Mario Monti, former European Union Commissioner, President of the private Bocconi University, economist of world-wide renown, has formed a new non-political government with the aim of steering debt-ridden, stagnant Italy out of the mire, away from a default which would plunge the whole Euro zone into crisis, dragging much of the developed world after it.
In the last few weeks, Italians have been glued to their television sets, forgetting cliff-hangers and reality shows, getting much bigger thrills from news broadcasts.
Background to the Resignation of the Berlusconi Government
The President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was criticized by some commentators in the early years of his mandate for promulgating controversial laws put forward by Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition. Opponents of Berlusconi considered much of his legislation to be “ad personam” - the persona being himself, and by extension, the firms belonging to himself or to his immediate family. Over time, Napolitano began to send back a few laws for the correction required to be in line with Italy's constitution.
The coalition of Berlusconi's Partito della Libertà (PDL) and the Lega Nord (respectively Freedom Party and Northern League) were able to get comfortable approval of these laws in Parliament thanks to the electoral law drawn up by themselves before the previous elections, known as “Porcellum” since even the minister who drew it up called it “a piggery”. This system attributes a majority premium to the party or coalition winning the election, and allows citizens to nominate only the winning Prime Minister, after which the parties nominate the Members of Parliament, denying voters of the right to kick out an undesired candidate.
Berlusconi's parliamentary problems began in summer 2010 when Gianfranco Fini and a group of supporters left the party after their dissenting opinions on several issues were dismissed. Fini is the Speaker of the Chamber (lower house) and Berlusconi and his allies have frequently asked him to resign from that position. Fini's party placed itself in the Centre loosely linked with other centrist parties in what is known as the Third Pole, mainly composed of those who have left Berlusconi over the years, tired of a party where criticism of the leader is not foreseen.
This left the government coalition at risk of “going under” whenever all MP's were not present to vote. Berlusconi himself was rarely present in Parliament, apparently busy with running the country or his own business. He did however manage to win all the votes of confidence, sometimes by a tiny margin dependent on transmigrant MP's. New Ministry or Under-secretary posts were being created, meantime, to reward supporters, while Italians became finally, inexorably, aware that the costs of their politicians are way out of line with the rest of Europe.
Europe is Decisive
Meantime in Europe, Italy's credibility plummeted amidst an increasing spread between Italian Treasury bonds and German ones, rising interest rates on the vast national debt (about 1900 billion Euros) rendering vain all attempts to reduce it by repeated austerity budgets, as well as Berlusconi's own avoidance of court cases in which he is involved and his famous sex scandals involving young girls, apparently some under the legal age of consent. Stories like that of “Mubarak's niece” left many Italians doubting that their Prime Minister really had all his buttons. A gratuitous, flippant, very rude and sexist remark about the German Chancellor Ms. Merkel, was picked up and broadcast, making it very difficult indeed for Berlusconi to have good relations on the European scene.
The exchange of a little confidential smile between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy when asked in a press conference about Italy’s credibility, went round the world, leaving ordinary, honest, decent, hard-working, tax-paying Italians (and there are many!) feeling humiliated.
All by himself, Silvio Berlusconi has managed to lose the support of many Catholic voters (disappointed to know what the self-proclaimed “family man” got up to in his free time), women (idem), not to speak of the Business sector of the country. Ms Emma Marcegaglia, President of the Industrialist Association, recently made ever stronger appeals for the Government either to take steps to promote industrial growth, or to step down. Some measure of the problem can be seen from the fact that the Industrialist Association and the Trade Unions were practically asking in unison for a change.
From the beginning of November, after European Union leaders hauled Berlusconi and Italy over the coals, involving President Giorgio Napolitano in separate talks, Parliament saw a bit of coming and going, with futher rumours about which politicians would leave which party. Ordinary Italians were becoming more disgusted every day, watching the spread rise and the Milan stock market drop, unemployment and underemployment rife, while flooding in many areas drew attention to the fact that government funds to local and regional councils have been cut drastically.
By abstaining on an important vote in Parliament, the opposition were able to cash in on absentees to demonstrate that the government no longer had the numbers to govern, while allowing the important measure to pass through Parliament.
On November 8th, one of Berlusconi's faithful, Ms. Gabriella Carlucci, a popular and respected TV personality, announced that she had left the PDL and joined with one of the parties in the Third Pole, declaring that she did not want to have on her conscience that her vote might bring the country to default. Apparently the government's sure majority had been reduced to one vote!
On November 8th, Berlusconi, pressed by his closest supporters to “step aside”, finally went for talks with the President of the Republic, Italy's Head of State. After his visit, Giorgio Napolitano announced that Berlusconi would resign after the Senate and the Chamber passed the “Stability Law” (another austerity budget law requested by the European Union).
Napolitano then took the unprecedented step of nominating Professor Mario Monti to a life position in the Senate, an honour normally reserved for former Presidents of the Republic or exceptional people like the 102 year-old Nobel prizewinner Rita Levi-Montalcino.
Meantime, the Stability Law – reduced to the essential at Napolitano's request, cutting out all the extra little “ad personam” titbits often pushed in among the small print of recent laws brought for Parliaments' approval – went through the two houses in record time, proof that Italians can really get things done when it comes to the crunch.
Many expressed doubts that Berlusconi would really resign. Television audiences were on the edge of their chairs, people gathered around outside the President's Residence in Rome, waiting for Berlusconi to arrive and hand in his resignation. He did arrive, a bit late, and was met with booing and whistling by the waiting crowds. And finally that evening, Napolitano announced that Berlusconi had resigned, and that he would ask Mario Monti to form a government of non-political experts to guide Italy away from default and into a growth pattern, until the natural end of the legislature in 2013.
Monti becomes "Supermario"
Informal opinion surveys conducted by local television stations were giving the Monti government an 80% or higher approval rating. However Senator Professor Monti has taken a few days before accepting the challenge formally, to sound out all the political parties from PDL itself to the larger opposition parties of the left wing, the centrist parties, all the tiny parties that Italy seems unable to get rid of, then the industrialists, the trade unions and women's groups.
One of the first problems Monti had to face was whether or not to include a certain number of politicians in his cabinet. In the end, he presented the country with a team of 13 ministers, none of whom has a political background. The reason for the exclusion was that several parties did not want to give a vote of confidence to a government containing any minister or leading figure of the previous government. Dr Gianni Letta, one of Berlusconi's leading advisors, helped avoid conflict by declining any ministerial position. At this point, Antonio Di Pietro's 'Italia dei Valori' (Italians who have Values) gave his support. The centre-left 'Partito Democratico' and the Third Pole had already announced unconditioned support. The left-wing SEL led by the popular Nichi Vendola also was willing to support an emergency government, not unconditionally. Silvio Berlusconi also, while clearly upset and taken aback by all this, pulled himself together in time to make a statement to the nation praising the work done by his government, then announcing that he and his party would back this new National Commitment Government, as Monti defined it.
Not so diplomatically, Berlusconi was heard to say that this government would last only as long as he wants it to. However his coalition is now split, because the Lega Nord has moved to the opposition.
Lega Nord Forms the Opposition
The Opposition of the Lega – justified by many since “a democratic country has to have an opposition” - will fight Monti along the unpopular road his government will have to take: pension reforms, property tax, etc. The Lega is particularly upset by the scrapping of the Ministry for Federalism, in which they are really the only ones interested.
Hope
Italians anxiously await to see if the first move will be what the man in the street wants to see most: reduction of the number of politicians in Parliament and in all the municipal, provincial and regional councils, drastic cuts to the salaries and perks of the same, including the pension scheme whereby MP's mature a liberal pension after a single legislature (while workers are told they will have to work at least 40 years and until they reach 67).
Monti's first speeches to the Houses have been memorable. His minsters are all persons of high intellectual, professional and moral profile. Women have been nominated to three key ministries.
Ordinary Italians are enjoying a new atmosphere. No shouting, no gross insults. Few are suffering for the absence of the politicians (who remain in Parliament and will either approve or reject every measure Monti's government proposes). Monti obtained votes of confidence in both houses, unknown in recent history, confirming the unofficial 80+% approval.
Now Italians are waiting for the down side. A local tax on an owned family home, abolished as an electoral gimmick during the last campaign, will probably have to be renewed. No-one will be happy, but it will be accepted. Pension reform will be painful, but will leave more money in the pot for future generations. To those who grumbled about this being a Cabinet of “banks and big business”, Monti issued a gentle reminder of one outstanding moment in his curriculum, when as European Commissioner he levied a fine of nearly 500 million Euros on Microsoft for abusing their dominant position.
The new government has already announced that those categories who have contributed little up to now will be the first to be called on. Monti may have to wait with some of this until the glue holding together the PDL starts to melt. Many think this party will break up, since some agree with the technical government solution, others prefer to go to the vote immediately.
The majority of Italians are standing by optimistically, hoping that this 150th year of Italian Unity will end with some of the enthusiasm and spirit with which the nation was born.
Valerie Wilson - Valerie Wilson has lived, studied and worked in Scotland, Germany and Italy; mainly employed in multi-national companies in shipping ...
