Italy on Friday appeared to be heading for early elections or a government shake-up after Silvio Berlusconi moved to expel dissidents from his People of Liberty party, reducing his parliamentary majority to a thread.Although an acrimonious divorce between the prime minister, 73, and Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of their party, had been on the cards for months, there was still confusion over how much life was left in Mr Berlusconi's two-year-old centre-right coalition.The rift ends 16 years of collaboration between the two politicians and sounds the death knell, at least for the moment, of Italy's brief flirtation with a two-party system.Mr Fini, 58, a former neo-fascist who has moved to the mainstream, insisted at a press conference in Rome that he would remain in his post as speaker of parliament, in spite of Mr Berlusconi's efforts to remove him.
Although an acrimonious divorce between the prime minister, 73, and Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of their party, had been on the cards for months, there was still confusion over how much life was left in Mr Berlusconi's two-year-old centre-right coalition.
The rift ends 16 years of collaboration between the two politicians and sounds the death knell, at least for the moment, of Italy's brief flirtation with a two-party system.
Mr Fini, 58, a former neo-fascist who has moved to the mainstream, insisted at a press conference in Rome that he would remain in his post as speaker of parliament, in spite of Mr Berlusconi's efforts to remove him.
Fini's new group, Future and Liberty for Italy, has presently 33 deputies and 10 Senators. Although Fini's group will continue to belong to the majority, without their vote on bills, Berlusconi no longer has a majority. This makes it very difficult to force confidence votes on key legislation.
Berlusconi presently cannot risk resigning without backroom bargaining with other political forces such as Casini's Center Democrats. Casini, who has more price tags on him than a Walmart giveaway, does not have the numbers to substitute Fini. In theory parliament could simply express another majority which excludes Berlusconi's personal political entity without resorting to elections. Appeal to popular will is just hot air. There are no constitutional grounds for curtailing the legislature at the moment.
As for Fini resigning as President (Speaker) of the House, it's out of the question. On the contrary, the House President was traditionally chosen among opposition members until Berlusconi reversed that practice in 1994 by electing a 27 year old dance hall number, Irena Pivetti, as his House Speaker and a pataintellectual, Carlo Scognamiglio, as Senate President.
The best strategy is to leave Berlusconi in power without a rubber-stamp parliament to satisfy his every caprice. If on the contrary he were to resign by deliberately forcing a confidence vote to his disadvantage, it would be a national priority to create a coalition to change the electoral law, deal with ordinary administration, and- very wishful thinking- pass draconian antitrust laws to dismember the Berlusconi media empire.
House arrest on Saint Helena would be the best solution.
a pataintellectual, Carlo Scognamiglio
Do you mean he graduated from Collège de 'Pataphysique?
House arrest on Saint Helena would be the best solution
Saint Helena is to easy to reach nowadays. An asteroid would be better. "Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
Jarry and Ionesco- and Gadda in other terms- long predicted Berlusconi's absurd Italy.
Even better would be the solution adopted by Augustus for his horny daughter, Julia. Ban him to an island with no possible contact with females of any kind.
history rhyme... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
What does one have to do to get the "centre-" dropped?
We are talking about a far right party having made an open alliance with a neo-fascist one, remember. And dismantled the judiciary for personal and business purposes. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
By your standards, the European Social Democrats are centre-right. By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
So what do you need to be at least "right", even if we go by relative terms? What do you have that would be significantly to the right of Berlusconi yet clearly not extreme?
To me it seems more like journalist laziness. And cowardice to actually make a meaningful statement. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
Actually, Mussolini would then have to be called centre. The median voter was with him. Some threats probably ensured that it was so, of course.
Somehow, I rarely see Chavez described as a centre politician. Yet he is spot on where the median voter is, in his country. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
