Just two years after a left-leaning coalition led by Romano Prodi came into power, 47 million Italians are heading back to the polls to simultaneously elect 630 Deputies and 315 Senators. “Il Professore” has exited the stage; the contest is now between “Buonisto” and “Cavaliere,” a match far removed from a “commedia dell’arte.” This duel pits former “socialist” Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni against the “liberal” billionaire Silvio Berlusconi. On the surface, these are two irreconcilable visions of politics, or perhaps irreconcilable with Italy itself, as against a backdrop of popular disillusionment, both candidates struggled during a “sad” and “boring” campaign – “one of the dullest Italy has ever seen,” according to national newspapers – to outline the future decisions required to address the recurrent political and economic ills of the Peninsula.
With a considerably worn political system, the country has indeed become ungovernable: a law passed in December 2005 by a minister from “Cavaliere’s” team automatically assigns a majority of 340 seats out of 630 in the Chamber of Deputies to the party or coalition that secures even a single vote more than the other. A country of “old political figures,” according to writer Umberto Eco, who also criticizes in the Spanish daily “El Pais” (quoted by “Courrier International”), the “oldest political class in the world.” This assertion is supported by figures from the daily “La Repubblica”: only one in four citizens is under 25 years old, and the youth vote hardly counts anymore within the parties. 10% of young people aged 15 to 19 neither study nor work. Italy, as per a Swiss newspaper, lags in investments in knowledge, ranking 24th out of 30 for the number of researchers.
Despite being a member of the G7, the world’s most powerful nations, Italy does not shine through its economic performance: the outgoing government of Romano Prodi drastically revised down its growth forecast for 2008 from 1.5% to 0.6%, a figure further reduced by the International Monetary Fund to 0.3%. Along with Greece, Italy’s public debt is one of the highest in Europe: 103% of GDP. Even though the unemployment rate slightly decreased in 2006, no less than 20% of families officially live in poverty – the minimum wage is around 600 euros – according to official statistics. Just over half of Italians, 51.4%, believe their personal economic situation has worsened compared to 36.1% in March 2006, according to a survey by Demos-coop published at the end of March.
Should everything be attributed to the Mafia, increasingly organized and visible? In Naples, where it has infiltrated the waste treatment industry, it is somewhat perceived as an “internal growth vector,” providing financial aid to the neediest Neapolitan families for buying school books, covering tuition fees, or even food expenses. Beyond the clichés – the South lagging behind the North or Milan, Europe’s most prosperous region, weighed down by the south – should one also blame a persistent regionalism that maintains mistrust among major cities, influencing even significant appointments in administrations and commercial companies? Is it finally appropriate to blame a shadow economy – 30% according to various estimates, low credit card usage, cash payments – endorsed in the 80s by the banking system and without which no “arrangement” would be possible?
Whatever the outcome of the election – a grand coalition or a significant advantage for one of the contenders for Palazzo Chigi – only a general mobilization of Italians will allow the country to overcome its contradictions. The announced indecision of a third of the voters who declare they will make their electoral choice between “their home and their polling station” bodes ill for the necessary reawakening of Garibaldi’s Nation.
