Italy has No Government…well, not quite

February 12, 2008 · Filed Under Italian politics · 9 Comments

Cara Jo, a fellow blogger from over the pond, was a little disappointed to see that I had not written about Italy’s current state of non-government. Well, I’ve decided to attempt to explain the current political situation in Italy.

First of all, it’s not true that Italy is without a government, in that Prodi’s crew still run things, however, his government, or rather coalition, is unable to create new laws. It can administrate the country up until the results of the elections of 13 and 14 April are known.

Now, as to what happened. As many will know, the actions of one Clemente Mastella, the leader of one of the parties that made up Prodi’s fragile coalition, effectively destroyed Prodi’s government’s tiny majority. This meant that Prodi’s government could not continue, and Prodi lost a confidence vote. He therefore felt obliged to hand in his resignation and step down as prime minister.

This is where the fun starts. As you may be aware, the electoral system in Italy is based on a complex proportional representation system, meaning that governments are destined to be based a coalition of bigger and smaller parties. The bigger parties are not large enough to command a total majority and so they need to rely on the support of other smaller parties to obtain, hold onto power, and to push through new laws. This reliance on big/little party coalitions has led to the recurring instability that Italian governments have experienced since the second world war, incidentally.

In an attempt to resolve this situation, Berlusconi introduced a reform which meant that parties with much less than 5% (I’m ready to be corrected on this - I have been corrected! Thanks Cristian.) of the vote could not obtain seats in parliament, thus reducing, very slightly, the influence of the smaller parties on the larger ones and introducing a theoretical touch of stability. The fact that this reform may also have helped Berlusconi’s coalition to retain power, is neither here nor there.

Anyway, moving back to Prodi’s situation. Prodi’s gang wanted to introduce more electoral reform in order to further reduce the ‘little’ party effect on Italy’s governments. Only his government collapsed before such a reform could be passed.

However, despite the collapse of Prodi, talks about carrying out electoral reform went on, and there was an apparent wish to introduce such reform before elections for a new government were held. But, although it appears that such a reform would have been feasible, it could only have been pushed through with the consensus of just about all of the parties having seats in the Italian parliament.

So what happened is that all the parties had a think and a re-think, and many, including obviously the little parties, decided that it would not be particularly advantageous to them to agree to such a reform.

As it had become evident that a form of deadlock had been reached, meaning that electoral reform could not be introduced, Italy’s president, Napolitano, was obliged to initiate the election process and set a date for the elections. Indeed, elections have now been set for the 13 and 14 April, although the warring factions, otherwise known as political parties here, are not even happy about the election date - so it may change.

In summary: Prodi’s government collapsed, but there was still the slim possibility of introducing electoral reform before the general elections. However, nobody wanted the reform to go through, so a general election was called.

What all this means for poor old Italy, is that the chances are that the next government may well be as short lived as Prodi’s, and so Italy’s revolving door governments will continue. Unless the next government actually manages to introduces electoral reform, in which case there may be a chance that the subsequent government is quite stable.

OK, I hope that has clarified the situation. I did check out my facts with my ex-politican student, but I’m prepared to be corrected. So correct away (Rob, Man of Roma - this means you!).

Tags: Berlusconi, Clemente Mastella, elections, government, influence, Italia, Italian, Italian electoral system, Italy, law, Mastella, Prodi, reform, situation, vote

Clemente Mastella is Innocent!

January 26, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 14 Comments

It’s true, Mastella really does believe that he has done nothing wrong. The reason he gave, in an attempt to justify the actions of his wife and himself, was ‘everyone is doing it.’ And we are talking about the former justice minister of a major economic power.

On the subject of power, I have, via links on Rob’s Wind Rose Hotel blog, managed to find out what Mastella and family had probably been up to. Apparently, it is alleged that Mastella’s wife was involved in the appointment of medical staff, but only those who were considered as ‘party faithful’ got the jobs.

All perfectly normal according to Mastella, the former justice minister.

The worrying thing about the former justice minster’s claims, is that he is most probably right. Everyone is at it.

The trouble is, just because everyone is doing it, does not make whatever it is, right. Apply an attitude like that, and you can excuse almost any act.

You would have expected a justice minister to have understood this. Well, I would have.

Luckily for Italy, Mastella is no longer the justice minister. Although one wonders how a gentleman of such integrity could have ended up in such a position.

Oh well, at least Prodi has gone too.

Tags: accusation, government, Italy, justice, Mastella, politicians, Politics, Prodi

The Thread Finally Snaps

January 21, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · Comment

It’s a laugh a minute in this politically challenged country which is Italy. Clemente Mastella, the former justice minister who is now facing allegations of corruption, is not at all happy. It looks as though the man he was probably trying to protect, one Romano Prodi, has not returned the favour, thus leaving Mastella with one major magistrate-inspired headache. So in his death throes, Clemente is doing his level best to bring down Prodi’s fragile house of cards government.

It looks as though Mastella will succeed too, seeing as Prodi has a thinner than wafer majority. This means that the traditional revolving door style of Italian politics will continue its revolving tradition. Italians, of whom only around 14 percent actually have any faith in the current bunch of politicians, according to an article in today’s Financial Times, must be getting a little worried (or, more likely, very bored), seeing as there is no viable alternative to Prodi at present. That is not to say that Prodi was a viable alternative, more accurately, he was the only alternative - viable or not.

Thus, while the poor Italians attempt to decide who the best alternative may be, the elections will be rather half hearted. As usual here, a new fragile coalition will emerge, full of old faces, and attempt to (one hesitates to use the word ‘govern’, so we’ll go for,) hold onto power until the next scandal besets one or more of the groups that are in power at the time. Berlusco, who could see this coming , is jumping up and down in glee, and probably thinks he stands a sporting chance of entering government once again, even if the right wing groups who may form the next government are, possibly, a wee bit tired of the tanned one.

Interesting Times here in Italy (And no, the capital ‘T’ is not a typo… think New York, Financial and the other one…).

Tags: alternative, Clemente Mastella, elections, government, Italia, Italian, Italian politics, Italians, Italy, Mastella, Politics, poll, Prodi