The election

Although it was obviously no good thing that the government collapsed, I was nonetheless quite excited to be in Italy during the collapse and formation of a government. It does seem however that it would almost be impossible to spend a year in Italy without this happening, so frequently do the governments fall. After the actual collapse there was a sense of disappointment but predictability about it, this is what people have come to expect. People told me 'oh don't worry its normal, you get used to it' in fact some told me it was probably better than before... Of course, Silvio Berlusconi is the only man who has ever made a government last the full 5 years, which goes a long way to explaining his popularity, I think.


I know very little about the Italian political system but hopefully enough to write a little bit about it. Prodi suffered a vote of no confidence after he lost the majority in the the Senate, the 9 party coalition he held lost its majority after one Senator from a tiny party with only 3 Senators was forced to resign after he was implicated in a corruption scandal. He protested his innocence. When I was staying with a Turinese friend of my mums around this time I asked if she believed him to which she replied in her own idiomatic way 'He's as innocent as I am Japanese'.


At this point, it was up to the President (whose role is normally seen as purely ceromonial or at least with little power) to choose whether to hold new elections, or to appoint a government of 'Technocrats' to sort out the electoral process so that it did not collapse so often. The problem with the current system is that although the proportional representation system on which some of it works has many benefits, obviously including providing representation to the parties at the extremes of the political spectrum. However this also means that the coalitions relied heavily on small parties for support which, as the collapsed showed, was unsustainable. I think the President was keen to go for the Govt of technocrats option but Berlusconi and those on the right refused to agree to this so an election was duly called. I think this is a massive shame as there is little hope of real reforms taking place, the last ones took place under a Berlusconi government and it is clear from the recent collapse that they did nothing to improve things, the politicians just adjust the laws to their own benefits.


I find it strange, and quite antiquated that postal voting is only available to Italians living abroad (bearing in mind that in Sheffield last year you could vote on the internet). Students here have no such luxury, almost everyone I know who is from outside Bologna went home for the elections. I'm told you can get reduced travel on trains but I don't know if this was valid for two of my friends who flew back to Sicily. The University closed down for the day to allow students to go home to vote.


It was to absolutely noones surprise that Berlusconi won the election, but one thing which did shock a few people was the sudden rise in popularity of 'Lega Nord' (The Northern League) an extreme right party who believe, in a nutshell, that the Northerners pay their taxes purely to support the southeners. They suggest the North separates or at least gets autonomy and even have a name for this new country 'Padania' though I suspect rather a lot of people in 'Padania' would not be very happy about this new national identity which has been created for them. Aside from this particuliarity the Lega are an extreme right party like any other, anti-immigration, anti europe, anti-high taxation (which is obviously just going down south to subsidise the southerners...). Nationally, which in this case really means just in the North, they achieved 8.3% - almost double their taking in the election on 2006. Their racist posters for this election beggared belief.



Their rise reminds me a lot of that of the Front National in France. Like there, the Lega have risen in popularity mainly with working-class voters who are suffering the worst for the slow economy and rising living costs. Also like the FN they appear to provide quickfix answers to complicated questions. Struggling to find a job? Oh its those immigrants who took them. Similarly to France where main stream parties have entered into coalitions and campaigned with the FN, Berlusconi ran for parliament in this election with the Lega's support.



In the pub the night of the results we were drinking with two guys thoroughly upset about the result, one of them worked in the solar panel industry and was concerned that a Berlusconi win could cost him his job, as unlike Prodi, Berlusconi has no intention of putting money into the sector. Their reaction I think was fairly typical for Bologna where the results do not reflect the national count, in Emilia Romagna and particularly Bologna - famous for its left wing politics - the left won an outright victory with 49% - Berlusconi only got 28%. This is compared to the closer result nationally which was 47 to 37% in favour of Berlusconi in both the Senate and Chamber.



In contrast with those two guys however, at lunch on Tuesday two of my friends announced they had also Berlusconi and friend of theirs also there had voted Lega, when I asked him why he retorted 'Do you want to continue being able to walk the streets safely at night?' Well I'm not too worried about that to be honest, but I am worried about Italy under a Berlusconi/extreme right government.