In Italy the situation is serious but it is not serious

The livor mortis that appeared in the skin of the formation induced Conte and the M5E to a desperate attempt to mark their own profile in a wide spectrum of policies. From the criticism of military support for Ukraine to the demand for much more radical measures of social support for citizens in the face of inflation or the outright rejection of a new waste-burning facility in Rome, it has been a war without quarter. There is no specific issue that has precipitated the crisis: it has been the result of a 360-degree attempt to regain life.

It is an immature partisan impulse that has been superimposed on the collective interest at a time of extraordinary difficulty. An irresponsible decision that could force the country to face the foreseeable critical situation in autumn/winter —with gas shortages, skyrocketing prices, economic contraction, complex European decisions linked to the war in Ukraine— in the midst of an electoral campaign and a subsequent very complicated negotiation to form a government in a fragmented and contentious scenario. In the background, the specter of massive public debt, decades of stunted growth, and prospects of demographic decline. For all these reasons, the crisis is especially serious.

Draghi did not give in to blackmail and now seems determined not to go ahead despite still having a majority in Parliament and despite pressure from so many who implore him to guarantee the country’s stability. The reason is clear. The former head of the ECB accepted a mandate in a complex situation under the premise of the support of a coalition of national unity. Like it or not, with that perimeter he has achieved many reforms. Continuing after the departure of the M5E has, instead, all the earmarks of a journey through the desert in which, sooner rather than later, another partner with political maturity and difficulties similar to those of the Movement, the League, would have the impulse to stand out as in which, in March, the natural end of the legislature is approaching. Regular politicians would probably have gone ahead. Draghi does not want to expose himself to that ordeal, go down to maneuver in that mud.

Like Conte, Matteo Salvini is hemorrhaging votes, and he knows that it is easier to recover from the populist opposition than in the shadow of a pragmatic government led by the charismatic figure of Draghi. No one forgets that Salvini tried to bring down a government of which he was a member not long ago out of undisguised partisan interest and announcing it from a beach bar called Papeete. And everyone sees that, while, on the extreme right, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy enjoy the condition of training not subject to government discipline and that fires rhetorical bullets day in and day out without many scruples.

It is difficult to predict how the crisis will be resolved in Italy, the country of a thousand political surprises. The lack of seriousness is, fortunately, far from his only trait. The country exhibits so many areas of excellence —in industry, in design, in culture, among others—. And also, sometimes, as flashes, moments of great political lucidity, sense of responsibility, convergence of wills and figures of great height that rise above certain foot fights —such as Draghi himself or, before him, Giorgio Napolitano , Carlo Azeglio Ciampi or Sandro Pertini among others—. Other countries are short of those resources.

There are those who see the national unity or technical governments that have been formed in Italy as disappointing democratic subspecies. But all of them, regardless of their genesis, had the legitimate support of the political will of the parliamentary representatives of the people. There was no subversion of absolute majorities of a party, but the construction of new majorities through dialogue. Achieving it and having tall figures to pilot them is more like a virtue than a defect.

Flaiano’s description has a record of the highest level. “Oh servant Italy, home of pain, ship without a helmsman in the midst of a great storm, not owner of provinces, but brothel”, Dante cried out in the VI of the Purgatory. Centuries remained for the unitary political configuration of Italy, but those traits were already visible. Hopefully the others prevail, which also exist, in the complexity of human realities that only Manichaeans, myopic or malicious fail to see.