Stable Italian government may prove elusive
ROME: Italy’s chance of stable government after elections this weekend may rely on forcing two awkward partners into coalition: former European Commissioner Mario Monti and an openly gay leftist he has vowed not to work with.
The mutual sniping between Monti and Nichi Vendola, governor of the southern region of Puglia, intensified during the final weeks of campaigning for elections yesterday and today and both have declared their visions for Italy “incompatible”.
Yet polls indicate the centreleft coalition, in which Vendola’s Left Ecology Freedom is the main partner allied to the larger Democratic Party, may have to join forces with Monti’s centrist group in order to rule.
Monti has called Vendola, whose defence of welfare and labour rights appeals to traditional leftwingers, an obstacle to much-needed economic reforms and urged Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, most likely head of the next government, to drop him.
With his silver hair and a sleepy expression, the 54-yearold Vendola has been equally critical of Monti, who headed a government of technocrats to haul Italy back from economic collapse after Silvio Berlusconi quit power in 2011.
“Monti’s year in government left the country wound- ed,” Vendola told foreign reporters in Rome on Thursday. “Austerity must be loosened to restore necessary oxygen to an economy that is out of breath.”
Sporting a diamond-studded hoop earring, Vendola said Monti was “not the same” as centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, but his social agenda was “unsuitable for younger generations”.
Monti, a devout Catholic, said last month he was opposed to gay marriage. Vendola, also a practising Catholic, has long campaigned for the right of same-sex couples to wed, so he can marry his boyfriend.
In Italy’s socially conserva- tive south, Vendola shocked even his own party by winning the governorship of Puglia – the heel of the Italian boot – in 2005. He was re-elected five years later with a larger share of the vote. Vendola proudly describes himself as coming from a “Catholic and communist” southern family, and joined his first communist organisation at 14.
Critics suggest if Vendola agrees to govern with Monti, he could hinder the radical reforms that economists say are necessary to revive Italy’s stagnant economy
Worse, they fear he could follow the footsteps of his mentor, former communist leader Fausto Bertinotti, who brought down the centre-left government in 1998.