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Berlusconi clout grows in new government
The Wall Street Journal Europe
16 Aprile 2008
Many now hope his government can make some of the bold moves considered necessary to restart Italy's stalled economy and overhaul its bloated state sector. Italian voters cast off tiny parties, revamp political landscape.
ROME — Behind the voter fatigue and familiar faces, Italy's elections have brought a mini revolution, sweeping the stage clean of numerous tiny parties that have complicated the country's politics for de-cades. As a result, Silvio Berlusconi, whose conservative alliance won by a broad margin on Mon-day, is likely to have enough clout to rule with a decisiveness that eluded past governments— even the ones he headed.
While the departing Parliament counted more than 20 political parties, the newly elected one will have only six. Mr Berlusconi^ People of Freedom Party is the biggest. Gone are Italy's two Communist parties, the Greens, the Socialists, a small Catholic party and the extreme right. In their place, Italy now has a system that, finally, resembles that in much of the rest of Europe, with two distinct voting blocs.
"No one was expecting this," said Renato Mannheimer, the head of the Milan-based ISPO polling firm. "This truly changes the pieture." Mr. Mannheimer said voters achieved something that politicians have failed to deliver. Despite years of talk, Italy's political establishment has balked at crafting an election law that would have made it difficult for small political parties to gain representation.
The reason? On both the left and the right, the small parties opposed a law that would have amounted to their political suicide. Instead, said Mr. Mannheimer, "the voters really punished them for it." It will be difficult for Mr. Berlusconi to make a clear break with the politics of the past.
His main ally, the Northern League, posted a stronger than expected showing, grabbing around 8% of the vote. That could embolden the party to press its agenda of gaining greater autonomy for the wealthy north and cutting off aid to the underdeveloped south. Those demands could immediately lead to tensions within the conservative alliance.
However, Mr. Berlusconi won't be faced with the same type of daily in-fighting that dogged his predecessor. Departing Prime Minister Romano Prodi was forced to resign after a tiny party in his nine-member coalition bolted in January. Throughout Mr. Prodi's 20-month government, even routine votes in Parliament were held hostage by small parties demanding political concessions. Few laws were passed, few decisions were made, and voters were tuimed off by the Constant bickering.
In 1994, when Mr. Berlusconi was first elected prime minister, his government fell after only nine months, when one of his; coalition partners pulled out; during his last stint as prime minister, from 2001 to 2006, his government also briefly collapsed because of bickering within his four-party coalition. This time around, however, Mr. Berlusconi has a wide majority in Parliament, and the bulk of his coalition is made up of just two parties. (He also has support from a small party whose stronghold is in Sicily.)
Many now hope his government can make some of the bold moves considered necessary to restart Italy's stalled economy and overhaul its bloated state sector. "Italy's new center-right government, which has a majority in both houses, and the more manageable coalition compared with the previous government, provides an opportunity to implement much-needed economy and fiscal reforms," wrote ratings firm Standard & Poor's in a note.
In a news conference Tuesday, Mr. Berlusconi pledged to get to work at once on two pressing problems: rescuing the near-bankrupt state carrier Alitalia SpA and ending a garbage crisis that has en-gulfed Naples.
Mr. Berlusconi laid out a hands-on approach, saying he would spend three days a week in Naples until the trash problem was solved.
Naples's dumps have been filled for months, and trash has been piling up in the streets, creating wide-spread health risks.
Fixing Alitalia, whose cash re-serves could run dry in a few months, will also be a challenge. Air France-KLM SA's offer to buy Alitalia fell apart earlier this month after it met with stiff union opposition. Mr. Berlusconi had also opposed the deal, and had pledged to recruit a group of Italian investors to make a counteroffer.
Mr Berlusconi also pledged to cut a property tax as one of his first acts as prime minister. However, in order to reduce taxes with-out causing the country's budget deficit to spiral out of control, Mr. Berlusconi will have to slash state spending. That will require a political will that has eluded previous governments.
BY GABRIEL KAHN
Source >
The Wall Street Journal Europe
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