political turmoil in Italy continues to be tumultuous, as usual. Situation Normal – you may know the rest….