Italians may come to regret electing Silvio Berlusconi once again
ASTONISHINGLY, il Cavaliere is back. At the ripe age of 71, Silvio Berlusconi won a convincing victory in Italy's general election on April 13th and 14th, giving him a big majority in both houses of the Italian parliament. There is every sign that his government will last. His political group, People of Freedom, has absorbed the right-wing National Alliance party, he has shed one unreliable ally in the centrist UDC party, and his main partner, the Northern League, will be reluctant to unseat him. Despite a dotty electoral system, foisted on the country by Mr Berlusconi himself in 2006, Italy may be in for five years of relatively stable government (see article).
Why did Italian voters return Mr Berlusconi for a third time, after his previous wins in 1994 and 2001? There are three answers. The most important was disappointment with the bickering centre-left government of Romano Prodi. It may have repaired Italy's unruly public finances, but only by the unpopular means of raising and collecting more taxes. It did little by way of broader reforms. Because the election came only 23 months after Mr Prodi took office, his successor as centre-left leader, Walter Veltroni, had too little time to establish himself as a credible alternative.
The second explanation for Mr Berlusconi's success is, as ever, his grip on Italy's media. Through his Mediaset empire, he controls most of Italian private television. Now that he is back in government, he will indirectly control state-run television too, giving him influence over some 90% of Italian TV. It is to the centre-left's eternal discredit that in its two recent periods in office it did nothing to deal with Mr Berlusconi's conflicts of interest in the media. Nor did it reverse the mish-mash of judicial and procedural laws that Mr Berlusconi pushed through to help him stave off conviction in the myriad court cases that Italy's magistrates have brought against him.
Still unfit
It was Mr Berlusconi's conflicts of interest and his tangled web of judicial proceedings that first led The Economist to judge him unfit to be prime minister. We stick to that view. When he suggests that magistrates should be subject to mental-health checks, or when one of his close associates, a senator who is appealing against conviction for associating with the Mafia, says a convicted mob killer was a hero, there are good reasons to argue that Mr Berlusconi should not lead his country.
Yet the biggest challenge now for Mr Berlusconi does not concern conflicts of interest, court cases or the Mafia. It is the dire state of the Italian economy. Indeed, economic woes provide the third explanation why disillusioned voters preferred him to the centre-left. They felt that Mr Prodi's government had done nothing for them except to increase their tax bills. And, against all previous experience of Mr Berlusconi's tawdry governments, many people still want to believe in the magic that made him Italy's richest man. They hope that some of it may rub off on them, making all Italians richer.
Voters have good cause to fret about the economy. In the past two decades Italy has unquestionably become the sick man of Europe. The IMF forecasts that, both this year and next, its economy will grow by a mere 0.3%, the slowest rate of growth in the European Union and among G8 rich countries. This year Italy's GDP per head has fallen below the EU average for the first time. Next year, it will fall below Greece, after being overtaken by Spain in 2006. Even against a slowing world economy, Italy stands out for its dim prospects.
The country's slow growth has persisted under governments of centre-right and centre-left. Its causes are deep-rooted and structural, so they will take years to remedy. Italy is deemed by international watchdogs to be one of the most heavily regulated of all rich countries. Trade unions and special interests have repeatedly fought off attempts at reform. Infrastructure is crumbling, the investment climate is unwelcoming, inflation is troubling and productivity growth has been low (indeed, it has recently been negative). The education and health-care systems are deteriorating. Public administration is inefficient and corrupt, especially in the south—the latest evidence being the Naples garbage mountain.
Time to liberalise
What Italy needs is wholesale liberalisation and the promotion of more competition to reinvigorate its legion of entrepreneurs and small businesses. There is no reason to assume that it would fail. The north of Italy has done well even as the south has stagnated. Italian exporters have proved nimble and creative. Fiat has been transformed. The banks, once notoriously inefficient, have become internationally competitive.
Mr Berlusconi and his finance minister and chief ideologue, Giulio Tremonti, now have a golden opportunity to build on these successes by exploiting their huge parliamentary majority to bring in sweeping supply-side reforms. The question is whether they will take it. The ousting of the far-left from parliament may risk making confrontations over reforms or spending cuts worse. But if the government succeeds in reforming, our verdict on Mr Berlusconi would have to be tempered by the acknowledgment that even he is capable of improvement. Unfortunately there are grounds for scepticism about the new government's reforming credentials.
Mr Tremonti has taken to railing against globalisation as the primary cause of Italy's (and Europe's) problems. The Northern League, which did well in the election, is even more overtly anti-immigration and protectionist. Mr Berlusconi's own words about the future of Alitalia, the country's sickly airline, suggest that he is keener on state-fostered national champions, however inefficient, than on the discipline of the free market. Indeed, he and Mr Tremonti often prefer to cast blame on the EU, the euro and the European Central Bank than to accept that Italy's ills are largely home-grown.
Yet the omens are not all bad. Mr Berlusconi seems to understand, belatedly, the seriousness of Italy's economic situation. His comfortable majority means that he has no more excuses for putting off reforms. This will be his biggest test; hope, for Italy's sake, that he passes it.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Un'altra occasione perduta per stare zitto! Che vergogna Berlusconi!
Sul Taipei Times (!) e' riportato un articolo apparsi su AFP di Madrid che discute la infelice (a dir poco!) scelta di parole di Berlusconi su governo troppo rosa di Zapatero. E' veramente imbarazzante di avere questi commenti maschilisti, retrogradi e stupidi da parte del nostro (nuovo) Primo Ministro.
Spanish politicians lash out at Italy’s Berlusconi after ‘too pink’ statement
AFP, MADRID
Friday, Apr 18, 2008, Page 6
Spain’s female politicians hit out at Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday after he described Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero’s new Cabinet as “too pink.”
Elena Valenciano, the ruling Socialist Party’s secretary for international relations, urged Berlusconi to follow Zapatero’s example and give women a prominent role in his Italian Cabinet, saying “it would benefit society and politics.”
“In Italy, as in Spain, there are enough women who are sufficiently qualified, intelligent and capable of being ministers or occupying other government posts,” she said.
Berlusconi, re-elected for a third time this week, was quoted earlier as saying Zapatero’s new Cabinet — which for the first time includes more women than men — was “too pink.”
Berlusconi added this is something “which we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn’t easy to find women who are qualified for government,” the Spanish daily El Pais reported.
“[Zapatero] will have problems leading them,” the left-wing paper quoted him as telling a news conference on Tuesday.
It also features the new position of minister for equality, which was filled by 31-year-old Bibiana Aido, Spain’s youngest-ever Cabinet minister.
“It’s obvious that women are as prepared as men to take on political responsibilities,” Aido told reporters when asked about Berlusconi’s comments.
Infrastructure Minister Magdalena Alvarez said Berlusconi’s remarks were “absolutely inappropriate” and “an offense” to both women and men.
“There are many women who would never belong to a government led by Berlusconi,” she said.
Zapatero’s decision to stack his Cabinet with women was also defended by one of his stauchest critics at home, Esperanza Aguirre, the conservative head of the regional government of Madrid.
“One of the best things which the prime minister has done is nominate so many women in this government,” she said.
Confrontate il commento originale
http://www.estense.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=35083&format=html
Bacchettata anche dal Pp: ''E' una delle migliori cose fatte dal premier socialista''
Berlusconi: ''Troppo rosa'' l'esecutivo Zapatero. E le spagnole insorgono
Madrid. Il Berlusconi III non è ancora iniziato ma il Cavaliere è già a buon punto con le gaffe internazionali. Questa volta, a non gradire il linguaggio colorito del leader del Pdl è la Spagna che ha definito "assolutamente inappropriato" ed "offensivo" il giudizio di Berlusconi sul neonato esecutivo di Zapatero. "Troppo rosa", ha commentato il Cavaliere, e le donne spagnole sono subito insorte. Parole "assolutamente inappropriate ed offensive" per tutti gli spagnoli, è intervenuta, visibilmente irritata, la 'ministra' delle Infrastrutture, Magdalena Alvarez che, rendendo pan per focaccia, ha precisato: "Molte di noi donne non andremmo mai in un governo guidato dal signor Berlusconi". E una bacchettata al futuro premier italiano è arrivata anche dall'opposizione spagnola. "Questo è il secolo delle donne", ha ricordato al leader del Pdl Esperanza Aguirrel, presidente della Regione di Madrid ed importante esponente del Partito popolare. Per poi aggijngere che l'aver nominato ministro nove donne ed otto uomini è una delle "migliori cose fatte" da Zapatero.
Spanish politicians lash out at Italy’s Berlusconi after ‘too pink’ statement
AFP, MADRID
Friday, Apr 18, 2008, Page 6
Spain’s female politicians hit out at Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday after he described Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero’s new Cabinet as “too pink.”
Elena Valenciano, the ruling Socialist Party’s secretary for international relations, urged Berlusconi to follow Zapatero’s example and give women a prominent role in his Italian Cabinet, saying “it would benefit society and politics.”
“In Italy, as in Spain, there are enough women who are sufficiently qualified, intelligent and capable of being ministers or occupying other government posts,” she said.
Berlusconi, re-elected for a third time this week, was quoted earlier as saying Zapatero’s new Cabinet — which for the first time includes more women than men — was “too pink.”
Berlusconi added this is something “which we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn’t easy to find women who are qualified for government,” the Spanish daily El Pais reported.
“[Zapatero] will have problems leading them,” the left-wing paper quoted him as telling a news conference on Tuesday.
It also features the new position of minister for equality, which was filled by 31-year-old Bibiana Aido, Spain’s youngest-ever Cabinet minister.
“It’s obvious that women are as prepared as men to take on political responsibilities,” Aido told reporters when asked about Berlusconi’s comments.
Infrastructure Minister Magdalena Alvarez said Berlusconi’s remarks were “absolutely inappropriate” and “an offense” to both women and men.
“There are many women who would never belong to a government led by Berlusconi,” she said.
Zapatero’s decision to stack his Cabinet with women was also defended by one of his stauchest critics at home, Esperanza Aguirre, the conservative head of the regional government of Madrid.
“One of the best things which the prime minister has done is nominate so many women in this government,” she said.
Confrontate il commento originale
http://www.estense.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=35083&format=html
Bacchettata anche dal Pp: ''E' una delle migliori cose fatte dal premier socialista''
Berlusconi: ''Troppo rosa'' l'esecutivo Zapatero. E le spagnole insorgono
Madrid. Il Berlusconi III non è ancora iniziato ma il Cavaliere è già a buon punto con le gaffe internazionali. Questa volta, a non gradire il linguaggio colorito del leader del Pdl è la Spagna che ha definito "assolutamente inappropriato" ed "offensivo" il giudizio di Berlusconi sul neonato esecutivo di Zapatero. "Troppo rosa", ha commentato il Cavaliere, e le donne spagnole sono subito insorte. Parole "assolutamente inappropriate ed offensive" per tutti gli spagnoli, è intervenuta, visibilmente irritata, la 'ministra' delle Infrastrutture, Magdalena Alvarez che, rendendo pan per focaccia, ha precisato: "Molte di noi donne non andremmo mai in un governo guidato dal signor Berlusconi". E una bacchettata al futuro premier italiano è arrivata anche dall'opposizione spagnola. "Questo è il secolo delle donne", ha ricordato al leader del Pdl Esperanza Aguirrel, presidente della Regione di Madrid ed importante esponente del Partito popolare. Per poi aggijngere che l'aver nominato ministro nove donne ed otto uomini è una delle "migliori cose fatte" da Zapatero.
Una proposta inaccettabile riportata da Thomson Reuters il 18 Aprile 2008
Riportiamo una allarmante proposta apparsa sul Sole 24 Ore e riportata da Thomson Reuters oggi. Dobbiamo mobilitarci per affossarla subito.
MILAN (Thomson Financial) - The Italian government is drawing up a decree to grant Alitalia SpA a credit line worth between 100 million and 150 million euros to help it continue operations, daily Il Sole 24 Ore said without citing sources.
The decree, which will be supported by the incoming government of Silvio Berlusconi, is aimed at allowing Alitalia to avoid being placed in administration until the new centre-right government is installed, the paper said.
The newspaper said the granting of a credit line could be considered state help by the EU Commission but added the government is prepared to run the risk of an EU sanction because of the emergency situation.
The real problem is that the Italian president will find it very hard to sign such a decree, the report added.
On Thursday, Berlusconi said all options for Alitalia remain open, providing the company remains a flagship carrier and that decisions are taken in Italy.
The newspaper said Berlusconi discussed Alitalia during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday
stephen.jewkes@thomsonreuters.com
sj/ms1
MILAN (Thomson Financial) - The Italian government is drawing up a decree to grant Alitalia SpA a credit line worth between 100 million and 150 million euros to help it continue operations, daily Il Sole 24 Ore said without citing sources.
The decree, which will be supported by the incoming government of Silvio Berlusconi, is aimed at allowing Alitalia to avoid being placed in administration until the new centre-right government is installed, the paper said.
The newspaper said the granting of a credit line could be considered state help by the EU Commission but added the government is prepared to run the risk of an EU sanction because of the emergency situation.
The real problem is that the Italian president will find it very hard to sign such a decree, the report added.
On Thursday, Berlusconi said all options for Alitalia remain open, providing the company remains a flagship carrier and that decisions are taken in Italy.
The newspaper said Berlusconi discussed Alitalia during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday
stephen.jewkes@thomsonreuters.com
sj/ms1
Alitalia - Bancarotta o la vendita a Air France/KLM sono le uniche opzioni
Come piu' volte menzionato sul nostro blog, noi siamo convinti che la unica soluzione per l'Alitalia sia la bancarotta e ricostituzione a modello Swiss o la (s)vendita a AirFrance-KLM. E' assurdo pensare che ci sia una possibilita' di continuare a sovvenzionare Alitalia senza riguardo a realta' economiche e regole ECC.
Siamo convinti che anche Berlusconi dovra' accettare questa realta' peraltro ipotizzata da vari articoli (vedi il FT di oggi.
Italians resist plan to rescue Alitalia
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: April 17 2008 03:14 | Last updated: April 17 2008 03:14
Silvio Berlusconi’s campaign pledge to save Alitalia from a takeover by Air France-KLM appeared on Wednesday to be unravelling as Italian industrialists resisted the prime minister-elect’s proposal to buy the loss-making flag carrier.
Promising to keep Alitalia in Italian hands had been the single biggest issue in the election campaign, with Mr Berlusconi and his allies owing their decisive victory in large part to a more protectionist economic policy.
Mr Berlusconi, to be sworn in as prime minister next month, was forced on Wednesday to address the reality that Alitalia could soon enter bankruptcy proceedings and that the takeover offer by Air France-KLM, which he has rejected, is the only one on the table.
After discussing with his allies the division of ministries, Mr Berlusconi offered a vague response to warnings by the outgoing centre-left government that a decision on the airline’s future could not be put off.
“This morning, I came up with a new slogan and now I will tell you: ‘I love Italy and I fly Alitalia’,” he said.
Asked for his response to the government’s request for an urgent meeting on Alitalia, Mr Berlusconi replied that he had spoken to his two advisers, Gianni Letta, who is expected to become deputy prime minister, and Bruno Ermolli, a business associate.
Industry sources said Mr Ermolli had been in contact with Italian industrialists before this week’s elections to form a consortium. But so far terms could not be agreed with prospective buyers, who said they would rather Alitalia go bankrupt and then pick up the pieces.
“Ermolli is trying to set up a deal. But the situation is very confused. Alitalia is in a critical situation,” one source close to the talks said.
Mr Berlusconi sprang a new alternative to his repeated assurances that he would find an Italian consortium by proposing “a big international group with equal dignity accorded to the three airlines” – Alitalia-Air France-KLM.
Air France-KLM’s takeover offer was based on swapping a stake of about 3 per cent in the future merged airline for the Italian government’s 49.9 per cent holding in Alitalia. The outgoing finance minister accepted last month but trade unions, encouraged by Mr Berlusconi, rejected it because of the 2,100 job losses involved.
The International Air Transport Association has warned Alitalia that it must provide a security guarantee to the aviation industry’s financial clearing system before it is forced into bankruptcy administration.
If it failed to deposit the guarantee, it would be suspended from the global settlement system, which would cut off one of its main sources of revenue.
Analysts said Mr Berlusconi might ignore EU objections and extend a bridging loan to Alitalia while Air One, a smaller domestic airline, tried to form an Italian consortium with the large sums needed to restructure the airline.
Additional reporting by Kevin Done in London
Siamo convinti che anche Berlusconi dovra' accettare questa realta' peraltro ipotizzata da vari articoli (vedi il FT di oggi.
Italians resist plan to rescue Alitalia
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: April 17 2008 03:14 | Last updated: April 17 2008 03:14
Silvio Berlusconi’s campaign pledge to save Alitalia from a takeover by Air France-KLM appeared on Wednesday to be unravelling as Italian industrialists resisted the prime minister-elect’s proposal to buy the loss-making flag carrier.
Promising to keep Alitalia in Italian hands had been the single biggest issue in the election campaign, with Mr Berlusconi and his allies owing their decisive victory in large part to a more protectionist economic policy.
Mr Berlusconi, to be sworn in as prime minister next month, was forced on Wednesday to address the reality that Alitalia could soon enter bankruptcy proceedings and that the takeover offer by Air France-KLM, which he has rejected, is the only one on the table.
After discussing with his allies the division of ministries, Mr Berlusconi offered a vague response to warnings by the outgoing centre-left government that a decision on the airline’s future could not be put off.
“This morning, I came up with a new slogan and now I will tell you: ‘I love Italy and I fly Alitalia’,” he said.
Asked for his response to the government’s request for an urgent meeting on Alitalia, Mr Berlusconi replied that he had spoken to his two advisers, Gianni Letta, who is expected to become deputy prime minister, and Bruno Ermolli, a business associate.
Industry sources said Mr Ermolli had been in contact with Italian industrialists before this week’s elections to form a consortium. But so far terms could not be agreed with prospective buyers, who said they would rather Alitalia go bankrupt and then pick up the pieces.
“Ermolli is trying to set up a deal. But the situation is very confused. Alitalia is in a critical situation,” one source close to the talks said.
Mr Berlusconi sprang a new alternative to his repeated assurances that he would find an Italian consortium by proposing “a big international group with equal dignity accorded to the three airlines” – Alitalia-Air France-KLM.
Air France-KLM’s takeover offer was based on swapping a stake of about 3 per cent in the future merged airline for the Italian government’s 49.9 per cent holding in Alitalia. The outgoing finance minister accepted last month but trade unions, encouraged by Mr Berlusconi, rejected it because of the 2,100 job losses involved.
The International Air Transport Association has warned Alitalia that it must provide a security guarantee to the aviation industry’s financial clearing system before it is forced into bankruptcy administration.
If it failed to deposit the guarantee, it would be suspended from the global settlement system, which would cut off one of its main sources of revenue.
Analysts said Mr Berlusconi might ignore EU objections and extend a bridging loan to Alitalia while Air One, a smaller domestic airline, tried to form an Italian consortium with the large sums needed to restructure the airline.
Additional reporting by Kevin Done in London
Business ties bind Putin to Berlusconi di Quentin Peel sul Financial Times del 17 Aprile 2008
On the face of it, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin scarcely look like natural bedfellows.
Italy’s prime minister-elect is a rightwing, pro-US billionaire media and property magnate, better known for his cheap humour and political gaffes than for serious policy formulation. The Russian president – and prime minister in waiting – is supremely controlled, a cautious bureaucrat by instinct, who has restored the power of the Kremlin at the expense of some powerful business oligarchs and revived national pride by acting as a counterweight to US global influence.
Yet the two have forged an extraordinary friendship ever since they first met in 2001. Both put great store on personal chemistry in their relationships and both tend to be seen as outsiders, regarded with suspicion by other leaders. So it is scarcely a surprise that Mr Putin made sure he was the first to stop by Mr Berlusconi’s luxury villa in Sardinia on Thursday to congratulate him on his re-election.
It is not the first time the Russian leader has been there. He came with his wife, Lyudmila, in 2003, and sent his daughters Masha and Katya back for a two-week summer holiday.
He has invited Mr Berlusconi back to his Black Sea holiday home in Sochi. Last year in St Petersburg they attended a martial arts competition with Jean-Claude van Damme, the Belgian B-film actor – just as Russian riot police were breaking up an opposition demonstration in Moscow. It did not appear to bother Mr Berlusconi.
They share more in their political style than one might expect: both like to shock, Mr Berlusconi with crude jokes and Mr Putin with crude language. Both are small men, vain about their appearance, who have ruled their countries through tight-knit groups of confidants.
But it is not just style that unites them. It is business.
It is not by chance that Mr Putin is dropping in on Sardinia on return from a trip to Libya, where he signed deals for arms sales and energy links. The Russian president is as much chief executive of Russia Inc, and the guiding force behind Gazprom, the gas monopoly, as he is a national leader. For Mr Berlusconi, politics is about doing business. Thanks to their personal ties, they have encouraged vital business links, especially in the energy sector.
Gazprom and Eni, the 30 per cent state-owned Italian energy group, are partners in the giant South Stream natural gas pipeline project intended to deliver 30bn cubic metres of Siberian gas a year to Italy, via the Black Sea and the Balkans. In Washington, and to many in Brussels, the pipeline is seen as a dangerous move to increase the dependence of the European Union on Russian energy supplies. To Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi, it is just good business.
Eni and Enel, the Italian electricity group, are partners with Gazprom in exploiting the gas fields they bought at the bankruptcy auction of Yukos, the company owned by the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Enel has also acquired a controlling stake in OGK-5, a privatised power generation company, and plans to spend €2bn ($3.2bn, £1.6bn) in Russia building a vertically-integrated energy combine.
Now Gazprom has announced it wants to become a partner in Eni’s gas pipeline from Libya, where the Russian giant signed on Wednesday a joint venture agreement with the Libyan national oil company. Gazprom is also discussing an exchange of assets with Eni, giving Eni more Russian involvement in exchange for Italian interests in Libya.
That is just in the energy sector. Italy cannot compete with Germany in its absolute levels of trade and investment in Russia. But thanks to the Berlusconi-Putin relationship, it is seen in the Kremlin as the most reliable business partner. No wonder Mr Putin has rushed to shake hands with his best friend in Sardinia.
Italy’s prime minister-elect is a rightwing, pro-US billionaire media and property magnate, better known for his cheap humour and political gaffes than for serious policy formulation. The Russian president – and prime minister in waiting – is supremely controlled, a cautious bureaucrat by instinct, who has restored the power of the Kremlin at the expense of some powerful business oligarchs and revived national pride by acting as a counterweight to US global influence.
Yet the two have forged an extraordinary friendship ever since they first met in 2001. Both put great store on personal chemistry in their relationships and both tend to be seen as outsiders, regarded with suspicion by other leaders. So it is scarcely a surprise that Mr Putin made sure he was the first to stop by Mr Berlusconi’s luxury villa in Sardinia on Thursday to congratulate him on his re-election.
It is not the first time the Russian leader has been there. He came with his wife, Lyudmila, in 2003, and sent his daughters Masha and Katya back for a two-week summer holiday.
He has invited Mr Berlusconi back to his Black Sea holiday home in Sochi. Last year in St Petersburg they attended a martial arts competition with Jean-Claude van Damme, the Belgian B-film actor – just as Russian riot police were breaking up an opposition demonstration in Moscow. It did not appear to bother Mr Berlusconi.
They share more in their political style than one might expect: both like to shock, Mr Berlusconi with crude jokes and Mr Putin with crude language. Both are small men, vain about their appearance, who have ruled their countries through tight-knit groups of confidants.
But it is not just style that unites them. It is business.
It is not by chance that Mr Putin is dropping in on Sardinia on return from a trip to Libya, where he signed deals for arms sales and energy links. The Russian president is as much chief executive of Russia Inc, and the guiding force behind Gazprom, the gas monopoly, as he is a national leader. For Mr Berlusconi, politics is about doing business. Thanks to their personal ties, they have encouraged vital business links, especially in the energy sector.
Gazprom and Eni, the 30 per cent state-owned Italian energy group, are partners in the giant South Stream natural gas pipeline project intended to deliver 30bn cubic metres of Siberian gas a year to Italy, via the Black Sea and the Balkans. In Washington, and to many in Brussels, the pipeline is seen as a dangerous move to increase the dependence of the European Union on Russian energy supplies. To Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi, it is just good business.
Eni and Enel, the Italian electricity group, are partners with Gazprom in exploiting the gas fields they bought at the bankruptcy auction of Yukos, the company owned by the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Enel has also acquired a controlling stake in OGK-5, a privatised power generation company, and plans to spend €2bn ($3.2bn, £1.6bn) in Russia building a vertically-integrated energy combine.
Now Gazprom has announced it wants to become a partner in Eni’s gas pipeline from Libya, where the Russian giant signed on Wednesday a joint venture agreement with the Libyan national oil company. Gazprom is also discussing an exchange of assets with Eni, giving Eni more Russian involvement in exchange for Italian interests in Libya.
That is just in the energy sector. Italy cannot compete with Germany in its absolute levels of trade and investment in Russia. But thanks to the Berlusconi-Putin relationship, it is seen in the Kremlin as the most reliable business partner. No wonder Mr Putin has rushed to shake hands with his best friend in Sardinia.
Self-styled saviour is symptom of Italy’s ills di Philip Stephens sul Financial Times del 17 Aprile 2008
Earlier this week I heard an Italian senator speaking of his ambitions for Italy’s newly elected government. The task of the incoming administration, he ventured on BBC radio, was clear: to modernise Italy and realign its economic fortunes and political status with Europe’s leading powers.
For a moment or two the thesis seemed entirely plausible, indeed encouraging. Italy has too long been trapped in decline, not so much the sick but the decaying man of Europe. It risks being described not by its rich cultural heritage, wonderful food and vast talent for stylish innovation, but by the rotting rubbish piled high in the streets of Naples and the demise of the national flag carrier Alitalia.
The election, the senator said, had swept away the big structural obstacle to change: the thicket of extreme groups of left and right that have bedevilled Italian politics. Some 39 parties had been represented in parliament before polling day. Now there would be just six.
The new government would have a majority in the chamber of deputies and senate sufficient to sustain it for a full term. Italians, disaffected with the centre-left coalition of Romano Prodi, had at last made a clear choice. The practice of democracy in Rome would soon resemble that in Paris, Berlin and London.
Persuasive stuff. Political stability is not to be lightly dismissed in a country that has suffered 61 governments since 1945. Yet the voters’ choice this week promises irrelevance rather than renaissance. The senator, you see, spoke as a supporter of the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. The price of the new clarity in Italian politics is Mr Berlusconi’s return as prime minister. The billionaire media magnate, self-styled political clown, and frequent defendant in the Italian courts could remain in power until 2013. Who knows, he might then chase his ambition to be president.
The price is too high. Mr Berlusconi certainly shares the ambition to rebuild Italy’s prestige. But the argument that he can lead Italy back to modernity misses the most simple objection. How can Italy recast itself as a vibrant European democracy when its prime minister would be disqualified from office in any and all of the states against which it wants to measure itself?
Put aside for a moment his duels with the judiciary – he says they are politically motivated. Forget the face-lifts and hair transplants. Close your ears to his campaign remark that Italy’s public prosecutors should face obligatory mental health checks. Ignore even the dismal record of Mr Berlusconi’s last term of office, during which he was largely preoccupied with escaping his own legal problems.
Some would say these were impediment enough. Others would add to the list his partnership with the Northern League, an unpleasant party that draws its appeal from being anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation and anti-southern Italy.
The thing, though, that should disqualify Mr Berlusconi without the slightest scintilla of doubt is his insistence on retaining his vast media empire. The prime minister-elect owns Italy’s three largest private television stations, two newspapers and a sprawling publishing empire. Try to imagine Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown or even the extrovert Nicolas Sarkozy doubling up as media tycoons. Impossible. It should be impossible also in Italy.
Italian friends tell me there are reasons why the voters decided otherwise: accumulated anger at a broken political system, a squeeze on living standards, widespread corruption, deep disappointment with Mr Prodi’s centre-left government. Mr Berlusconi, in this analysis, was the best option on offer. The sharp rise in the vote for the Northern League was another measure of desperation. All this may be true, but the outcome is depressing testimony also to just how far Italy has slipped outside the European mainstream.
The reasons are familiar. The economy has more or less stagnated for a decade. The country’s public debt exceeds its national income. The divide between the prosperous north and the backward south is widening. Mr Berlusconi’s comments about the prosecutors mirror a corrosion of confidence in the judicial system.
A recent parliamentary report noted that Italy’s biggest commercial enterprise was not the rejuvenated Fiat automobile company but the ‘Ndrangheta organisation. From its base in Calabria the criminal network controls an empire with an annual income estimated at €40bn ($64bn, £32bn). Stir the more familiar Mafia and its Neapolitan cousin, the Camorra, into the mix and you can see the scale of the challenge to the rule of law.
Economic ills at home are mirrored by declining prestige abroad. It was not that long ago that Italy was a significant player in European affairs. During the 1980s it had a pivotal role in the creation first of the single European market and then the single currency. Italy was the unabashed torch-bearer for integration. Now it goes unnoticed.
No doubt Mr Berlusconi wants to play on the world stage. This week he is hosting Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Incongruously, George W. Bush is his other best friend. Italian diplomats say he wants to get along with Mr Brown, Britain’s prime minister, and with Mr Sarkozy. As for the European Union, however, Mr Berlusconi is content to hurl bricks at the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
The other day he inadvertently invited us to measure Italy against Spain. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, he remarked, had been foolish to include so many women in his cabinet. The Spanish prime minister’s new government was “too pink”. He would have “problems leading them [the women]”. In any event, in Italy it was much harder to find women “qualified for government”.
Leaving aside the chauvinism, the comparison was recklessly ill-advised. Because Spain has become what Italy has not. A little more than three decades free of dictatorship, a once chronically backward country has emerged a modern European society. Spain has its problems, but its people are now richer than Italians and, more importantly, they are at ease with globalisation and modernity.
That is what, I think, the senator wants for Italy. My Italian friends see slivers of light. If the new government disappoints, they say, it will have nowhere to hide. The defeated Walter Veltroni might yet meld the Democratic party into a coherent force of the centre-left. I hope they are proved right. Mr Berlusconi is the symptom of, rather than solution to, Italy’s ills. It deserves better than a slide into bombastic irrelevance.
philip.stephens@ft.com
For a moment or two the thesis seemed entirely plausible, indeed encouraging. Italy has too long been trapped in decline, not so much the sick but the decaying man of Europe. It risks being described not by its rich cultural heritage, wonderful food and vast talent for stylish innovation, but by the rotting rubbish piled high in the streets of Naples and the demise of the national flag carrier Alitalia.
The election, the senator said, had swept away the big structural obstacle to change: the thicket of extreme groups of left and right that have bedevilled Italian politics. Some 39 parties had been represented in parliament before polling day. Now there would be just six.
The new government would have a majority in the chamber of deputies and senate sufficient to sustain it for a full term. Italians, disaffected with the centre-left coalition of Romano Prodi, had at last made a clear choice. The practice of democracy in Rome would soon resemble that in Paris, Berlin and London.
Persuasive stuff. Political stability is not to be lightly dismissed in a country that has suffered 61 governments since 1945. Yet the voters’ choice this week promises irrelevance rather than renaissance. The senator, you see, spoke as a supporter of the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. The price of the new clarity in Italian politics is Mr Berlusconi’s return as prime minister. The billionaire media magnate, self-styled political clown, and frequent defendant in the Italian courts could remain in power until 2013. Who knows, he might then chase his ambition to be president.
The price is too high. Mr Berlusconi certainly shares the ambition to rebuild Italy’s prestige. But the argument that he can lead Italy back to modernity misses the most simple objection. How can Italy recast itself as a vibrant European democracy when its prime minister would be disqualified from office in any and all of the states against which it wants to measure itself?
Put aside for a moment his duels with the judiciary – he says they are politically motivated. Forget the face-lifts and hair transplants. Close your ears to his campaign remark that Italy’s public prosecutors should face obligatory mental health checks. Ignore even the dismal record of Mr Berlusconi’s last term of office, during which he was largely preoccupied with escaping his own legal problems.
Some would say these were impediment enough. Others would add to the list his partnership with the Northern League, an unpleasant party that draws its appeal from being anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation and anti-southern Italy.
The thing, though, that should disqualify Mr Berlusconi without the slightest scintilla of doubt is his insistence on retaining his vast media empire. The prime minister-elect owns Italy’s three largest private television stations, two newspapers and a sprawling publishing empire. Try to imagine Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown or even the extrovert Nicolas Sarkozy doubling up as media tycoons. Impossible. It should be impossible also in Italy.
Italian friends tell me there are reasons why the voters decided otherwise: accumulated anger at a broken political system, a squeeze on living standards, widespread corruption, deep disappointment with Mr Prodi’s centre-left government. Mr Berlusconi, in this analysis, was the best option on offer. The sharp rise in the vote for the Northern League was another measure of desperation. All this may be true, but the outcome is depressing testimony also to just how far Italy has slipped outside the European mainstream.
The reasons are familiar. The economy has more or less stagnated for a decade. The country’s public debt exceeds its national income. The divide between the prosperous north and the backward south is widening. Mr Berlusconi’s comments about the prosecutors mirror a corrosion of confidence in the judicial system.
A recent parliamentary report noted that Italy’s biggest commercial enterprise was not the rejuvenated Fiat automobile company but the ‘Ndrangheta organisation. From its base in Calabria the criminal network controls an empire with an annual income estimated at €40bn ($64bn, £32bn). Stir the more familiar Mafia and its Neapolitan cousin, the Camorra, into the mix and you can see the scale of the challenge to the rule of law.
Economic ills at home are mirrored by declining prestige abroad. It was not that long ago that Italy was a significant player in European affairs. During the 1980s it had a pivotal role in the creation first of the single European market and then the single currency. Italy was the unabashed torch-bearer for integration. Now it goes unnoticed.
No doubt Mr Berlusconi wants to play on the world stage. This week he is hosting Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Incongruously, George W. Bush is his other best friend. Italian diplomats say he wants to get along with Mr Brown, Britain’s prime minister, and with Mr Sarkozy. As for the European Union, however, Mr Berlusconi is content to hurl bricks at the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
The other day he inadvertently invited us to measure Italy against Spain. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, he remarked, had been foolish to include so many women in his cabinet. The Spanish prime minister’s new government was “too pink”. He would have “problems leading them [the women]”. In any event, in Italy it was much harder to find women “qualified for government”.
Leaving aside the chauvinism, the comparison was recklessly ill-advised. Because Spain has become what Italy has not. A little more than three decades free of dictatorship, a once chronically backward country has emerged a modern European society. Spain has its problems, but its people are now richer than Italians and, more importantly, they are at ease with globalisation and modernity.
That is what, I think, the senator wants for Italy. My Italian friends see slivers of light. If the new government disappoints, they say, it will have nowhere to hide. The defeated Walter Veltroni might yet meld the Democratic party into a coherent force of the centre-left. I hope they are proved right. Mr Berlusconi is the symptom of, rather than solution to, Italy’s ills. It deserves better than a slide into bombastic irrelevance.
philip.stephens@ft.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
