The Italian Elections...Finally! (April 1996)
The Italians will go to elections on Sunday, April 21st. Finally! After almost a year and a half with a government that had absolutely no legitimacy in respect of the will expressed by voters two years ago, the Italian public is going to be given its word once again. That is, those who have not in the meantime become so disgusted with the system of politics as to opt for abstention. And who could blame them.
After Prime Minister Lamberto Dini’s resignation in December, Antonio Maccanico was appointed to coordinate the constitutional reforms in order to avoid going to elections during the Italian Semester presidency of the European Union. As if going to elections were something to be ashamed of and not a natural circumstance in any democracy! However, when the two leaders of the largest political alliances, Massimo D’Alema of the center-left Olive Tree Pole and Silvio Berlusconi of the center-right Liberty Pole, were unable to come to an accord concerning these constitutional reforms, it became evident that, whether D’Alema, Lamberto Dini, and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro liked it or not, the Italian people were going to have to be called for a consultation. That called for the dissolution of Parliament and the temporary appointment of a new Prime Minister who would “ferry” the country for the short period until elections. President Scalfaro had an extremely original proposal for this appointment: Lamberto Dini!! Being a man above the various parts, a technocrat, rather than a politician, only he could guarantee that the election process would proceed fairly and with total neutrality.
This premise was, of course, totally untrue. Lamberto Dini had demonstrated in an entire year as “technical” Premier that he was growing ever more attached to the political arena, and more particularly to his honorable seat in that scene, and, that he was happy to be maneuvered and manipulated by the expectations of the center-left coalition. However, the center-right accepted Dini’s re-appointment because they were finally getting what they wanted: going back to the voters for a confirmation of the mandate given to them in April 1994 and usurped from them in December of the same year.
Who could have imagined the unimaginable? After more than a year of swearing by his neutrality and his total disinterest in politics, Lamberto Dini announced that he was forming his own party called, Lista Dini, and would therefore be running in the up-coming elections. This, after the election campaigns had already begun, and with them, the particularly strict rules guiding the controversial subject of “par condicio” or equal media exposure. The center-left had insisted on these strict rules which greatly limit the advertising that candidates may use, and with that, the information available to the public regarding those candidates. This, of course, because the leader of the center-right pole was a former media magnate and the center-left feared unfair competition.
What about the over exposure to media that the new candidate Lamberto Dini would have with his face plastered all over television screens and newspapers as the ruling Prime Minister and host to such important events as the Inter-governmental Conference of the European Union in Turin? This slight contradiction didn’t seem to upset the center-left whatsoever. In fact, when the center-right shouted unfair play, and asserted that Dini’s re-appointment had been accepted by them only because he was to guarantee an election process in total neutrality, Massimo D’Alema came up with the most lame excuse of false logic we’ve heard yet, and we’ve been hearing plenty.
According to D’Alema, in a remark made with his usual sarcasm, he saw nothing strange in Dini’s candidacy since almost all prime ministers become candidates in political elections. D’Alema purposefully forgot that the other prime ministers that he was referring to possessed one important difference to the candidate in question: they held their post due to popular consensus and were, therefore, not expected to be neutral to any political bias!
With the dissolution of Parliament until the results of the elections, Dini now has complete power, and he has wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation. He and his ministers have been calling one decree after another with the excuse that the country needs to be governed even during an election campaign. However, the provisions that have been taken involve suspicious government spending that one newspaper has called “generous Easter eggs.” Dini has authorized raises, paid long- standing back pensions, and issued free lunch tickets to public employees who work a split shift, to name only a few. Although one can hardly deny the justice of the back pension issue, his timing certainly warrants our skepticism. He had over a year to take such initiatives. Why is he doing all this now, and without a Parliament that can object to where the money is going to come from? It is no wonder that Silvio Berlusconi has his own name for these Easter egg decrees: “acchiappavoti” or vote grabbers.
The poles have shown a clear and equal division of the voters between the two main coalitions. What the poles have also shown is a great number of undecided and an unprecedented high percentage of voters who intend to abstain. The events in the political scene have been far too complicated for the average citizen to have the time or desire to follow. The vote of the referendum two years ago expressed a clear desire for a majority bi-partisan system, similar to the American one. Instead of the dozen or so parties that were then in existence and that the Italians had said with that vote were too many, there are now over 40! It’s no wonder that they feel that their vote has been betrayed and that they don’t want to give up another Sunday in the countryside to stay at home to vote, when their vote goes unheeded.
April 1996
Return to home page Return to list
Editors interested in subscribing to this syndicated column may request information by sending an e-mail to: giogia@giogia.com