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Berlusconi sparks outrage

Rome: Italy’s Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi was running true to form on Tuesday as he basked in his overwhelming victory in the general elections held earlier this week. By declaring that illegal immigrants are “an army of evil” he gave Italians a taste of things to come. There has been a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy, especially towards people coming from Romania, Albania, Kosovo, and other parts of the Balkans, with attempts to repatriate Roma gypsies often described as “liars and thieves.”

In a long press conference, Mr. Berlusconi brushed off criticism that he would be putty in the hands of his key coalition partner Umberto Bossi of the Northern League who has been calling for the break-up of Italy into three distinct federal regions so that the wealthy north no longer has to subsidise the poor south. However, he did say he would “increase neighbourhood police forces who would place themselves between the people of Italy and the army of evil.”

Mr. Berlusconi’s remarks caused tremendous outrage and prompted Walter Veltroni of the Democratic Party who lost the election to remark: “I am horrified by his statements so far. His words do not add up to a good start.”

In a bid to appease Mr. Bossi, Mr. Berlusconi pledged to split the country into two distinct entities. Describing federalism as “modern,” Mr. Berlusconi said he would be defending a “great principle of democracy and liberty.” Mr. Bossi who was alongside the new Prime Minister said that this time the fiscal break-up of Italy would become a reality. “The first thing we will carry out is tax independence,” he said. In 2006, a referendum on devolution was held but Italians largely voted to preserve the country’s unity.

The differences between the north and south of Italy are both startling and saddening. The regions south of Naples including the island of Sicily are home to 20.8 million of Italy’s 59 million inhabitants.

The north houses 26 million people while 11.5 million live in the central region around Rome. The disparity in incomes is startling: per capita income in the south is €14,000 a year as compared to €25,000 a year in the north. Unemployment in the south is over 12 per cent; in the north that figure is as low as four. Productivity in the north is over 40 per cent — amongst the highest in Europe — while the south languishes with less than 30 per cent.

Another major problem in the south is the prevalence of four large mafia networks that have all of southern Italy in their grip. Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in the Campania region, the ’Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Sacra Corona Unita in the Puglia region have paralysed any form of honest or efficient government. Eighty per cent of the businesses pay the pizzo or extortion money and there are large swathes of territory where the writ of the state simply does not run.

Mr. Berlusconi in the past has been accused of clientelism and mafia connections but he has always managed to evade the law by using an army of lawyers to wait out the statute of limitations, allegedly bribing judges and employing a panoply of financial and other means to keep prison bars at bay. He is likely to move to cut the grass from under the feet of the prosecutors in Milan and other places where examining magistrates have launched investigations into his financial dealings. During the campaign, Mr. Berlusconi described the judges as “madmen” who needed to pass “sanity tests” before being allowed to pursue their careers.

While Mr. Berlusconi’s allies such as U.S. President George W. Bush praised his election, others, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens in the European Parliament, said: “European decisions will be difficult with this government which will be very eurosceptic.” Martin Schultz, head of the Socialists in the EU Parliament, warned that Mr. Berlusconi’s alliance with the “extreme-right, openly xenophobic” Northern League represented a “real danger for Italy and for Europe.” Another scathing comment came from visiting American writer Erica Jong. “Berlusconi is a clown like George W. Bush. Both our countries have governments led by people who are incompetent,” said Ms. Jong, a New York-born author best known for her best-selling first novel, Fear of Flying.

Mr. Berlusconi will be a precious ally to opponents of a strong euro and of European budgetary discipline, notably for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who vowed to “deepen the traditional bond of friendship” between their two countries. Europe should boost its presence on the world stage, finding leaders to replace the “old greats of European politics” in order to “make [Europe] a protagonist in world affairs once again,” he said.

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