Thursday 4 April 2013

Bersani and Berlusconi Unite to Prevent the Functioning of the Italian Parliament

The pretence that the Democratic Party will not act politically with the Berlusconi's centre right coalition to form a government is wholly undermined by the reality that the two parties are acting together to prevent the Parliament from working.  Ever since  MPs were declared elected (which took long enough) even now the two coalitions of Left and Right refuse to allow what the largest single party - the 5 Stars Movement - is seeking: the putting into operation of the various Parliamentary Commissions from which legislation is generated.   Parliamentary rules require that each Commission have a chair and vice chair.  Without a government, say Bersani and Berlusconi (tacitly recognising that the Monti left-over is no government) those offices cannot be filled.  Actually they can; in precisely the kind of hiatus we have now there is provision for the most senior Commission member to act as chair  (and since when has anybody been paying the slightest regard to the rules in this fiasco of ad hoc governance?).

There is a grand coalition alright, or rather a common front - keep the 5 Stars Movement away from the levers of power is its bedrock, secret negotiation and agreements its means.  Just as Beppe Grillo said it would be.  Except that the strain of the exclusion imperative, of freezing out our Movement, is tearing the coalitions apart, particularly Bersani's coalition.  Matteo Renzi's  MPs are calling for central parts of the 5 Stars programme to be enacted, particularly the removal of all public funding from political parties; the far Left rainbows SEL are joining with the 5 Stars for the immediate  initiation of the Commissions' work, indeed it is SEL that has pointed to the means for them to start work immediately.

Napolitano, Berlusconi, and Bersani are horrified at the obvious capacity of the Parliament to work without the control of an Executive.  Their problem now is to 'wrap' their alliance sufficiently well to keep their electorates without losing face - and votes - when we go back to the polls.


2 comments:

Caronte said...

The Five Star Movement (what a silly name) is not being excluded by anybody other than its foolish, authoritarian co-leaders (Grillo and Casaleggio), with their obtuse and destructive strategy, against the wishes of several dozen of their own MPs. They deserve anything they get.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Fascinating stuff.

There will be new elections, I assume.

The "colleagues" will be moving heaven and earth to ensure that someone or something sympathetic to the "project" gains power, somehow.

It will be the task of the Italian people to make sure that this does not happen.

You are our standard-bearers in the fight against the Pan-European political class. Do not fail!