The man who famously ‘screwed an entire country’, the orange-tanned face Mr Berlusconi is no longer Italy’s prime minister. Professor Mario Monti was sworn in by President Napolitano and his government has already obtained the confidence of both Italian chambers. So, can we assume that ‘they will live happily ever after’?
Well, not quite. Indeed Mr Monti, a restrained type of character, an economist who spent a life in academia, before becoming a ‘Brussels man’ (EU Commissioner for nearly 10 years) will definitely bring a new style in Italian and European politics. Don’t expect sexist and racist remarks from him, nor international gaffes and trials for corruption or under-age prostitution.
Although we can rejoice that the most controversial prime minister Italy has ever had exits the scene, he left behind an economically, socially and politically devastated country, and it will require more than a simple change in government to sort out the situation.
In addition Mr Monti, who was appointed to the Senate a few days before becoming prime minister, will lead a government of unelected technocrats (diplomats, academics, civil servants): this is something that happened before (again after a Berlusconi failure in 1995!) and can be helpful in rebuilding a climate of dialogue and respect among political parties that have had an ideological stance against each other for a long while. The new government, supported by all the main political parties, with the exception of the Northern League, will bring new political harmony and lead to the next general election.
At the same time, however, Mr Monti has to fix the budget, under the supervision of the European Commission, and to embrace a programme of radical reforms which will allow Italy to better perform on the economic level.
In addition to a new set of taxes, Monti will try to sort out some of Italy’s structural problems, reforming the pension system and the labour market, and in so doing he will certainly introduce some very unpopular measures. After all, this is the aim of a government of national emergency.
This scenario, however, seems to be quite risky for the Democratic party, which was the main opposition to Berlusconi and was crucial in setting up the Monti government.
In recent months the Democratic party was growing in the opinion polls and a leftist coalition led by the PD would have certainly won a snap election after the fall of Berlusconi. The party’s leader, Pierluigi Bersani, decided, however, to leave aside party politics, putting the country’s interests first and granted unconditional support to a government of technocrats, though some of the other parties in its coalition did not follow him with the same enthusiasm.
Bersani is aware that this government is likely to implement a series of austerity measures and to introduce new taxes and new cuts that will not easily accepted by the country as a whole and by the PD voters in particular. He will try, without PD ministers in the government, to influence its direction and to guarantee that economic rigour does not come at the expense of the low and middle incomes.
There is only a wafer-thin possibility of success. It is indeed a very difficult path, a political challenge that can be easily be defeated by an anti-system and populist approach, similar to that adopted by the Italian centre-right under Berlusconi.
Although with Monti the bunga-bunga era comes to an end, the path to Italian recovery and the transformation of the country in a ‘normal’ European democracy still leaves a long way to go.
—————————————————————————————
Lazzaro Pietragnoli is a journalistand a founder of Labour Friends of Italy
—————————————————————————————