Slight abuse of Italian cops ruled legal

By no other than the highest court in the land. A doctor went on an urgent domestic call and left the car parked illegally in the hurry, finding a cop writing a ticket when he returned. His quip about "You give me a fine, I'll give you hell" has been ruled not to be a crime, as he had "prioritary necessities that trascend all other requirements", more or less.

So now if you are doing something socially useful in a hurry, you can tell the cop to go screw himself and catch no heat. You will still have to contend the ticket though. A cop organization representative expressed his hope that when his constituents go screw themselves the high court judges come as well, "so we may have company".

I propose the rules of civic cohabitation of law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officials be further cemented by giving cops the ability to charge an extra 15% on top of the fine if in their opinion the driver is obnoxious. That would knock a few arrogant bigwigs down a notch.

Repubblica reports. (in Italian)

You can toast with Berlusconi too

I frequently show little or no patriotism in railing against the failings of my own country, Italy, to live up to the standard of a civilized Western democracy. But at the same time I absolutely adore Italians in their ability to look at almost everything with humor and cynicism. Like Berlusconi's divorce and the accusations he secretly mingles around underage girls (rubbish).

Two particular details made Berlusconi's wife - Veronica Lario - boil over. Firstly, her husband never attended his own children's 18th birthday celebrations despite being invited. Secondly the girl in question - stunner Noemi Letizia - is in the habit of calling him "daddy" (papi) and has seen him often with the family and without. Maybe Berlusconi watched "House of Cards" and took it too literally.

Photos of the girl's lavish 18th birthday party have been posted on the internet, and speculation is rife about their authenticity. True to Italian irony, creativity and humoristic prowess the tech-savvy drew their Photoshop weaponry and one guy decided to give them an expressive space.

The result is "Brinda con Papi", or "Toast with Daddy". From Don Vito Corleone to Chewbacca via the Pope, Chairman Mao and Homer Simpson, everyone can toast with Daddy-Berlusconi.

If we couldn't laugh about it, we'd have to cry.

Reflections on an expected outcome

Italy is Berlusconi's, again. I expected this result and therefore am not shocked, scandalized or appalled. A mix of gullibility, disillusionment with the left-wing government and blind loyalty brought the colorful billionaire a majority even without the centrist or ultra-fascist votes. Hats off.

This new Parliament, son of a ghastly election law, will however be a great improvement on the past. First and foremost the radical parties have been wiped out by the coherence of the major allies, who refused blackmail by the so-called kings of the 1%.

A usual deal would involve an ininfluential party demanding more "safe" seats from its greater counterpart in exchange for its tiny but potentially crucial contribution. In this election things were different. The radical left were left stranded by the moderate wing of progressives and catholics merging into the Democratic Party (PD), in coalition with former prosecutor Di Pietro's Italy of Values. The radical and unrepenting fascists were left out by the coerced convergence of populists and the (reformed) heirs of the fascist lineage into the PdL, in coalition with two autonomist parties. The centrists gambled most, and won.

As it stands now, Berlusconi should have a solid House majority of 340 (out of over 600), the Democrat coalition at 241 and the centrists alone at 34. At the Senate the right coalition will have 163 versus the PD's 141, plus two senators for the centrists who managed to overcome the 8% barrier somewhere.

Overall several parties caucused into the major ones, but a total count puts six parties in Parliament, plus sprinkles of regional parties caucusing with one of the majors. The hopeful radical left didn't break any of the barriers, slipping from a total of 10% in the last election to a meagre 3% this time, resulting in its parliamentary caucus which included pacifists, trotskyists and whatnot being wiped out. Fascist factions too have been wiped out, as most minor parties.

The outcome of this election offers food for thought.

The tremendous success of the Northern League (the Lega) is not just a protest vote against immigration or the political "caste". It is the only party openly advocating federalism and the North, cheated by the left in 2006 on the promise of a constitutional review, propelled the party to peaks of 25% in Lombardy. Federalism will be achieved this time and a referendum will be called again. If it fails on the votes of the numerous (and money-sucking) South I fear a rift will open. The irrelevant southern autonomists should push the federalist case HARD. Fiscal federalism is the only way to starve the Mafia of state money and make the regional administrations accountable for their waste.

Italians have abandoned communist delusions. Irresponsible trade unions, unintelligent pacifism, ambiguity on anti-globalization vandalism and ill-advised externations have cost the left dear. We have had enough.

Fascism is confined to the black dustbin of history, with all of the remaining parties scooping up less than 4%. Reformed nationalism is now part of the PdL, and it's a historic change.

The Catholic centre is irrelevant and I wish it well, since it could be a good counterbalance to Berlusconi's excesses in the next Parliament (my hopes of the latter retiring after this term in office would be extremely naive).

Parliament has become a little more governable, and the country too. This is not an opportunity to waste. It is also a wake-up call: old politics is on the way out and it is up to the survivors to bring Italy out of the factionalism that has dogged it since WW2 into a more Liberal vs Conservative arena.

Photo: AP

A disillusioned manifesto for a sleepy election

My country goes to the polls and I fail to feel any passion. Often elections are a time of euphoria and suspense, waiting for the people's verdict after months of campaigning, promises, criticisms, commitments, debates and other dressings on the ballot salad. This time round it almost feels like a long-overdue medical treatment. Two years of government by Romano Prodi, although courageous in many aspects and certainly efficient on certain deregulations and public debt, left me disillusioned about the entire reformist cause.

Italy is a nation with an overwhelmingly vital spirit, strifled by a morass system of power, favor, connection, corruption and self-serving lack of sense of State duty. From the worst kind of university professor to the worst kind of spoiled public employee, from politically appointed heads of hospital wards to political calculations in public management decisions, from monopolist professional corporations to out-of-touch trade unions Italy seems an inscrutable mosaic of small centers of power. A boot-shaped colony of small and big octopi maneuvering and sharing their citizen preys, playing with them and enjoying the untouchability granted by condescending higher spheres of power.

I love my country and wish to see it prosper. But the promises of the main parties fail to tackle the essential lack of liberty that destroys people's hopes. Promises to reduce bureaucracy are empty when they are confronted with public employment trade unions to whose demands most governments had to yield. Deregulation is not the granting of more taxi licenses in the city of Rome but the abolishment of fixed-quota taxi licensing altogether. Promises of job creation cannot be fulfilled when punitive business fees and union rules prevent enterprise, when professional orders rule their professions like a mafia and a law graduate can't set up shop without the blessing of the local monopolist order branch.

Italy needs to
-- redefine its national unity in a federal framework, promote fiscal responsibility among its 20 regions to stop the outflow of taxpayers' money from North to South,
-- create a stronger and freer Government with greater PM powers,
-- reform the election laws to introduce rigid first-past-the-post systems,
-- cut public expenditure by cutting red tape and administrative power centres,
-- abolish the 108 (and counting) Provinces as per referendum (conveniently shelved)
-- deregulate all professions leaving the orders as highly-respected certifying bodies,
-- eradicate trade union politicization,
-- reform higher education toward greater private financing and professorial accountability,
-- Privatize all publicly-owned corporations to eliminate the root cause of their politicization and inefficiency (government appointments)
-- Reform its pension system to aim for the radical downsizing of the national pension fund

Parties promise some or many of these. But these aims are impossible to achieve for a coalition alone. While Berlusconi and his tactics are in politics, no great consensus can be reached. The delusional and archaic leftists may well influence a left-wing majority. And certainly constitutional reform will be stalled due to lack of a 2/3 majority.

I feel close to no passion because I have almost ceased to hope for an awakening of people's sense of civic duty. Italy's problems are before their very eyes, yet the blame-game is still the most popular pastime in Rome. Lack of strong and sweeping commitments denotes complacency with the constituted status quo and power equilibrium.

I remain hopeful, but no party can expect my passionate endorsement until it decides to take a strong and consistent stance on greater freedom of choice, personal liberty, devolution and deregulation.

The ideas are there, maybe; the willpower definitely isn't. How can that excite and inspire a voter?

Italian business just got a little free-er

Italy's antitrust watchdog ruled today that it is not OK for local municipalities to impose compulsory closing days on commercial enterprises (i.e. shops). The ruling came after a complaint against the Rome municipality, which fined shopkeepers who opened up on Easter Monday.

This precedent will allow anyone owning a shop to be open anytime they wish, be it a working day or a Sunday, without the constraint of town bureaucrats gagging business supposedly in the interest of the workers, who need in the mind of these statist wonks to be shielded from the (by default) exploitative owner and greedy capitalist.

Reactions range from relief (consumers) to outright condemnation, with the Archbishop of Pompei even calling it an "attack against God", while others point the finger against consumerism, spout unionist drivel or attempt to sound academic about changing society and shops as social space. They are so full of bull!

The very essence of free enterprise in a capitalist society is being able to do business how one wishes to. A little bastion of socialism and nonsense has fallen in Italy. Sadly there's still way to go before I can call my home country a truly economically and socially free nation.

I have no place in Italian politics

This is a pretty straightforward explanation for why Italian politics looks like a total muddle to me, and why I am frequently accused by fellow members of the Italian expat (and not) community of being a hypocrite because I criticize every candidate's position as inappropriate for the country but will end up voting anyway.

Yes I do vote, I do not waste my ballot. And No, I do not choose the least worst candidate, nor do I vote a party "to keep the other guy out".

The "Politometro" gives 15 statements which I can totally/partially agree/disagree with or be neutral. The statements span topics such as research freedom, abortion, in-vitro fertilization, trade unions, civil partnerships, school vouchers, nuclear energy, returning to Iraq, deregulation, minimum wage, flat tax, etc. If my fiscal conservative - social libertarian mix is anything to go by, no major PM candidate in Italy is the right choice for me.



So it should come as no surprise to anyone that my vote (in the foreign North America constituency) went not to a candidate representing the party closest to my views but to the person I judged most suitable (based on total lack of information or campaigning save by Berlusconi's party) to represent expat views in the national parliament: both the youngest and only foreign-born Italian in the candidate list. Incidentally, a woman too. I wish her success.

Italy without a government, again!

A minuscule party, which through coalition blackmailing obtained far more Senate seats than it deserved (three instead of none) has just brought down the Italian government. Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months is ground for speculation and betting.

Elections would see new party arrangements, and a possible absence of a coalition between democrats and leftists. Proportional representation at its worst will still rule the parliament. A transitional government will not be able to make any reforms because no-one can afford to lose their small allies in passing a decent electoral law, liberalizations are unpopular with everyone except consumers, who are the last ones the political caste cares about, and decisionmaking is synonymous with political suicide.

I have frequently criticized Prodi's government, and my opinion does not change. It was a concoction of incompatible ideologies that ensured few of the many things to do were done. It takes courage to eradicate the factionalization of politics, to make the bold moves the country needs to enter the 21st century and turn Italy into a powerhouse again as it deserves to be.

This is also the result of proportional representation: carelessness, factionalization, politicization of everything, blackmailing and instability. MMP proponents take careful note.

Provincialism and mediocrity

Watch any edition of most Italian TV news and you’ll be flooded with petty squabbles between irrelevant individuals who insist they are important, rubbish reporting on absolutely boring topics; you will also notice a prominent overshadowing of events of major international importance by comments uttered by the most insignificant national party leaders. Italy is rarely stimulated to look outside its shell, so it is not surprising that Rome’s La Sapienza University, when deciding on the name of the guest speaker at the academic year inauguration, looked no further than their own backyard: the Vatican.

The decision to invite the Pope to speak at the opening of the academic year sparked protests by scholars and students alike (but the latter protest anything they aren’t too lazy to protest against). After seeing the stink he caused, the Pope wisely cancelled his visit.

Was this controversy about the secularity of science or the independence of Church and State? Was this another chapter of the catholics versus secularists saga in Italy, a major dispute that distracts everyone from the reality that the country is going to the dogs? In my opinion this sad drama is nothing but an indictment of the university authorities. They wanted to invite a person with power, prestige and respect. Why not a Nobel Prize winner? Why not an international leader? Why not a prominent United Nations official, or think-tank head, CEO, philosopher, economist?

Said shortly, I think any person with true international prestige would have underlined, in words or indirectly, the failure of the Italian system. Steve Jobs by his mere presence would have shown success stories like his are impossible in a system fraught with nepotism, favors and discrimination, while any Nobel prize winner would be obliged to describe education and research systems and mentalities that Italy can never outdo. And any think-tank head would be obliged to underline the necessary painful reforms Italy needs and nobody wants to carry out because of opposition by trade unions, minor political parties and special interest groups.

La Sapienza just looked for the lowest common denominator, someone who wouldn’t kick up too much of a fuss on the issues that really matter. Somebody who wouldn’t be THAT challenging or THAT inspiring. Inviting the Pope wasn’t just an offence to scholars and scientists. It was an offence to the Pope first and foremost, to what the Church stands for, its history and values.

Just another show of mediocre provincialism.

Besides, if my knowledge of Italian universities doesn’t fail me, I doubt the big professors would have been able to draft an invitation letter in basic English.

A primary that's not even an election

Tomorrow (Sunday) Italians will be asked to vote for their preferred leader of the newly-created and already much-speculated-about Democratic Party. Contrast this with Berlusconi's anointment of his close advisor Brambilla to lead a new grassroots organization and you get the picture of how Italian politics is at a crossroads.

But wait! The outcome of this election has been clear to all ever since the DP was conceived. All the other candidates state for some reason that they aren't running against the soon-to-be-crowned Veltroni, they are running FOR him, to make his candidature stronger.

This makes me cringe. Okay you want people to choose the leader, and then everyone else runs just to support Prodi's dauphin, with manifestos that don't differ for most part. There are, thankfully, some exceptions, both manifesto and personality-wise. The principle, however, remains the same: you export a democratic tool and bend it for the usual party politics we've seen for decades.

Moreover, while the newly founded DP claims to be the voice of change, the party of new faces and whatnot the average age of the founding council is over 60, its leader awaiting coronation is a mayor and has been a party apparatchik for years and everyone's complaining that it's just the usual populist feat.

Elections and primaries are about competing visions, about competition. America has this tradition stemming from its society and history. You can't export a system without having the social, historical and intellectual bases that led to it, stated Tocqueville in his "Democracy in America". True as ever today.

I really hope someone different from Veltroni wins, to signal a definitive switch from party orders to people power. But the usual Italian resignation to fate and the mentality of "it's been decided anyway" will surely prevail again, making this new DP just a new character the same old soap opera we've seen in Italian politics for years.