Italian Politics- Monumental Change between
1996-2001- A Changed
The
ANNOTICO Report
In 1996,
(1) Parties on the Left and Right changed their Names and Attitudes.(2)
Coalitions formed BEFORE the Election and presented their leaders as PM
candidates (3) Northern League decided to enter the government (4) The
Christian Democrats fragmented (5) Others (socialists, social-democrats,
liberals, republicans...) nearly disappeared mostly as a result of "Clean
Hands" (6)
A Symbolic
consequence has been a restoration of celebrating "The Day of
Remembrance" of Sites of Fascist and Non Fascist WWII victims.
A
Practical consequence is that 3.5 million Italian Citizens that live abroad can
vote in Italian Elections.
That is
not to say that there will not be further changes. Italians are VERY creative!!
:)
Italian elections: 1994-2001: a
changing
Newropeans Magazine
Written by Diego Malcangi
March
2001, the Italian chamber president Luciano Violante was officially closing the legislature: during the
five years starting with 1996, Italians hadn't been asked
to vote for a new Parliament, but the government headed by Romano Prodi had fallen after just two years and had been followed
by a new one (D'Alema, who had to re-form his
government one year later), and then another one (Amato).
The main reason was the withdraw of the Communist Refoundation
party from the majority, and this happened because the center-left
wasn't - at that time - a coalition based on a common program, but
just something more than an electoral alliance, united by the desire to defeat
Berlusconi's camp.
Usually, until the '90es, in Italy any majority was formed into the Parliament,
after the vote, and never presented before: it would have been quite useless,
because left (PCI) and right (MSI) were anyway excluded, and the game was
always limited at the Christ democrats and some smaller parties (Craxi's socialists, and the Republicans, the Liberals, the
Social-democrats...).
So, even if Italy was still changing its governments at an impressive pace,
something new was happening:
- left and right changed their names and attitudes, and they had their first
governmental experiences: MSI - now AN (National Alliance) - in the
first Berlusconi government (1994-1996); PCI - then PDS, now DS (Leftist
Democrats) ? briefly in the Ciampi
government (1993-94), then under Prodi, and finally
leading a government with D'Alema (he was
the PDS secretary, and by the way the PDS was the main party in the coalition);
- both coalitions, in 1996, presented their leaders (Prodi
and Berlusconi) as the President of the Council (chief of the Government) in
case of victory. Italian electoral system - even having changed from the
old proportional one - didn't allow the direct election of the premier, so the
names were just indicated?;
- the Northern League (Lombard League had integrated other autonom!
ist movements in the north, and had an impressive
strength at that time) also decided to enter the national government (with
Berlusconi's Forza Italia). The Northern League
switched its alliance, leading to the fall of Berlusconi's government and to
new elections (1996, won by Prodi's center-left
coalition).
Christ democrats were fragmented in several small parties, some in the
center-left, some in the center-right.
The others
(socialists, social-democrats, liberals, republicans...) had disappeared (or
nearly disappeared) after the 1992 huge inquiry on corruption, named -clean hands?.
But there was something else happening, in those years:
The Chamber voted nearly unanimously in favour, and
he felt he was close to win the battle of his life (Senate didn't approve the
law until several months later).
He walked down, at the center of the hall, and the president of the Chamber, Luciano Violante, did the same:
an ex-fascist and an ex-communist were suddenly hugging before a full,
applauding Chamber.
A symbolic consequence has been the end of an historical taboo (and since then,
the political leaders - leftists and rightists, with nearly no exception - celebrate the Day of Remembrance visiting two sites,
both on the north-eastern border of Italy: Risiera di
San Sabba (a concentration camp) and Basovizza (where there was one of those carsic
holes in which the forces of Tito apparently threw several thousand Italians.
And the practical consequence is that now three millions Italians residing
abroad are allowed to elect their deputies (12) and senators (6) who will sit
in the next italian
Parliament. It's more or less 2% of the Parliament, representing the emigrants
and talking about their needs and wishes.
They're not Italian resident deputies elected by mail: they're Italian emigrants,
living abroad and elected by Italians abroad to sit in the Rome
Parliament.
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