Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Political Landscape
I
t takes a while to make any sense of Italian politics. I won't pretend to be an expert, but
after a few years of reading the newspapers, you begin to get a sense of the game. Which is
not to say that it's at all reasonable, just that it becomes somewhat more intelligible.
America remains by-and-large a two-party system, despite the occasional intrusion of some
pip-squeak third party. But these efforts of a third team to get into the game always seem to
fail. I think it's because Americans view politics mainly through the lens of sports competi-
tion. The notion of a World Series or a SuperBowl with more than two teams fighting it out
just doesn't cut it. So we keep things simple by having just Democrats and Republicans.
In Italy, on the other hand, there are lots of political parties, some larger and some smaller.
Each of them is continually jockeying for position, seeking to expand its popular base, and
making back-scratching deals with other parties. Can you imagine an American newspaper
devoting six to eight full pages every day to summarizing the positions of various politicians
on ongoing events of public concern? Whenever there's an event like a kidnapping, a war
in the Middle East or a general strike, or a controversial issue like changes in the election
law or the immigration laws, everybody weighs in. Every official party spokesman stakes
out a position through a public statement. These serve to reassure the faithful that the party
is responding to the event with the correct political line. At the same name, some barely per-
ceptible nuance is introduced by means of which the party seeks to differentiate itself from
its rivals while simultaneously indicating a possible openness to closer collaboration.
When we got here in August of 2004, Silvio Berlusconi was the Prime Minister. It was the
second time the Italians had voted him into office. Berlusconi is one of the wealthiest men
in Italy and the owner of multiple TV stations and newspapers that typically report on his
exploits quite favorably. After his first term he spent time in jail after being convicted of
various abuses of power. Unrepentant, he claimed that he was merely being framed by his
politicalenemies.Enoughofthepopulaceboughtthestorytoelecthimtoofficeforasecond
term.
What brought down Berlusconi the second time was the massive economic distress that fol-
lowed Italy's conversion to the Euro. Within a year after the introduction of the Euro, prices
had doubled. I've yet to find a coherent and credible explanation of this phenomenon, and
it's strange how little has been written about it. But it seems to have happened in each of
the European countries we've visited that adopted the Euro. Pam and I heard laments from
working people in France and Greece that were identical to what we heard from our neigh-
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