Following the dramatic elections in February, Italy has been struggling to build a government capable of handling the country's continuing economic crisis. In resolving the first issue, another has been exposed: a political crisis in the form of collapsing confidence in the legitimate political order.
As Italy has moved towards resolving the stalemate between the left and right parties, and between the establishment and its opponents, it has been exposing itself to the risks inherent in failing to reform. Popular sentiment has turned against the status quo. The major political parties, with vested interests, are making laws, hidden behind complicated electoral rules and detached from the people in whose name they act. They exist in an abstract political world, and hand down abstract solutions to abstract problems that bear little similarity to the issues people see day-to-day. While reform of these institutions is delayed, disillusionment will grow.
After the months of negotiation and stand-offs following the election, the Italian Parliament made its first step towards breaking the deadlock with the re-election of President Giorgio Napolitano (Davies, 2013). His return brought about the resignation of the leader of the Partito Democratico, Pier Luigi Bersani, who had failed to secure a majority at the February election and backed losing candidates for the Presidency (BBC, 2013). Bersani, as the leader of the largest party, had held the responsibility to form a government but had resisted pressure from President Napolitano to resolve the deadlock by creating a grand coalition between the left-leaning Democrats and Berlusconi's right-wing faction. With Bersani's resignation, the responsibility fell to his former deputy, Enrico Letta, who agreed to take up the task set by Napolitano and formed the grand coalition (Telegraph, 2013).
Under Bersani the Democrats had been attempting to create a strictly reforming minority government. The aim was to rely on support from Beppe Grillo's Movimento 5 Stelle on a bill-by-bill basis, to pass legislation designed to heal Italy's political system (Hooper, March 2013). However, without a formal agreement no stable government could be formed.
Letta, in choosing a grand coalition, was able to get around Grillo's determination not to bargain with, and to sweep away,
the old order or to obstruct political action if no other means is
available (Guardian, 2013). But the coalition path brings with it different problems.
From within his own party, Letta faces obvious opposition due to the decision to ally in government with the Democrats major opponent Il Popolo della Liberta. Since prior to the election, that support has been coalescing around the young Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi. Renzi is considered by some to represent a new age for the Italian - and European - left (Davies, 24 April 2013), and is believed to have support from the left, centre and right of the political spectrum. Further, Letta has also risked a diplomatic backlash from other European nations by opposing austerity and a new tax rise - both of which are meant to deal with the crippling national debt - while Italy's economic crisis continues.
By cooperating with the right, Letta weakens his position within his own party and with their supporters. By building that grand coalition and reinforcing the establishment, Letta weakens his chances of finding any ground with the Movimento 5 Stelle. By opposing austerity to appease the left, the right and the people, he forfeits the support of the international conservative austerity orthodoxy that may have offered some backing, as it did to former premier Mario Monti.
But of the three, the most dangerous thing is to prove Grillo right. By constructing a grand coalition reminiscent of the trasformismo of pre-war Italian politics - where political left and right merged in the collapse of the old order to protect the establishment - the major parties risk giving weight to Grillo's rhetoric. The risk is not posed by Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle themselves, though; rather it is posed by what they represent: the organised face of political disaffection, disillusionment and disenfranchisement.
The new government has slowly begun to address reform in some small ways. One of great significance is the greater number of women than ever before who have been chosen for cabinet appointments (Hooper, May 2013).
But to stave off the potential disaster that awaits when confidence in the legitimate political process completely collapses, reform of the political process must be the primary focus. Italy needs to, first and foremost, move towards a new political settlement that restores confidence that laws can be made, and public sector funds can be handled, through a legitimate representative democratic process.
However, even the economic crisis facing Italy is no excuse for delay. Despite the weight of debt, the establishment provoking civil strife by losing the confidence of the people, and then failing to respond, will have much more profound long term consequences.
'The danger in all of this is that if sufficient people conclude that there is nothing in the conventional political process for them then they may opt for more simplistic and extreme options on offer. I remain an optimist. But across the mainstream political spectrum there is a candid recognition of the danger.' (Mr Charles Kennedy, 2006)
References
Lizzy Davies' 'Giorgio Napolitano re-elected as Italy's president, prompting relief and protests'; in The Guardian; 20 April 2013.
'Profile: Pier Luigi Bersani'; on the BBC; 19 April 2013.
'Italy's Enrico Letta forms new government with Berlusconi ally as deputy PM'; in The Telegraph; 27 April 2013.
John Hooper's 'M5S says it will not help form Italian government'; in The Guardian; 1 March 2013.
'Beppe Grillo attacks Italian president's re-election'; in The Guardian; 21 April 2013.
Lizzy Davies' 'Matteo Renzi: "we want to restart Italy"'; in The Guardian; 24 April 2013.
John Hooper's 'Italian women rise to positions of power under new prime minister'; in The Guardian; 3 May 2013.
George Dawson quote taken from 'Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-gooders'; BBC, 2010.
Charles Kennedy's 'How we lost people's trust'; in The Guardian; 4 August 2006.
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