European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Primary needs

by Hannah K OLuthon
Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 01:49:52 AM EST

Yesterday the whole family went to vote in the first Italian "primary election". It was very much a family occasion. Although we went to vote very late in the day (around 8:15 pm) and not, as in ordinary elections, at a school, but in a one room hall not far from our home in Mestre) we found a fairly long line of voters and had to wait about 45 minutes before getting our turn. The Unione had stated that they hoped for a turn out of 1 million, but it seems that over 3 million actually voted. Since (hard to believe, but true) voting required a contribution of at least 1 euro, the anti-Berlusconi coalition picked up about 3 million euro yesterday. They also picked up an "anointed" candidate, Romano Prodi who garnered about 75% of the vote.

Others will have more incisive comments to make, but I would like to underline the festive, one-big-family atmosphere that prevailed, at least where we voted. It was, to my way of thinking, more like the classical
New England town-meeting than either the standard leftist mass-meetings-cum-oratory, or even the antiseptically burocratic normal voting routine.

Anointing Prodi was, in this optic, a positive side-effect, the major importance of the event being precisely that coming to consciousness of the wide interclass coalition of people who are fed up with Berlusconi (something, one hopes, that will come to be more than the mere sum of its constituent parts), and the implemenation of a mechanism to assure that in the future, when there is no single consensus-dominating candidate like Prodi, the "people of the left" will have a non-burocratic method for choosing their paladin.

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Primary needs | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Primary needs (none / 1)

Sounds good: Italy needs rid of that maniac, as does Europe.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 04:04:14 AM EST

Re: Primary needs (4.00 / 3)

Actually, it seems that the number of voters exceeded
4 million, with 74.6% for Prodi. Prodi is in many respects the perfect "anti-Berlusconi": a serious, slightly boring professor who's also a practicing Catholic, the very antipode of our garrulous superficial and all-too-exciting (every time he opens his mouth a verbal disaster is just a word or two away) prime minister. One has the feeling that the electorate has finally noticed that electing the richest man in Italy as prime minister has NOT allowed them too to become wealthy.

Hannah K. O'Luthon

by Hannah K OLuthon on Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 04:24:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

Hannah, thanks so much for this note...I've been feeling upset by Berlusconi's blatant power plays of late...so this is great news to hear. What, exactly were these elections about? Will it in anyway effect the changes that Berlu is trying to make now?

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 12:30:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

This was a primary election, hoping to unite the opposition to Berlusconi.

Last time Prodi led a coalition government it lasted 2 years before Bertinotti's Communists bailed out. Bertinotti came a distant second in yesterday's primary.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 12:46:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I just like Prodi (4.00 / 2)

it recalls me a little bit P.Solbes , the Spanish economic minister. I may not agree with everything they say, but you would always respect them.

Yes, not all politicians are awful.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Mon Oct 17th, 2005 at 01:45:39 PM EST

Fortugno assassinated in Calabria (none / 1)

Francesco Fortugno, vice president of the Regional Council of Calabria was assassinated Sunday evening as he entered the polling station to vote in the center-left primaries. A practicing surgeon and university professor, he was re-elected in the center-left party, la Margherita, this spring.

Preliminary investigation seems to point to organized crime, the Calabria n'drangheta. It is not presently known if Fortugno had received death menaces recently. The center-left president of Calabria, Agazio Loiero, had been menaced recently because of his anti-racket policies. This may point to a transversal vendetta, a purely political crime.

This assassination has a highly symbolic value as it breaks the truce of the "silent mafia." For the past five years the mafia has refrained from murdering elected officials, law officers and exponents of civil society on the understanding that Berlusconi would pass legislation to the mafia's advantage.

It is the first time in Italian history that primaries are being held.

The final results indicate a stagger 4.300.000 voter turn-out with Prodi at 74,1% followed by Bertinotti at a distant 14,3%. A success beyond all previsions both in participation of the population and a mandate for Prodi.

It is an unequivocal message to Berlusconi that despite his obscene electoral law he and his coalition will lose the next election.

The investigation is oriented towards Fortugno's activism in denouncing corruption in the health care system. The Italian Health Care system with its outsourcing of services to the private sector is a powerful political tool and cause of widespread corruption throughout Italy.

It may be premature but this assassination could spell the end of the Pax Mafia and beginning of a season of violence.

Extracts from diary at Booman Tribune. My apologies to the author.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 02:19:54 AM EST

Re: Fortugno assassinated in Calabria (none / 0)

Chilling news, indeed...

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 05:14:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

Here's what I don't understand yet, speaking as an ex-patriot who has been learning about Italian politics only for the last year or so: Prodi has relaunched the the list "Uniti nel Ulivo" and the "Rutellians" in the Margherita party are apparently going along with this. This seems to be a good thing. But I honestly can't figure out why this changes anything for the center-left?? Unione? Ulivo? Federazione del'Ulivo? A little bit confusing.

This is obviously directed at people who know more about Italian politics than I do.

by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 07:39:25 AM EST

Re: Primary needs (4.00 / 2)

I usually get irritated about petty shop talk among Italian parties, each with its little bit of territory carved out, especially when the primary, the only scope would be to cancel berlusconism from the Italian landscape. I'm sure we can all agree on this.

It will be arduous, much more so after the elections when it will not only be urgent to tackle the disastrous economic situation but be necessary to repeal most of the criminal legislation this band of thugs has passed. I do hope, but perhaps it's wishful thinking, that serious, applicable antitrust legislation be passed to radically dismantle B's empire, especially his media empire. He can always get lost on Tahiti.

All this bickering over signery gets up my nose. The Olive coalition was the Prodi-Veltroni brainchild that won the elections in 1996. Within two years the parties in the Ulivo coalition managed to wreck it. I don't remember when the Margherita was invented as a political party, but it gained national prominence when Rutelli was designated leader of what was left of the coalition. Although the left got more votes than the Berlusconi coalition in the 2001 elections, they were divided and lost. Di Pietro and Bertinotti had run alone.

Under the present mixed electoral system (75% majority, 25% proportional) it's the coalition that has the most votes that wins. This forced parties to make alliances before the elections rather than after in order to get a place in the sun. Unfortunately this system, known as the mattarellum, perpetuated the existence of too many parties.

The most recent word for the 2006 coalition was the Union (after a very unfortunate name had been proposed and which I have mercifully forgotten). The Union quickly showed all the signs of inter-party baiting and grandstanding that gave us a lot of headline-grabbing, primadonna tripe from your daily Rutelli or Mastella or whoever else.

Italian citizens can see a hell of a lot further and are fed up. This is why they turned out en masse and voted Prodi- and his not-forgotten Olive coalition. So the message is far too clear. Voters want a no-nonsense, disciplined coalition that stands behind a leader. Prodi was chosen at the helm. The others can shut up and buckle under.

Ideally there should be a single list of candidates, but with this possible electoral counter-reform pending, strategy and tactics are up in the air. It's going to be very interesting.

And the mafia has made it brutally clear that it's not a spectator sport as far as they are concerned.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 04:55:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 1)

You've summed up the situation with admirable clarity.
I agree completely with your description of the reason
for Prodi's triumph. I had toyed with the idea of voting for one of the minor leftists, but friends convinced me
that it was more important to give a clear "anti-Berlusconi" signal, and it's hard to imagine a stronger candidate than Prodi at the present time, for exactly the qualities mentioned in later comments here.

Thanks too for the "suggested reading".

Hannah K. O'Luthon

by Hannah K OLuthon on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 01:12:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

That's an excellent summary. I apprecaite it.But I already know all of that much!! What I'm trying to figure out is why the unified list "L'Ulivo" would make any difference in tterms of actually getting more votes. Don't all the party votes (e.g. Rifondazione votes, Margherita votes, SDI votes, etc..) go to the Unione coalition anyway??

Rifondazione and UDEUR, for axample, will not be part of the list Uniti nell'Ulivo. But (presumably) all of those votes will still be counted as votes FOR L'Unione and, hence, for Prodi. The Margherita has decided to join in the list Ulivo instead of running their own list of cnadiates. So, to be more specific, what difference does [b]this decision[/b] make for L'Unione and for Prodi??

Thanks for the book recommendations, BTW.

by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 03:39:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

P.S.

The Ulivo was actually wrecked this summer by Rutteli, who insistied on having his own list in the proportional part of the vote, no?? And the origical name of the Unione was, if I remember correctly, going to be L'Alleanza!! Then everyone said, "Well, why not Alleanza Nazionale?" (LOL!!) and they dropped that one.

I have a good idea of the general picture, but it's the subtle details about "lists" that I still haven't worked out.

by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 03:46:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Mattarellum? (4.00 / 2)

At the moment everything is up in the air until the electoral law passes the Senate. Then there's the question of Ciampi. Will he sign, veto or pocket veto the law?

So what is going on is a lot of pre-game tactics. If the elections are held with the Mattarellum, what would happen is that within a district there would be two candidates, one chosen by the coalition and a second chosen by a party within the coalition. It's risky because two candidates for the same coalition might cause both to lose. Then the one with the second highest voting score would be recuperated in the 25% proportional, called the "scorporo."

So it amounts to forced political leverage within the coalition, or legalized blackmail according to your point of view.

The idea of a single list is a matter of fair play between coalition parties. It's a give and take situation in which one party is not represented in a district yet works for the coalition candidate. (Of course there is payback elsewhere, or when it comes to projects and appointees.)

At the same time if two parties within a coalition run against each other this would likely short-circuit any phantom lists, the infamous "liste civetta," and at least one of the candidates might pass through the proportional recovery of seats. Of course, if the candidate that is recovered is the party candidate and not the coalition candidate, he/she(!) may not necessarily feel obliged to follow coalition discipline in the next legislature.

This is only part of it. The pitfalls of the Mattarellum have been dragged before the Constitutional court, and some seats were not assigned in the last legislature because of the legal controversy. So you can imagine how hard it is for the lay citizen, let alone a recent immigrant, to understand what in the hell is going on or going to happen with one's vote. Maybe there should be a provision for taking one's lawyer into the voting booth.

I don't know if this helps, because I am, like most Italians, slightly less confused than you. And I hope I haven't confused the reader too much in the process.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 06:49:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mattarellum? (none / 0)

Perfetto!! Thank you!! That's exactly it. I had not realized that you could have more than one candidate from the same coalition within the same district under the current system, e.g., one from the party and one from the coalition.

The Mattarellum system is quite bizarre and obviously in need of reform. But, from what I've been reading, the electoral system proposed by Berlu is even worse.

At any rate, you've cleared up a great deal with that answer. I appreciate it.

by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 07:53:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mattarellum? (none / 0)

One moderately easy fix might be to replace first-past-the-post with some sort of transferable vote for the individual candidates, and retain the PR-based party lists.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 08:24:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Primary needs (none / 0)

Gilgamesh, I'd recommend two small and very helpful pocketbooks to get oriented in the Italian political maze. "La classe politica" by Gianfranco Pasquino and "I partiti politici" by Donatella della Porta. Both are published by il Mulino which is a guarantee. Of course, the authors are the tops.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 05:10:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

thanks for a great diary (4.00 / 2)

i watched prodi on porta a porta last night, and i think the italians like him because he's so much the opposite of the prima donna type.

he's painfully serious, yet affable enough in a calm, rational, and pedantically dry way.

he acts a little slow and lacking in imagination, but unafraid of taking on a near-impossible job: creating sime semblance of normalcy and order in the cloak-and-dagger, macchiavellian sub-universe of italian politics.

my gut says italy craves this, so to claw back a few shreds of international dignity and national self-respect.

fare la figura!

no need for a glamourous race into a vaunted future, till some old skeletons have been laid to rest. the public know this and are tired of rosy promises.

a sober, judicious approach like that of prodi might buy italy some time and allow the judiciary branch to be the check and balance they need the state's blessing to be.

italy loses a lot of traction becuse of corruption. even the tracks are greasy!

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Oct 18th, 2005 at 09:58:59 PM EST

Re: Primary needs (4.00 / 2)

Hmm...here's an interesting update along the lines of the topic of unity and cohesion in the center-left.

The SDI (Social Democrats of Italy) have announced that they will not participate in the list "Ulivo" because the center, after the referendums on artifical insemination and so on, has taken a course toward "Catholic democray."
They will continue the project of unifying the various genuinely leftist/socialist parties in one list (Radicals, SDI, PSI, etc..)

What the heck to make of this?

by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 04:46:03 AM EST

Primary needs | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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