Source FT.com
Italy’s great survivor clings to power
Published: December 15 2010 22:12 | Last updated: December 15 2010 22:12Silvio Berlusconi must have strong fingernails. Amid violence on Rome’s streets and fisticuffs in its parliament, Italy’s prime minister has clung on to power by the narrowest of margins. On Tuesday, he defeated a no-confidence motion by 314 votes to 311. This is a bad result for all concerned.
Mr Berlusconi may strive to portray himself as the winner of this week’s intrigue. But he has won nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. He has lost his absolute majority in the lower house of parliament; a substantial number of his former colleagues now sit in opposition. This will make governing all but impossible. With European debt markets on edge, Italy could do without an impaired political decision-making process.
Mr Berlusconi has two options. He could resign in an attempt to force early elections. Or he can try to expand his coalition. His preference is for the latter: on Tuesday he indicated that he was open to an alliance with the centrist UDC, led by Pier Ferdinando Casini.
The UDC rebuffed his overtures. So Mr Berlusconi will have to pick off individual politicians and persuade them to back him. His performance this week suggests he may succeed. But this is hardly a recipe for effective or stable government.
In fact, the wrangling will merely put off Mr Berlusconi’s reckoning until the next crisis. That may not be too far away. Sandro Bondi, the culture minister, and one of Mr Berlusconi’s main party managers, has a no-confidence vote of his own hanging over him. A defeat could sink the government.
Yet although the government is in the mire, its opponents have little to celebrate. Their failure to take advantage of its floundering serves only to highlight their own disarray. Despite pushing hard for a no-vote, Gianfranco Fini, the speaker, and Mr Berlusconi’s ally-turned-foe, saw four of his own grouping vote to save the government. Mr Fini now faces calls for his resignation as speaker.
But the biggest loser, as so often during Mr Berlusconi’s farcical premierships, is Italy. The violence that accompanied Tuesday’s vote was the worst since the 1970s. Just as damaging, though, is the political paralysis the vote will prolong.
The world’s seventh-largest economy needs reform. One in four youths is unemployed; growth is less than anaemic; national debt has hit €1,800bn. Mr Berlusconi has proven beyond all doubt that he is incapable of dealing with these challenges. Italy’s tragedy is that no one more capable has emerged to dislodge him.
Mr Berlusconi may strive to portray himself as the winner of this week’s intrigue. But he has won nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. He has lost his absolute majority in the lower house of parliament; a substantial number of his former colleagues now sit in opposition. This will make governing all but impossible. With European debt markets on edge, Italy could do without an impaired political decision-making process.
Mr Berlusconi has two options. He could resign in an attempt to force early elections. Or he can try to expand his coalition. His preference is for the latter: on Tuesday he indicated that he was open to an alliance with the centrist UDC, led by Pier Ferdinando Casini.
The UDC rebuffed his overtures. So Mr Berlusconi will have to pick off individual politicians and persuade them to back him. His performance this week suggests he may succeed. But this is hardly a recipe for effective or stable government.
In fact, the wrangling will merely put off Mr Berlusconi’s reckoning until the next crisis. That may not be too far away. Sandro Bondi, the culture minister, and one of Mr Berlusconi’s main party managers, has a no-confidence vote of his own hanging over him. A defeat could sink the government.
Yet although the government is in the mire, its opponents have little to celebrate. Their failure to take advantage of its floundering serves only to highlight their own disarray. Despite pushing hard for a no-vote, Gianfranco Fini, the speaker, and Mr Berlusconi’s ally-turned-foe, saw four of his own grouping vote to save the government. Mr Fini now faces calls for his resignation as speaker.
But the biggest loser, as so often during Mr Berlusconi’s farcical premierships, is Italy. The violence that accompanied Tuesday’s vote was the worst since the 1970s. Just as damaging, though, is the political paralysis the vote will prolong.
The world’s seventh-largest economy needs reform. One in four youths is unemployed; growth is less than anaemic; national debt has hit €1,800bn. Mr Berlusconi has proven beyond all doubt that he is incapable of dealing with these challenges. Italy’s tragedy is that no one more capable has emerged to dislodge him.
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