Italy: Collapse of ruling coalition - full text
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On Feb. 6, President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved the legislature; the cabinet scheduled elections for April 13-14.
Immediate context
Prodi' s fragile ruling coalition was the 61st to have collapsed since 1947. Under the system of proportional representation (PR), large numbers of small parties were able to win a few seats and so typically held the balance of power in both houses of the legislature, giving them enormous influence through their ability to change allegiances or force elections by withdrawing from coalition agreements. In January there were a total of 39 parties represented in the legislature.
The centre-left parties and politicians--including the leftist President Napolitano --favoured appointing an interim government that would reform electoral laws before holding further elections. However, the rightist parties Forza Italia, led by former Prime Minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, and the National Alliance (AN) successfully lobbied for fresh elections to be held as soon as possible.
Reaction and outlook
Berlusconi had wanted to lead a unified rightist House of Freedoms alliance in a campaign to become Italy’s prime minister once again. His lead in the polls ranged from 10 to 16 points, the BBC online news service reported on Feb. 6. However, his rightist bloc suffered a setback when erstwhile coalition partner the Christian Democrats (CD) said that it would contest the vote alone. "After 14 years of collaboration, I told my friend Silvio Berlusconi not everything is for sale in Italy," CD Chairman Pier Fernandino Casini had declared in a speech broadcast on television, Agence France Presse reported on Feb. 17.
Walter Veltroni on Feb. 14 resigned as the mayor of Rome in a bid to campaign for the post of prime minister on behalf of the centre-left parties. Veltroni, 52, secretary of the Democratic Party (PD), unveiled a platform that included tax breaks to promote economic activity. Prime Minister Prodi announced that he would not seek the premiership again and that he supported Veltroni’s candidacy.
Background
Inhabited from ancient times by such peoples as the Etruscans, Celts, and Ligurians in the north, Latins, Samnites, and Sabines in the centre, and Greeks and Sicels in the south, Italy was unified by the military power of the ancient Romans. The defeat of the Greeks and Carthaginians in 146 BC laid the foundations for the Roman Empire, which by 100 AD stretched from Spain to Persia and from Scotland to Egypt. However, other European peoples including the Vandals, Visigoths, and Huns encroached on Rome’s territory, ultimately sacking Rome in 410 AD. The rule of Rome in the West came to an end in 476 AD when the Germanic chief Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, to abdicate.
After the fall of the western empire, the Church became the most stable institution and the main source of learning. Rome became the seat of Catholicism, and the Pope laid claim to large tracts or land. By the Middle Ages, there were several dominant states, including Lombardy in the north, Tuscany around Florence and Pisa, and the Papal States around Rome. Meanwhile, the south alternated between Byzantine and Arab control.
After the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium in 1453, many exiled political leaders and scholars moved to western Europe, bringing with them lost knowledge and new thinking that inspired the Renaissance. Italy remained fragmented as large regions were occupied by foreign powers--the Roman Catholic Church, supported by France, remained in control of vast tracts in the centre and south.
Concrete steps toward unification began in 1860 when the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont drew Austria, which occupied the territory around Venice, into war. Before long, most of northern Italy united with Sardinia-Piedmont. Giuseppe Garibaldi, who co-operated with the Piedmontese, led an army against the Austrians and went on to occupy Naples. The Kingdom of Italy was declared in 1861. In 1866, with the support of the nascent Italian government, he formed an alliance with Prussia in its war against Austria, allowing it to annex Venice. The defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 forced the French army to abandon Rome, enabling Italian troops to occupy the city and declare it Italy’s capital, marking the full unification of the country. Italy then embarked on imperial expansion, occupying Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and Libya.
In World War I, Italy sided with the Allies (France, Russia, the UK, and the USA) and seized the Trieste peninsula from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the first 20 years of the 20th century, Italy suffered frequent riots, strikes, and occupations of factories by workers, prompting violent clashes between socialists and reactionaries. In October 1922, extreme right-wing, patriotic Fascists led by Benito Mussolini marched on Rome, intimidating the public authorities. In order to avert a civil war, King Victor Emmanuel III named Mussolini prime minister. By 1927, Mussolini had outlawed all other political parties, and imposed a totalitarian regime on the country.
Mussolini entered the Tripartite Pact of 1940, joining the other Axis Powers of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, following the defeat of France by Nazi forces. The Allied Powers (led by the USA, the Soviet Union, and the UK) attacked Sicily in July 1943, leading to the surrender of Mussolini’s government. Italy proved very defensible, and the Nazis inflicted tens of thousands of deaths on the Allies there in the winter of 1943-44.
After the end of World War II, Italy joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and forged close military integration with the USA and other western European and Mediterranean countries. In 1946, following a referendum, the monarchy was abolished. A system of proportional representation (PR) was introduced under a new constitution adopted in 1948. The system favoured small parties, and by the 1970s there were 17 parties represented in the legislature, leading to numerous fragile coalitions, unstable governments, and frequent elections.
In the early 1990s a series of referendums were held and in 1993 an electoral reform law was passed limiting PR to a quarter of available seats. However, in 2005, the electoral law was again revised, returning the system to full PR, with thresholds for eligibility intended to foster the formation of stable alliances between small parties.
