ROME — A brief sampling of politicians’ remarks made on Monday underline how
far Italy is from forming a government after last week’s surprisingly
inconclusive general election.
“No solution can be reached without the Democratic Party,” Massimo D’Alema, a
former prime minister, said in Rome. His party is the lead member of the
center-left coalition that won the most votes in the election, which translates
into 340 seats in the 615-member Chamber of Deputies, making its support of any
prospective government truly indispensable.
Meanwhile, in Palermo, Angelino Alfano said Silvio
Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party and the center-right coalition “have
emerged as the winners.” In fact, his party came in third and his coalition second, and will have only
20% of the lower-house seats. But Mr. Alfano sought to make the point that his
coalition was surging in polls and saw itself as on course to win the next
election.
Ultimately, the next election is what all today’s maneuvering is about. That’s even more true of the Five-Star Movement, a protest movement led by
Beppe Grillo that won more than a quarter of votes and enough seats to make it a
potential kingmaker. Mr. Grillo strongly believes he can emerge the outright
winner if Italy’s establishment politicians remain true to form and try to
govern through an unwieldy coalition. That’s one reason why he is tempted to
hope that happens. On Monday, he caustically suggested his rivals opt for a
cabinet led by Corrado Passera, a former bank chief executive who served as
Mario Monti’s industry minister in the technocratic government that is widely
blamed for halfhearted reform efforts that, along with austerity measures
required by Europe, led Italy into a prolonged recession.
1 comment:
A populist politician loves statistics like these. He can claim that austerity hasn’t worked and that a new path is needed. He can say he will stand up against Angela Merkel and the rest who are imposing their draconian will on the economy and its people.
Nevermind that excessive debts shackle the economy to years of stagnation. People will point to the Japanese experience but
Italy’s own history is just as pertinent, if not more. For over a decade, successive governments have tried in vain to
stimulate the economy through fiscal policy and all this has achieved is higher debt – economic growth has remained
stubbornly weak. Furthermore, we forget that surging bond yields in 2011 were pushing Italy ever closer to a default
and a bailout.
Unfortunately, the austerity debate is difficult to couch in black and white terms, which makes it such an easy tool for political gain.
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