The neighbours in crisis

Most of us have followed the evolution of the government crisis in nearby Italy – but that does not mean we have grasped the inner dynamic.

Our two countries are not just geographic neighbours but also share many of the characteristics. If we do not look like each other, if our two political structures are not comparable, the underlying reality reflects an underlying similarity.

We are two peoples on the southern periphery of Europe and we both know what it means to be poor, unemployed, and kicked here and there by the overlords of Europe. If we as Maltese have emerged from the years of international crisis with a strong economy getting stronger, the Italians have stagnated mainly because they did not put into action what we did.

The result was the April election and the new governing coalition that has now taken office. People who condemn the new government to future failure and who treat it as the worst of pariahs misunderstand what led the electorate here.

The economic fundamentals of the third economy in Europe, after Brexit, are good, except for those areas where government action is essential – public debt, unemployment and the situation at the banks. Moreover, there is also a social aspect about which we will speak later.

Ever since Italy joined the Eurozone, its growth has been anaemic. The lack of job opportunities has led many to migrate (including to here) and people speak of a ‘lost generation’ of Italians with no prospects in life.

The social crisis in the North has produced the Lega Nord with its thinly veiled bias against the people of the South, the ‘ terroni’. These were characterized in the political mythology of the Lega as idle, shying away from work, living on government handouts. In these circumstances, the people of the South fell prey to the Mafia with all its ramifications, which took over most government contracts and ruled towns, villages and hamlets with an iron hand.

For many years, central government lived in harmony with key government leaders mentioned as secret allies, such as Andreotti and Berlusconi. The South continued to stagnate with high unemployment and lack of investment while wave after wave of immigrants arrived to work in the fields for ridiculous wages.

The attraction of the second party in the coalition – 5 Stars – derived from a mass popular movement sparked off by comedian-turned-serious Beppe Grillo against the inefficiency, the incompetence of successive governments both Centre-Right and Centre-Left. 5 Stars is not a geographical party like Lega Nord was, and in fact, Lega soon dropped the Nord tag and became a mass party for the whole country, like 5 Star.

These two parties were clear about what they are against – mainly the EU and the euro, but remained divergent about significant parts of their programme. In fact, they needed 88 days to agree about a common programme of government.

That is where President Mattarella put his foot in it. His powers as president with regard to persons nominated for posts were more limited than he made them out to be. He objected to Professor Savona, an ex-minister, not because of a possible conflict of interest but because he (Mattarella) was concerned about the impact a Eurosceptic finance minister would have on the markets.

He was wrong or wrongly advised, because:

1. Exiting the euro is not on the government programme; and

2. Savona had declared he did not intend to exit from the euro.

It was this stalemate that led to three or four days of high tension until a face-saving compromise was found, Savona still became a minister and a minister holding the same ideas was made Minister for Finance.

All’s well that ends well, and yesterday on Republic Day a nation with a newly found