Italy voting

Italy, like Belgium, is without a government – or at least without a regularly constituted one. It is worth pointing out that cries of ‘Italy in political crisis’ spring to commentators’ lips a little readily: in the absence of parliamentary support President Napolitano has asked the incumbent Romano Prodi to carry on as a caretaker. The difference with Belgium is that this has been going on for a few days in Italy and several months in Belgium.

The problem in Italy is electoral law – the system under which a new government would be elected. At the last moment under Berlusconi’s premiership he changed the law towards an increased level of Proportional Representation. This was an entirely cynical act by Berlusconi, in that he thought – incorrectly as it turns out – that this would prevent Prodi winning. The feeling in the country now seems to be that a return to some more open system might be in order, and Napolitano wants this change to be enacted before the election. So he is therefore thinking of inviting some outsider to form a government of national unity while they change the electoral law.

In defence of Berlusconi, he may be a spiv but he has the people on his side: opinion polls say he would win handsomely. He was pipped at the post in the election, that government as now failed, he is entitled to an election. If a government fails it ceases to have the right to put its policies into practice, surely?

This is a simplified view – to explain the Italian voting system and the possible options would be the subject of a book – but that’s how it seems to me. Alle urne! To the Polls! It may be that with a decent majority Berlusconi might this time actually do something for his country rather than bend the rules to keep himself out of jail. We shall see.