Thursday, April 13,

Italy Election Result: An Italy, Divided and Hostile?

The ANNOTICO Report

 

I often criticize American writers for their total ignorance of Italy. I criticize European writers, especially British, about their presumed "superior" attitude toward Italy. In this case, I must criticize an Italian journalist, because he engages in too much "woe is me Italy", perhaps because he is not familiar enough with other nation's imperfections, including those of the US.

 

My Comments about this article are:

 

# 1. Franchi complains about the oddity of two different Chambers of the Legislature having Majorities from Different Parties?

In the US It happens frequently.

If he wants to talk about oddity, let's talk about the US Electoral College, meaning that the US Doesn't have Direct Elections.

Enjoy explaining THAT to democracy proponents :)]

 

#2. Franchi complains about  the lack of " civilized bipolarism: the granting of a minimum of reciprocal legitimacy by the opposing forces"  

He has not apparently ever heard of Florida.

The Democrats are STILL claiming (with some justification) the Bush government is Illegitimate!!!!  

 

Has he ever witnessed the "mud slinging" and "name calling" and Accusations in American Election campaigns at all levels????

Or has he every heard the otherwise staid English in their raucous and scurrilous rants in Parliament????? 

 

On other Thought: If you think about it:

 

 In the US the Two Extreme positions claim the "high ground" with Moderates within both parties seeking to move their parties toward the Center, some times for ideological reasons, sometimes for practical reasons; to get elected!!!!

 

In Italy, we have Centrist parties, ( Left and Right ) with the Extremes within both parties seeking to move their parties toward the Extremes.

 

In reality, we have distinctions without a significant difference.

 

More important, In my estimation, Italy is more aware that Peoples are NOT engaged  in a battle of IDEOLOGIES (Gay Rights, Abortion Rights, etc, those are  all incidental "distractions", even though one of the great seats of Ideology is in their midst, the Catholic Church ), but it is a CLASS STRUGGLE. A battle of the Robber Barons (getting even Richer by exploiting the nations resources and people), vs. the Have Nots and Middle Class, (who are not much better than indentured servants, or cannon fodder for Robber Baron wars)  

 

 

TWO DIVIDED, HOSTILE ITALYS

 

Corriere Della Sera

Paolo Franchi

April 11, 2006

 

We are going to remember this April 10, 2006 for a long time.

 

 It has overturned all the forecasts, despite a hair’s breadth victory – contested by the House of Freedoms – for the Union in the Chamber of Deputies, and a Senate result that is on a knife edge, waiting to be decided by the votes of non-resident Italians. Silvio Berlusconi came very close to pulling off an incredible comeback without cannibalizing his allies.

 

The Union nearly saw an apparently certain victory slip through its fingers. Despite yesterday’s close shave, the awakening this morning will still be rudest for Romano Prodi and the reformist leaders of the Center-left. All this is already crystal clear. What is unclear is who will govern the country.

 

Italy is a country where the difference between government and opposition is a handful of votes, and thanks to an extremely odd electoral law, there is even a risk of two different majorities in the Chamber and Senate.  (See Comment #1.)


There is nothing strange or wrong in this. That is how – electoral law apart, of course – all alternating democracies function. Where there is effective stalemate, they also have – as in the emblematic case of Germany – a significant fallback solution to get over the period of greatest uncertainty: the Grand Coalition.

 

The problem is that the Italy of April 10 is not just a country in which Center-right and Center-left have substantially the same number of votes, and the winners have won by the skin of their teeth.

 

The problem is that since 1994, when after the fall of the First Republic voters were asked for the first time to decide who should govern between two opposing coalitions, Italy has failed to move one millimeter closer to the precondition of modern, civilized bipolarism: the granting of a minimum of reciprocal legitimacy by the opposing forces.

 

It is more than twelve years since Mr Berlusconi “took the field”, as he puts it, but deep down the Left still considers him to be a usurper, not just for his conflict of interests, and thinks the half of the electorate that votes for him is at best naive.

For more than twelve years, Mr Berlusconi and his voters have considered the opposing camp – the other half of Italy – to be a gruesome assemblage of diehard, post-, and neo-communists, so-called “strong powers” and useful idiots. This election campaign has if anything worsened the situation. There are fewer and fewer proposals, manifestos, or ideas for a country that is in genuine decline.

 

As the days passed, the Center-right and Center-right – the former leaving no stone unturned in the effort to overturn the forecasts and the latter imagining it had victory in its pocket – put increasing emphasis on the priority of mobilizing their heartland electorates. It was as if the popular vote had become a modern-day Divine Judgment.

 

The two coalitions have at least obtained one shared success, if we look on the bright side and ignore reality. Voters have reversed a consolidated trend and returned to the polls in their droves. Is it because of taxes? Of course it is, but more than anything else they were renewing an old acquaintanceship.

 

If anyone wants to get excited about this, go ahead. But those who seek, against all the odds, to reason know that it will be much more difficult to form a government that governs, and above all to hold Italy together. Or rather, the two Italys.

English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it

 

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