ITALY: THE RECORD OF THE RIGHT IS SHEER FAILURE

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ROME, Mar 31 2006 (IPS) - When Italy goes to the polls for the April 9 elections, one thing will be certain: the right has failed in its response to the demand for work, security, and well-being it took on in 2001 after riding to power on its promise of an Italy in which everyone would be better off, writes Massimo D\’Alema, ex-prime minister of Italy and president of the Democratic Party of the Left, which is a member of the Union, the centre-left coalition. D\’Alema writes in this article that the right failed because it was unable to renew the country and make it more modern and more competitive, and because it did not know how to mobilise its best qualities: its culture, creativity, labour, and solidarity. This failure produced what may be the most grave division of the country in its political history — an Italy divided, consumed by conflict, and as a result weaker not only economically, but socially and internationally. The Berlusconi government has led Italy away from its traditional policy of peace. This policy, which has long made Italy a crossroads of dialogue in the Mediterranean, is not a leftist policy but an Italian policy, that was supported by the Christian Democrats, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party, for decades. It is now up to the centre-left to address the large and daunting challenge of promoting social justice, innovation, and change, and restoring the dynamism of Italian society by forging an alliance of the forces of the business world, labour, and culture.

When Italy goes to the polls for the April 9 elections, one thing will be certain: the right has failed in its response to the demand for work, security, and well-being it took on in 2001 after riding to power on its promise of an Italy in which everyone would be better off. It failed because it was unable to renew the country and make it more modern and more competitive, and because it did not know how to mobilise its best qualities: its culture, creativity, labour, and solidarity.

This failure produced what may be the most grave division of the country in its political history — an Italy divided, consumed by conflict, and as a result weaker not only economically, but socially and internationally.

The current government of Silvio Berlusconi has led Italy away from its traditional policy of peace. This policy, which has long made Italy a crossroads of dialogue in the Mediterranean, is not a leftist policy but an Italian policy, that was supported by the Christian Democrats, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party, for decades.

It is now up to the centre-left to address the large and daunting challenge of promoting social justice, innovation, and change, and restoring the dynamism of Italian society by forging an alliance of the forces of the business world, labour, and culture.

In 1996, Romano Prodi, current leader of the centre-left coalition, defeated Silvio Berlusconi and became prime minister. His message was clear and simple: Italy was running the risk of distancing itself from Europe, and remaining joined to Europe, and tightening its belt to be part of the first group to join the monetary union, was a way of signalling the modernisation of the country.

Today Italy’s relation to Europe is far more problematic. At present, to be honest, it may be less a question of what Europe can do for Italy than what Italy can do to relaunch a Europe capable of generating innovative growth and restoring competitiveness; a Europe that is stronger politically and capable of coordinating a long-term economic policy as opposed to merely maintaining a monetary union; a Europe that is able to free itself from a certain monetary orthodoxy, but not because there is not a need for more rigorous budget policy but because this must be accompanied by an ability to determine what is public spending and what is investment, particularly investment in quality and innovation that will produce wealth and not deficits.

Today this Europe does not exist.

This is the project against which a centre-left government should be measured. It involves bringing Italy to the forefront of reflection on how to relaunch the EU constitutional process and returning to a form of reasoning based on fundamental institutional principles and choices. It involves as well planning new and strengthened experiments in co-operation, and attempting to involve Great Britain, an essential interlocutor in the construction of a foreign policy and defence policy that can make Europe a major force for peace. This is essential if there is to be a multilateral world order, because if there are no other protagonists that can fulfil their global responsibilities, peace will be confined to debates and meetings and will never become a concrete political practice.

This then is the first major sign of a shift in a policy that ended up marginalising Italy in Europe, muddling the sense of its participation in the European project. Italy became a country that did more to divide Europe than to find common solutions, impeding integration efforts in many areas, beginning with justice and security. I believe that these were the most serious and damaging errors that the right committed. The result is that Italy’s international standing that is compromised and hurt.

The objective of the government proposed by the centre-left is to unite Italy in order for the country to vigorously return to the path of progress and innovation, as a participant in a globalisation that is not characterised by war and the injustices that we have witnessed in these years. Shaping globalisation through politics means giving force to the major international institutions –Europe, the United Nations– and Italy must be a protagonist in this process. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)