Commentary
Now it’s time for Italy’s new government to tell us their plans
Let’s read the goals and policies. Will there be a change of course regarding the unjust laws that have been passed against immigration and stoking public insecurity?
And so the frogs will kiss each other in the end. Two frogs because, during this stressful phase of our politics, more than one party is the outcast. It remains to be seen whether anyone will transform into a prince, since for now the one in charge is undoubtedly Giuseppe Conte, after emerging from the pitfalls and obstacles of his own dark and perilous tunnel.
He is one of the few prime ministers to take up the role again immediately after his previous government fell. He will thus serve with two different majorities, which are, however, not wholly opposites, as the M5S provides the element of continuity.
Another clear winner is Parliament—because, just as the yellow-green contract was born in Parliament, the same chief institution can very well deliver an alternative plan, for both government and legislation, agreed between the M5S and the Democratic Party. Salvini and Meloni can invoke “the people”—the 60 million Italians supposedly held hostage by the President—all they want, and they can cry, “To the polls! To the polls!” to their heart’s content. It is of no consequence: whatever is decided in Parliament, if anything is decided at all, is entirely legitimate and in accordance with the rules of democracy. Plebiscites are not part of our system, and only propaganda—and ignorance of the Constitution—can possibly claim that this is a betrayal of the vote of Italian citizens. If this were the case, then the voters would have already been betrayed by the yellow-green government contract, for which nobody at all voted in the political earthquake of March 4, 2018.
That’s why the secretary of the Lega, despite all his rallies, his invectives, his obvious rage, is coming out of this defeated twice over.
It was he who willfully caused the crisis, at the wrong time and in all the wrong ways, and who is now relegated to the sidelines, his only weapons being public rallies and the mistakes of those who are going to actually govern.
Furthermore, it would be a serious error to underestimate the role played by the President of the Republic. He wisely chose to trust the sense of responsibility of the parties in order to avoid calling Italians to the polls once again, which would certainly have made for a furious electoral campaign, focused on political and personal rivalries rather than on the problems to be solved.
And now we come to the most important point. Besides the issue of the names which will make up the list of ministers—which is definitely important, but not crucial—we must see on what basis the yellow-red agreement will be built. We must read the goals and the policies. We want to know if there will be a real breakthrough—something Zingaretti has already claimed on several occasions—and a change of course regarding the unjust laws that have been passed against immigration and stoking public insecurity.
All of this will also have to be subjected to the judgment of the base of Grillo’s followers, expressed through their Rousseau platform. It is very likely that the majority will vote in favor of Conte, because if this doesn’t happen, the credibility of the M5S parliamentary groups will collapse altogether.
The other unknown is the government team. We hope that the forces of the left, if they support the government, will be a part of it. But even more than that, we hope for a strong presence of women, who have been confined to the role of spectators during the current crisis. It’s about time that we take this high road to get back to real world issues.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ma-adesso-dovete-dirci-il-programma/ on 2019-08-29