The View from Bologna

Dan Brown - the secret arm of American Foreign Policy

"There's a fact that until now has been rarely considered. The Da Vinci Code came out in 2000, but had its greatest success in 2002 at a time of strong friction between the White House and the Vatican, opposed to the impending attack on Iraq. [...] In those days, in the US, the scandal of paeodophile priests suddenly blew up. And this book, with a strong anti-catholic imprint and heavy leaning towards the feminist movement starts to have success. If September 11th hadn't happened, the Da Vinci Code success would never have happened." [Prof. Franco Cardini, University of Florence ¹]

Where to begin? Well, perhaps by rushing out to buy a ticket for the Da Vinci Code. Not to see the film - bring along a book and a reading light if you don't fancy having to listen to hocus pocus new age mysticism debunking (fictionally of course) a hocus pocus traditional mysticism - but to irritate the fundamentalists whose response to child-abuse scandals is to suggest that the media/cia/dan brown/feminists/godless communists are somehow behind it.

Incidentally, when the film version of Dan Brown's book received a critical mauling at Cannes, it was headline news on state broadcaster RAI's news bulletins. When the film broke all box office records here in Italy, while the news made headlines in the international media, it wasn't deemed newsworthy by la RAI.

[1]"C'è un fatto finora poco considerato. Il Codice da Vinci uscì nel 2000, ma ha conosciuto la massima fortuna nel 2002 in un momento di forti frizioni fra Casa Bianca e Vaticano, contrario all'attacco all'Iraq che andava profilandosi», ha detto lo storico toscano. «In quei giorni negli Usa scoppia improvvisamente lo scandalo dei preti pedofili. E comincia ad avere successo questo libro dalla marcata impronta anticattolica e con forte captatio benevolentiae verso il movimento femminista. Se non ci fosse stato l'11 settembre, non ci sarebbe neppure stato il successo di questo codice»" - Libero Magazine.

Symbolically Grey

One aged man, grey and anonymous, stands watching pomp and ceremony as he is conferred with the title of head of State. Change the soundtrack and uniforms and it could be either the Kremlin or the Vatican. Instead it's the Quirinale, the Italian Presidential palace, and the greyish figure is Italy's newly inaugurated 11th President.

The View from Bologna's last post outlined the institutional 'pressing' on outgoing President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to accept election for a second term. Ciampi, we're glad to say, refused, suggesting that a) none of his predecessors had served a second term and it would set an unwelcome, albeit consitutional, precedent and b) at the age of 85, he was looking forward to retirement (though he will become a Senator, and given the precarious balance of Prodi's coalition, he will presumably spend much of his 'golden years' in the Italian Senate). Ciampi had the guts to face down political pressure, forcing the Italian establishment to turn towards the 'youth' to replace him. After a brief and controversial attempt to propose DS leader Massimo D'Alema (57), a compromise candidate was found - Giorgio Napolitano, aged 81.

Napolitano has all the prerequisites for President. He is, in order of statistical importance:
1. A Man - none of Italy's Presidents have been missing a Y chromosome - at least as far as we know.
2. Over 70 - the average age of an elected Italian President is 70.5, with the oldest having been President Pertini (82), and the youngest President Cossiga (at a spritely 58, the only president in his fifties).

Much has been made of the fact that Napolitano is the first communist, or post-communist, to be elected to Italy's (symbolically) highest office. La Stampa quickly put this into perspective with the comment that he was 'the least communist communist in the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano - which split apart after the fall of the Berlin Wall). In reality Napolitano's edge on other grey candidates has been the fact that, while being a committed 'party man', he's also well liked and respected by virtually all political party bigwigs. He's a man of the system, who plays by the rules of the system, and is well liked - by the system.

No-one is suggesting that Napolitano won't make a fine President. He is a diplomatic man observant of the rules prescribed by the Constitution. There are two serious problems, though. The first is that taking on an imposing new job at the age of 81 can't be seriously advisable.

The second problem follows on from the first. If an 81 year old can carry out the role of President, it confirms that the role is largely symbolic. Well and good - if that's the case, why award the role, yet again, to a sector in Italian society that is already over-represented in public life?

Both Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi during their election campaigns talked long and hard about how their proposed governments would be pro-innovation, pro-modernisation, pro-women, pro-youth. In the end, the best the politicos could come up with is a man beyond retirement age.

There is of course one big difference between Vatican, Kremlin, and Italian Republic. Italians vote for their govenment (which in turns votes for the President).

So why is the outcome largely the same?

Oligarchy of the Aged - The Italian Presidential 'Race'.

Tony Blair looking towards his favourite mediterranean holiday destination this week would, no-doubt, feel hard-done-by. While the UK and international press had a field day when Blair's bully boys security forced 82 year old Walter Wolfgang out of the Labour party conference last year, hardly an eyelid is batted at the moment as an Italian pensioner is being threatened and bullied by a powerful lobby of politicians. Even more surprising when one considers that the pensioner in question is none other than Carlo Azeglio Ciampi - the Italian President.

Ciampi, eighty-five years old, is in the last days of his term as President. He has repeatedly, albeit discreetly, let it be known that he has no wish to present himself for a second term (of seven years). How is it, then, that political forces from both the centre-right and centre-left coalitions continue to endorse his re-election? Not only that, but a crop of blogs and websites have sprung up calling for his re-election - whether he likes it or not.

Ciampi has been a popular President with most Italians. A genial and warm character largely seen to have carried out his duties without political bias. He has been seen to resist political pressure from both Berlusconi and Prodi*.

A President above politics, Ciampi now, when he should be relaxing into a wished-for retirement (rather than having a gruelling schedule of public appearances to trot out platitudes about 'solidarity' and 'optimism'), has sadly instead found himself a pawn in a complex political power-game.

The centre-right, which yesterday threw its full and not inconsiderable weight behind Ciampi for re-election, have most to benefit ostensibly should Ciampi be forced back into the Presidency.
Firstly there's the fact that the President has constitutional powers to dissolve the government in certain circumstances, and, if ever there was a government likely to be dissolved, it's one that has a majority of only two (in the Senate). Ciampi, seen as a stickler for the rules, would be preferable to a more left-leaning candidate who could use Presidential discretion to avoid dissolution. Perhaps more importantly, though, choosing Ciampi is a perfect way to sow the seeds of discontent within the centre-left coalition.

There are three major institutional positions to be filled at the start of this government's tenure - President of the Chamber, President of the Senate, and finally President of the Republic. All positions of influence and profile. All positions that are filled through elections voted for by members of parliament, but given that Prodi's government has a majority in both Senate and Chamber it's all but a given that the government's official candidate in all three elections will win. And so it has been for the first two positions: Fausto Bertinotti (Rifondazione Comunista) was elected President of the Chamber, while Franco Marini (Margherita) was elected President of the Senate. Thus out of the three main parties in the coalition, two have 'received' positions. The third party, Democratici di Sinistra, which is the largest of the coalition, has received nothing. Massimo D'Alema, President of the DS, made a public show of stepping back to allow Fausto Bertinotti the Presidency of the Chamber - with many suggesting that an informal agreement was made between Prodi and D'Alema allowing for a subsequent official nomination for President of the Republic.

If Ciampi suggests that he'll bow to pressure and accept re-election, the centre-left will almost certainly have to go along and vote for him as well. To do otherwise would confirm the accusations of the centre-right that the government wants to put its 'own men' in all seats of insitutional power. Ciampi's election would no-doubt leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the DS parliamentary party.

At the same time, for the centre-left the re-election of Ciampi would provide, at least, a quick and surefire solution. They have a reasonable majority in the presidential electoral college, made up of the Chamber, Senate, and representatives from the regions (where the centre-left are also in the majority), but a divisive candidate might provoke defections. Even the whiff of a defeat in an important vote such as this must be avoided.

And so it is that an old man, who has served the State long and well, is, rather than getting a golden-handshake, receiving a cross-party shove in the back. Hopefully, for his own sake, Ciampi will exercise the indifference to party politics that he has shown in the last seven years so well.

Should he refuse, one thing is certain. The eventual President will be a) a man, and b) over 50 (D'Alema, the youngest of the whispered candidates is a sprightly 57).

Despite the repeated lip-service paid by both Prodi and Berlusconi during the election campaign to increasing and supporting women's participation in political life, no women have been seriously proposed for any of the major institutional positions. The Republic, sadly, is an 'old boys' club' in every sense.

*Ciampi disgruntled Berlusconi's outgoing government on a number of occasions, when refusing to sign into legislation various controversial bills - amongst the most noticeable being the Gasparri laws regulating broadcasting. At the same time, immediately after this year's election, while Berlusconi made a show of not recognising Prodi's victory, Ciampi resisted all pressure to intervene to hasten the handover of government - something that will not have endeared him particularly to the centre-left.