Ultimamente a casa parlo solo di politica italiana, anche se diventa frustrante dover anche spiegare come funziona il sistema Italia al mio svizzerotto... Dato che non ne poteva piu' di sentirmi parlare ha deciso che voleva dire la sua. Un po' di spoiler: come un buon cittadino svizzero tende al compromesso...
enjoy
The Italian Stalemate / A Swiss perspective
First, an admission of guilt: I'm very prone to advocate the swiss model as the best in the world even though it may not be right for another state with different circumstances. It's a common mistake for someone who is happy with the way things are (well mostly) in his country.
I have always taken an interest in swiss national politics and now that I am together with an Italian, I am also following italian politics mostly through discussions with her. I find myself often asking "why" questions. Some things I just can't believe, others are just so very different that they do not work as I would assume.
Of course I've learned a lot about the way the Italian parliament and senate are assembled during the last few days. I can't help but notice that the situation is not very much different from the situation after any given election in Switzerland in the last 100 years. In Italy there are now three major coalitions, each getting between a quarter and a third of the votes. None of the coalitions is able to form a government without the help of another. There is also a similarity in the way that a government is supposed to be working: The Italian prime minister is just like the Swiss president "primus inter pares" which means the ministers are theoretically able to govern their dossier by themselves.
However here is also the major difference in the system: While the Italian ministers are allowed to govern independently of each other, they are confirmed by the parliament as one. This makes each minister responsible for what the others do. The entire executive branch is in the same boat and if one of them does too much rocking, they all go down. It is understandable that The Democratic Party refuses to govern with the People Of Liberty. After all, they would be held responsible for the acts of the others.
Now imagine for a second that Italy would elect its cabinet the Swiss way: Each member is selected independently by majority vote as well as the prime minister. First, the parties need to reach an informal consensus on how many seats in the government should go to each party. Without this consensus, no party is able to achieve the majority vote that is necessary. Imagine the three parties simply voting for their own candidates indefinitely without reaching majority. If a consensus is reached, the parties can either choose to present acceptable candidates or not. If they present unacceptable candidates, the parliament may choose someone else from the same party.
In this kind of system, the government is composed by a proportional number of ministers that were approved by the other parties and not necessarily by their own parties (as sometimes happens in Switzerland). It's the same principle as letting one person divide a piece of cake and the other person chose which piece he wants. No one really likes the government but at least it was agreed upon by 50% of the parliament.
The parties are forced to get their shit together and govern together. This would do Italy a lot of good, as no big mouthed populist (I am not calling either of those two a clown) would ever be elected minister.
Unfortunately my little utopia does not work out for two reasons:
- To change any laws, they need a government in the first place to propose a law
- The Five Star Movement is not interested in governing, so most likely any elected Minister would simply resign (or risk being cast out of the movement).
Even if Italy is running out of time and money, the Five Star Movement will not take the responsibility to govern because they know that without drastic measures, all is lost. And drastic measures is the last thing they want because Grillo promised Italy that they could have all the nice things like before, if only they exchanged the politicians. What a load of bullshit; And what a pity for Italy.
Perhaps the solution is to look at the way the Vatican elects its head of state. Lock the Italian parliament up, dock their pay and reduce their rations until they've reached a decision.
I would like to see white smoke above the Palazzo Montecitorio.
Svizzerotto
