Playing Politics in Rome
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
ENTER GIULIO VII Playing Politics in Rome BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome After an absurd government crisis that mercifully lasted less than three weeks, Giulio VI became Giulio VII. Giulio...
...Throughout the Cold War decades the PCI's association with the Soviet Union rendered it an unviable alternative to the string of governing coalitions whose life expectancy was, in the words of London's Economist, no longer than "the gestation period of a horse...
...Yet that is not really why the DC and PSI refuse to grant them any power...
...Although long on speculation and innuendo, they have been short on straight facts and concrete analyses...
...It fell when Socialist Party (PSI) Secretary Bettino Craxi, apparently eager to show up the weakness of the country's existing political structure and strengthen his position for the parliamentary elections that must be held no later than May 1992, pulled out of a five-party coalition...
...There is a general feeling that things proceed simply by the force of inertia...
...Their leaders possess neither the energy nor the determination to vigorously tackle the nation's major problems—namely the deficit, high inflation, the Mafia, and the staggering inefficiency of public services...
...Deeply insulted, the PRI leaders walked out, leaving a fourparty coalition, and joined the opposition in voting against the new government...
...The Christian Democrats, understandably, simply do not want the nation'ssecond largest party (with approximately 25 per cent of the popular vote) in the government...
...Tightly controlled by Craxi, the PSI capitalizes on the fact that its 14 per cent of the popular vote allows it to exert a parliamentary veto...
...Within a week Craxi began describing it as "ineffectual...
...Nobody has even attempted to explain to the nation how or why the same Prime Minister who was forced to resign, and essentially the same Cabinet members who had been labeled as incompetent, could three weeks later be back behind their old desks with the support and participation of those responsible for bringing them down in the first place...
...The sixth government he headed over the span of his own long career was toppled at the end of March...
...Such a scenario is unlikely, however, given the nature of the coalition...
...The Socialist leader is also pressing for Italy to switch from aparliamentary republic to a presidential one—possibly he sees himself as an Italian François Mitterrand—but the changeover would necessitate addressing so many complex constitutional questions that thus far it has been rejected by all other political forces...
...The coalition's second strongest component, the Socialist Party, is a mildly reformist grouping short on ideology and keen on the game of politics...
...A responsible minority has attempted to encourage greater involvement on the part of the populace, but nobody ever pays much attention to the appeals of disgruntled intellectuals...
...After the usual ballet of consultations, communiqués full of lofty promises and photographs of politicians beaming at each other, a new Cabinet is sworn in much like the old...
...He may approve individual pieces of legislation agreed upon in the course of the negotiations, but that is all...
...Regrettably, the old maestro's achievement was marred by a coda that has left Italy's 50th government jumpy and significantly weaker than the previous one...
...But the 72-year-old DC leader put it back together again on April 18, hence the relatively good-natured nickname Giulio VII...
...The Prime Minister's surreptitious move was announced on the TV evening news, making any possible correction out of the question...
...Apologies were tendered and sweet words uttered, but PRI Secretary Giorgio La Malfa, humiliated before his constituents by being taken for granted, stuck to his decision...
...During the first 10 days of April Andreotti worked with the patience of Job and the skillofamagician...
...I'll risk the inference that the growing lack of spirituality in Italian life is one of the factors that prompted Pope John Paul II to make his May 1 Centesimus Annus an extremely severe indictment of capitalism...
...The DC must be careful as well to preserve its special relationship with the Vatican, perhaps the party's most critical supporter at election time...
...He first tried in vain to breathe new life into his government through a Cabinet reshuffle...
...The Italian media have been notably derelict in confronting the situation...
...Giulio is, of course, Giulio Andreotti of the Christian Democratic Party (DC), Italy's dominant political organization for the past 45 years...
...No massive public demonstrations have been mounted, nor have there been the kind of fluctuations in the voting that might send a message upward...
...Today, in the light of a break with Moscow, the collapse of the Soviet empire, and the PCI's recent formal decision to change its symbol and reconstitute itself as the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), there is little ideological reason to keep the ex-Communists in political limbo...
...Theoretically, besides affording a sense of stability, this could result in the enactment of a substantial legislative program drawn up by the majority...
...Its strongest component, the Christian Democratic Party, is a moderate formation with elderly leaders who are unwilling to antagonize any sector of the electorate and therefore are more disposed to compromise than to action...
...Silvio F. Senigallia reports regularly for The New Leader on Italian affairs...
...Never before had he been dealt apoorer hand, squeezed ashewas between Craxi's aggressive ambition and the surly restlessness of President Francesco Cossiga...
...To be sure, they strongly opposed Italy's limited military role in die Persian Gulf War and were ready to renege on the country's commitment to NATO...
...The pursuit of power for power's sake seems to be the only objective the two parties have in common...
...Then he set about reassembling the coalition that has run Italy for much of the last decade—consisting of the DC, the PSI and the small Republican (PRI), Social Democratic and Liberal parties...
...The Socialists are merely stalling for time, waiting to benefit from the PDS' expected loss of strength...
...The formula emerged in 1963, when the Socialists abandoned an opposition role alongside the Communist Party (PCI) to become a near-permanent government partner...
...In addition, DC Secretary Arnaldo Forlani and the other Christian Democratic bigwigs, instead of backing their colleague, waited to see which way the ball would bounce...
...As long as the standard of living is satisfactory (miracles will never cease), few care about the country's basic problems unless they are directly affected by them...
...The central flaw in Italy's political system is the need for multiparty governing coalitions at both the national and local levels...
...Since then, the DC has been forced to build alliances, initially with three small middle-of-the-road parties, later through the so-called Center-Left formula...
...Actually, Italians are so fed up with the endless intraparty squabbles and the same old politicians playing musical chairs that their weariness has lately turned into resignation and cynicism...
...If Craxi can be held in check, the government might remain intact for a while...
...An intermittent journalists' strike, affecting television as well as the newspapers, conveniently curtailed their coverage of the crisis itself, adding to the incomprehensibility of their daily wavering between pessimism and optimism...
...And so it goes on, if not ad infinitum certainly ad nauseam...
...Pressed for time and afraid of a last-minute change of mind on the part of the PSI, Andreotti madeagrievous 1lth-hour mistake: He slighted the PRI, the DCs traditional ally since the end of World War II, by short-changing it in the distribution of Cabinet portfolios...
...There is no evidence that the proverbial man in the street is bent on redressing the lamentable state of affairs...
...The Christian Democrats were last able to muster a majority of the popular vote 37 years ago...
...The whole crisis was senseless from the outset because it did not involve any specific issue...
...In different circumstances a reluctance to rock the boat could be interpreted as contentment, but that is not the case here...
...Its rather rapid resolution was equally nonsensical...
...Andreotti turned in a bravura performance, while most of the establishment held its collective breath at the prospect of early balloting—regarded here as a salto nel buio, or leap in the dark...
...Craxi's desire to take electoral advantage of the current disarray in the reformed party's ranks no doubt contributed to his toppling Giulio VI, and may yet tempt him to unseat Giulio VII when he sees an opening...
...Typically, what happens is that through procrastination and compromise a government fumbles along for a number of months, slips on the ubiquitous banana peel and comes crashing down...
...In short, Italy's easy good nature is giving way to an atmosphere of coldhearted consumerism and self-interest...
Vol. 74 • May 1991 • No. 6
