1994-2006
1992: Tangentopoli, it happened in a
moment particularly important for:
- Relations with Europe
- Political structure
- Role of judiciary + fight against
corruption and criminal organizations
- Reform of the Public Administration
and the balance of power between central gov and local governments
<b>POLITICAL NEWCOMERS</b>
•Fall
of communism (1989)
•Catholics
had no party to vote:
POPOLARI (people’s party)
SEGNI (promoted the referendum)
LA RETE (Sicily)
<b>NORTHERN LEAGUE</b>
1993: 30%
subversive and secessionist force at
the beginning (independence of Padania)
racism
a strong stance against corruption (Roma
Ladrona). Treasurer of the party arrested for bribes
today: FEDERALISM
<b>NATIONAL ALLIANCE</b>
•>
Rome, Naples and South
•Jen
1994: Congress of Fiuggi: presenting the party as a right-wing democratic
force in Italian politics.
<b>BERLUSCONI</b>
•The
most important business man involved in Tangentopoli (Craxi, Fininvest)
•Autumn
1993: Administrative elections: the left alliance (Progressisti) won
•July
1993: secret meeting between Berlusconi, Letta, Confalonieri, Dell’Utri
•Nov
1993: Forza Italia
•Jen
15th 1994: the President of the Republic announced new national elections
<b>Berlusconi’s political tactic</b>
•North:
pol alliance with the NORTHERN LEAGUE (Pole of Liberty)
•Centre
and South: pol alliance with National Alliance (Pole of the good government)
<i>Italy is the country I love.
Here I have my roots, my hopes, my horizons. Here I have learned from my father
and from life, how to be an entrepreneur. Here I have acquired my passion for
liberty…Never as in this moment does Italy need people of a certain experience,
with their heads firmly on their shoulders, able to give the country a helping
hand and to make the State function…If the political system is to work, it is
essential that there emerges a pole of liberty in opposition to the left-wing
cartel…a pole which is capable of attracting to it the best of an Italy which is
honest, reasonable, modern. Around this pole there must gather all those
forces which make reference to the fundamental principles of western
democracies, in the first place the Catholic world which has contributed
generously to the last fifty years of our history as a united nation…I tell you
that we can, I tell you that we must, create for ourselves and for our children
a new Italian miracle.</i>
•Fini
(AN): strongly nationalist
•Bossi
(Northern League): federalism (or secessionism)
<b>What Program: </b>
•Fewer
taxes
•Efficient
bureaucracy
•Appeal
to the unity of the family (the centre of solidarity and entrepreneurship)
•Attack
to the magistrature (red-robbed inquisitors)
<b>MARCH 94’: II REPUBLIC</b>
•Patto
per Segni, Progressisti, Berlusconi’s poles
•New
electoral system (75%, 25%)
•Berlusconi
won: media + other resources, the promise
of creating 1 million jobs, the image of a winner deriving from the successes of
his soccer team Ac Milan, lower taxes, the opposite than a career politician, he
represented a dream to many Italians and had the appeal of the strong self-made
man.
<b>Social composition of the vote:
</b>
•BERLUSCONI:
•Housewives
•Youth
•Self
employed (small entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, artisans, ecc).
•PROGRESSISTI:
•Critical
and reflexive middle-class
<b>The Sicilian Vote</b>
61 out of 61: “It’s not that Berlusconi
had chosen the mafia, but the mafia had chosen him”
<b>BERLUSCONI IN POWER: VIDEOCRACY</b>
Democracy has become a televised show,
carefully regulated from above, and conducted as one part of an overall global
profit-making business.
<b>Skepticism in Europe: </b>
•Berlusconi’s
capitals origins
•Secessionism
and racism of the Northern League
•Fascist
past of National Alliance (Fini: Mussolini the greatest statesman of the
country)
<b>Nov 22nd 1994</b>
Berlusconi was presiding over a meeting
of the G7 at Naples when he was ended a notice of guarantee: he was
investigated for corruption by the magistrates from Milan
He declared that he would continue in
office but Bossi withdrew from government
<b>April 21st 1996</b>
•Centre-left
won the elections
•Northern
League ran at the elections with a secessionist platform and obtain 10%
•Deregulation
•Privatization
•Commercial
TV
•Monetary
union (taxes), despite the skepticism of other European countries
<b>2001</b>
•Not
united (RC withdrawn from gov)
•3
Prime Ministers
•2001:
Berlusconi won again for its capacity to reunite its forces (AN, Northern
League, CCD), <i>Una Storia Italiana, attack from the press of
other countries</i>
<b>The reasons of Berlusconi’s
success</b>
•Efficacy
of his electoral campaign (media)
•Divisions
of the Left (leader) and its inability to communicate a sense of innovation
•Opinion
testing techniques to catch the humors and desire of the electorate
•The
promise to improve the economy, particularly the one of the South
•After
1994 Berlusconi developed the European legitimation that he previously
lacked: Forza Italia became part of the European Popular Party.
•
11th September
<b>A Changing Society</b>
§Rich
country
§>
pop has enough to live on (11% under the poverty line), but still depends a lot
on the areas.
§No
more migration, Italy on the contrary receives people
from other countries (>North Africa, East countries): as in other European
countries
§No
more illiteracy
§>
conditions of life (> sanitary point of view)
§In
Eu Italians are those that save the most, read newspapers the less
§White
collars rather than blue collars
§>
escalating mobility, > uniformity between the social classes
§European
Community, European Union
§Still
attachment to the family, despite the crisis of the traditional family
§>
liberties and civil rights (Divorce -1974- Family Law 1975 – Abortion 1978)
§>
rights for women (> study, work)
§Still
regionalisms, provincialisms, campanilismi
§Immigrants,
drugs, criminal organizations (mafias), Southern question
§Abusivismo
edilizio
§Education
§Environment
§Health
services
§Big
cities are at the bottom of the European scale in terms of quality of life
§One
of the lowest birth rate in the world
<b> Centre –Left Coalition wins
elections </b>
