Copyright 2000 www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber All rights
reserved.
Giuliano Amato
Italy's new Prime Minister
Giuliano Amato (61) is, as an Italian journalist put it, a lay politician who pleases the Catholics with his
position regarding
abortion and family. Born in Turin, the major industrial town in northern Italy, he
studied law at the University of Pisa and graduated from New York's Columbia University with a
Master's degree in
Comparative International Law. He was Professor of Comparative International
Law at the Universities of Modena, Perugia, Florence and Rome. Giuliano Amato
is married. His wife and daughter are both Professors too. His son is an actor.
Amato began his political career in 1958 in the Socialist
Party (Psi) for which he was a Member of Parliament form 1983 to 1993. He
served as undersecretary to Prime Minister Craxi (1983-1987) who discovered
and fostered him. Amato was Vice-President of the cabinet in 1987-88 and Minister of Finance from
1987 to 1989. In 1992/93 he served as Prime Minister for
almost 300 days, in the midst of Tangentopoli, as the Italian
corruption and party finance scandals are called. He earned his
nickname "il dottor sottile", "the subtle doctor",
during his
deft
tenure as Prime Minister, when the corruption scandals caused the collapse of the
Socialist party - Amato was party chief and Craxi's right hand but, apparently, emerged clean
from charges of corruption and bribery - as well as the end of the Christian Democratic party that
had dominated Italian post-war politics. In 1997 Amato was
president of the Antitrust organization. In the government led by Massimo
D'Alema, Amato served as Minister without portfolio for the Constitutional
Reforms and, again, as Minster of Finance.
Parliament approved Giuliano Amato as Prime Minister on April 28 by a margin of 21
votes in a vote of confidence (of the 622 members of the lower chamber of
parliament present, 319 voted for, 298 against the new cabinet; 5
abstentions). But this was just a temporary success. The problem with the left
that has been leading Italy for the past five years and especially with its
main party, Massimo D'Alema's former Communists, is the conservatism of
the union leaders that still live in the past. They block important reforms
and that is why the former Communists cannot find a larger part of voters in
Northern Italy, one of Europe's richest regions (on the level of Bavaria in
Germany or even richer). If the left does not adjust to the requirements of
globalization, international competitiveness and economic freedom, in fact to
modern, liberal society, the Left will be swept away in next year's general
elections.
D'Alema chose Amato as his Finance Minister in order to give his party a
sign. He tried to continue on Prodi's path to modernization. But the majority
of the former Communists are still not ready for it. Now they can try once more
to adjust, with Amato as their Prime Minister. For the moment, they have
borrowed time, but will it be enough to regain voters confidence and, more
important, will they take steps which deserve confidence? In 1992, Amato's
mission was to save the country from bankruptcy. In 2000, it is to modernize
the left. Mister Veltroni of D'Alema's party was right when he said in parliament that in no
other European country would a government have to resign because it lost a
regional election, as the opposition demanded. That would just cause another
unnecessary instability. The left has now been in power for five years.
With the very able Romano Prodi, now President of the European Commission to
the relief of his rivals (D'Alema, Dini, Berlusconi, Fini, etc.), Italy
managed to become part of the European Monetary Union by fulfilling the
Maastricht-criteria.
Amato has a reputation for economic expertise. As Prime Minister, together
with today's President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, he cut down Italy's huge budget
deficit. He is likely to pursue the economic politics of Prodi and D'Alema.
But Amato also wanted to cut down the government. He only managed to reduce
the number of ministers from 25 to 24. Amato was in favor of a woman as
President, as head of the Italian state. But in his new government there are
only four women compared to the six under D'Alema. The fact that Amato has
taken two new technocrats into the cabinet cannot allow the observer to forget that
the formation of the new government was once more a horse-trade. Amato has
made Umberto Veronesi, Italy's best
known cancer specialist, the new Health Minister. But he also appointed Ottaviano Del
Turco, a former union leader
and head of the anti-Mafia committee in Parliament, as Finance Minister. This
was no choice made on the basis of qualification. That is no sign of renewal.
Senator Antonio Di Pietro, the former prosecutor who played a key-role in Tangentopoli,
was outraged to see Amato rise to power. Di Pietro accuses Amato of having
tried to protect the late Craxi and therefore decided not to support the
coalition government anymore. Since Di Pietro is only a Senator of a very
small party, the Democrats (which are divided over the strategy to follow),
his decision did not prevent Amato from becoming Prime Minister. Still, Di
Pietro's step is writing on the wall. The Green party caused problems, too,
because Amato refused to keep one of its members as Minister of Environment.
At a moment when pension and election reforms should be decided, the cohesion
of the center-left remains more than ever endangered.
What does the opposition offer? No credible alternative. Silvio Berlusconi,
the leader of the center-right Forza Italia party and former Prime Minister
(in the year 1994) is a businessman who had close ties to former Prime
Minister Bettino Craxi. Berlusconi's incredible economic success is related to
his close relation with Craxi and the system of Tangentopoli. If he
presents himself as mister proper today, he is not credible. Berlusconi not
only faces corruption charges and could well be sentenced to prison, he also
uses politics to protect his private interests. There is no other Western
country in which the opposition leader is at the same time the country's first
media tycoon. Berlusconi's TV-channels are far from being independent and fair
during election campaigns.
What worries one even more are Berlusconi's political allies: Gianfranco Fini
of Alleanza Nazionale represents the successor organization to Mussolini's
Fascist party. He is a fine tactician and presents himself as a man of reason
and in a better way than most other Italian politicians. His rise to power
could follow once Berlusconi is out of his way. With D'Alema, the former
Communists have had their Prime Minister, why not not let the former
Fascists govern too? His other ally, Umberto Bossi of Lega Nord, is a man who
changes opinions, convictions and strategies from one day to the next; he is
no reliable ally, as Berlusconi himself experienced in 1994 when Bossi brought
his government down. Sometimes, Bossi wants to divide Italy and create an
independent Northern Italy.
In other words, Italian politics is once more at a very low
point. The political center has disintegrated under the corruption charges of
the mid-1990s. The old right and left wing parties have moved closer to the
center but have not yet filled in the vacuum and have not sufficiently
cut their ties with their old ideologies. But as always, Italian politics is close to opera buffa. The
individualistic tradition and strong regional ties prevent a man rising too
high above the others. Economically, Italy is the fifth or sixth power in the
world and more stable than ever - although still "sick". Of course,
it does not seem Italy will disintegrate soon, but the Euro, Foreign investment in Italy and the country's
credibility suffer from its political instability.
