Giusto che sia cosi'.
Oggi invece e Veltroni ad essere al centro delle analsi critiche del noto e quotato quotidiano.
Italy's centre-left
Appeasement
Jun 12th 2008 | ROME
From The Economist print edition
Walter Veltroni risks being too nice to Silvio Berlusconi
IN HIS first speech to Italy's new parliament, Silvio Berlusconi declared that he and his colleagues were “breathing in deep this new air”. The prime minister was not talking of his big majority, but of the constructive engagement of the opposition leader, Walter Veltroni.
The legislature that emerged from the election in April has a tidier, British look. On the right is Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom alliance, linked to the Northern League and a smaller Sicilian party. On the left is Mr Veltroni's Democratic Party (PD), yoked to a small anti-corruption party. In place of Britain's Liberal Democrats stands the Catholic Union of Christian and Centre Democrats. Mr Veltroni even has a Westminster-style “shadow cabinet”.
Yet Mr Veltroni's idea of opposition does not appear British at all. He has passed up a string of opportunities to embarrass the government, thereby helping to boost Mr Berlusconi's popularity, which has risen since the election. One chance came when a journalist, Marco Travaglio, reminded television viewers that Mr Berlusconi's choice for Senate speaker, Renato Schifani, was once a business partner of people later convicted of Mafia involvement. Far from demanding more details, the PD's Senate leader, Anna Finocchiaro, called the remark “unacceptable”.
Then there is Alitalia. Mr Berlusconi promised to find an all-Italian consortium to save the airline. More than two months later—and €300m ($465m) poorer after a state loan to Alitalia—the country is still waiting. Yet this has scarcely been mentioned by the PD. The party has been just as restrained in attacking the government's harsh measures to deal with immigration and security, which have raised eyebrows in Brussels (and in the Vatican). Nor has it fussed about Mr Berlusconi's plan to ban most police phone-taps.
What is going on? Mr Veltroni says he is keen on “dialogue”. The advantages for Mr Berlusconi are clear: he can slough off his partisan image and re-emerge as a consensus man, perhaps a candidate for the presidency. But the benefits for the left are less evident. Even before the election, Mr Veltroni said he wanted to co-operate with Mr Berlusconi on electoral and constitutional reforms to make Italy easier to govern. A noble aim, except that it has been tried before, with disastrous consequences.
In the 1990s, at the insistence of Massimo D'Alema, leader of the biggest left-wing party, the centre-left government held off passing laws to break Mr Berlusconi's virtual monopoly on private television. Mr D'Alema hoped to win Mr Berlusconi's support for political reform. But Mr Berlusconi then torpedoed the project—and returned to power in 2001 with his media empire intact.
Yet appeasement has a strong appeal to Mr Veltroni, who is in a vulnerable position. One reason why the centre-left government of Romano Prodi began to flounder was that the PD's leader sought to distance himself from it after being chosen last autumn. His election strategy largely failed: he rejected an alliance with parties to the left, insisting that the PD must run alone. And his choice of candidate for mayor of Rome proved woefully wrong. Francesco Rutelli, who had already run the city twice, managed to reduce the centre-left's vote from 62% to 46%.
Dialogue, with its promised role in building a new Italy, precludes the tortured post-mortem that a defeated party might otherwise hold. Yet that may be what the left needs. Rooted in a discredited creed, Eurocommunism, and a discredited movement, Christian democracy, its main leaders—Mr Veltroni, Mr Rutelli and Mr D'Alema—have been rejected by voters, outwitted by Mr Berlusconi or both. The risk is that Italy may get not a shadow government, but a phantom opposition.
Riassunto per i non anglofoni, trovato in rete:
L'idea di Veltroni di creare un governo-ombra per contrastare colpo su colpo
l'azione dell'esecutivo di Berlusconi, non convince l'Economist. Altro che
governo-ombra, sferza il settimanale britannico: in Italia il centrosinistra
si sta trasformando in «un'opposizione fantasma». Veltroni, stregato dalla
tentazione dell'«appeasament» è «troppo carino» (too nice) con Berlusconi ma
la cosa, più che contribure a migliorare il clima politico, rischia di
andare tutta a svantaggio del centrosinistra.
Nonostante l'iniziativa del governo ombra, dice l'Economist, «l'idea di
opposizione di Veltroni non è affatto in linea con la tradizione britannica.
In diverse occasioni Veltroni ha rinunciato all'opportunità di mettere in
difficoltà il governo, col solo risultato di contribuire a rafforzare la
popolarità di Berlusconi».
Di queste occasioni mancante l'Economist fa alcuni esempi - dal caso
Travaglio, alla vicenda Alitalia - per poi passare a pesanti conclusioni. La
strategia dell'appeseasament, incalza il giornale, non sembra vantaggiosa e
già più volte «ha avuto conseguenze disastrose». «Evidente è il vantaggio
per Berlusconi meno chiari i benefici per la sinistra».
Impietoso il finale del pezzo: «il rischio è che più di avere un governo
ombra l'Italia si ritrovi con un'opposizione fantasma».
Ciao,
Franz