Sunday Thinkpiece: Federalism and Survival in Italy

The story of Umberto Bossi has much that is of interest to other nations. His is one of the very few instances of a single-issue party becoming a national force, something that the UK Independence Party in the UK has not managed, even though founded only 5 years later. Bossi was helped of course, by the insane Italian electoral system.

Bossi started in politics through historical romance: he learnt folk legends and songs of the North from friends he met in medical school in Pavia (he was never to finish his qualifications) and, a little over 100 years from the founding of Italy out of independent states, began to think that his area, Lombardy, was different. It was – even now someone from the Veneto is different from someone from Molise who is again different from a Calabrian. The country has had little time to integrate. Bossi founded the Lombardy League in the North West on the basis of a similar organisation in the Alto Adige formed by a friend, but then made contact with other Northern associations to found the Northern League. They had, with Bossi, both the romantic folklore association and also a political one: they were aware, and resentful, that the North in Italy was subsidising the South.

I have been in Rome with northern friends from Milan. Even though they are not Leaguists, they find the place dirty, disorganised, wasteful and crime ridden compared to their own city, which is essentially northern European, more similar to Munich or Vienna than, say, Naples. Further south than Rome they regard as Africa. They don’t want to pay into this bottomless pit of crime and corruption. Bossi was tapping an easy vein of resentment when he started the Northern League as a political party in the mid ‘80s. He became the party’s sole representative, as senator, in 1987.

Bossi’s break came in 1994 with the Clean Hands campaigns and the rise of Silvio Berlusconi. In the election Bossi’s 3 million votes counted for 11 seats and made him an important member of the coalition. Berlusconi’s first government fell when Bossi withdrew from the coalition not long after. His problem was the lack of move towards federalism.

Though Bossi has turned down his demands from independence for the North to Federalism to fiscal federalism, the problem remains the same. After the former neo-fascist National Alliance Party merged with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and then withdrew, Bossi has stuck by Berlusconi, saying only that his price remained and it must be paid.

That price – fiscal federalism, involving allowing the regions to retain some of their own taxes, was put to a bicameral commission this week which voted 15-15, meaning that no green light was given. Berlusconi said he would enact the legislation by decree to be confirmed by parliament but the President, Giorgio Napolitano, said that he could not receive such a request. It is direction of travel that is important to Bossi. He must be able to show his supporters that movement is being made towards their goal. The more he makes concessions, like tolerating Berlusconi’s peccadilloes, the more he expects in the way of movement.

For the moment Bossi has said he will stand by Berlusconi. He is after all Right Wing, and Berlusconi is the nearest Italy has to that. The present government is of course more middle of the road by European standards whilst Bossi of course is more extreme: he it was who gave the order to open fire on immigrants in a boat trying to get into Italy. With whom else could he form an alliance? Bersani, the leader of the left, intriguingly said the other day that Bossi would never get federalism with Berlusconi – and given that Berlusconi’s bulk support is in the south this would appear to be true. Was it a covert invitation to talk?

Bossi’s main personal ally is the mild mannered and rather wet Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, who comes from Lombardy and like Bossi studied in Pavia. It is said that the reason Gianfranco Fini left Berlusconi’s party, taking 30-odd deputies with him was that he feared Tremonti was becoming the leader-in-waiting. Could Bossi force an election by withdrawing from Berlusconi’s coalition and then side with Tremonti? What would this union look like? Damp economic management mixed with harsh immigration control and cutting off the South from the teat of State subsidy? A curious development but perfectly possible..

Another reason this is an interesting case internationally is the proportional representation voting system, which allows the pace of politics to be dictated by those who received the fewest votes. Umberto Bossi is the man to be watched; he is pulling the strings in one of the West’s great democracies.