You Read It First on dotCom (Update)
Just a week ago I entered a post, “Malaise or Meltdown?” on the situation in Italy. I thought things were moving from the former to the latter. The latest sign is that the government of Romano Prodi has just lost a vote of confidence in the Italian Senate and has resigned.
As La Repubblica headlines it: Il Senato nega la fiducia al governo con 161 no, 156 sì e un astenuto.
And its editorial concludes: “Povera Italia. Meritava di più.”
Update:
Friday’s New York Times gives further details. As too often in Italy pathos and bathos co-exist cheek by jowl:
Italy’s government finally fell Thursday, after Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a confidence vote that made it clear that Italy’s leaders know they face a deep political and economic crisis but are venomously divided over how to solve it.
Emblematic of those divisions, during the debate one senator rushed in fury to the desk of a colleague, Stefano Cusumano, and taunted and apparently tried to attack him. Mr. Cusumano, 60, reportedly cried, then collapsed.
“If I had the chance, I would have spit in his face,” said the attacker, Senator Tommaso Barbato, who had to be held back by his colleagues. His action came after Mr. Cusumano changed his vote to support Mr. Prodi.
According to Italian papers (and video clips), Senator Barbato had the chance … and took advantage of it, causing Senator Cusumano to faint, as the curtain fell.
Perhaps future historians will call the unseemly episode “Lo sputo di Barbato” and find some distant parallel with the infamous “Schiaffo di Anagni,” when Boniface VIII (founder of La Sapienza University) was roughed up by the henchmen of the King of France. Even Dante, no friend of Boniface, found this excessive.
An editorial in today’s Corriere della Sera contrasts the serious economic preoccupations of the rest of the world with what it ruefully calls “nostro Carnevale politico.”
And Silvio Berlusconi waits breathlessly in the wings!
as usual in Italy “la situazione è disperata, ma non seria”
What is particularly disturbing about this “meltdown” is the role of the Catholic hierarchy in helping to bring down the government and contributing to such discord. This may play well with a segment of the electorate, but I don’t think it bodes well for the mission of the Church, especially in Europe. I thought we were over these bad old days, but plus ca change, it seems…
The Barbato-Cusumano confrontation reminded me of the physical assault in the U.S. Senate chamber in 1856 by Rep. Preston Brooks of SC on Sen. Charles Sumner of MA. There, the triggering event was a speech the anti-slavery Sumner had made on the free/slave status of Kansas, plus some personal insults Sumner had hurled at a relative of Brooks’.
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm
But at least the Barbato-Cusumano and Brooks-Sumner face offs didn’t eascalate into this:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:ydmsuS5xEl4J:www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/317496/1/.html+%22fight+broke%22+%2B+korea+%2B+legislature&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
;)
Mary,
Thanks for that!
I think the exact quote is, “La situazione politica in Italia è grave ma non è seria.” It was one of the musings of the brilliant Italian satirist and film critic, ENNIO FLAIANO (1910-1972). The quote is from his 1956 book, “Diaro Notturno”, which was a collection of articles he wrote in a column under the same name for a post-WWII publication called, “Il Mondo”.
Flaiano was also a scenographer and worked with Federico Fellini on several of his films.
ERRATA CORRIGE.
Flaiano was a SCRIPT WRITER or screenwriter (not a scenographer) for Fellini.
Mary,
I suppose the degree of “disperazione” is somewhat relative to one’s proximity to Naples.
Robert,
You are much better placed than I to comment on how “grave” the situation is, and I look forward to your impressions in The Tablet. But when il sangue di San Gennaro is brought forth as in times of plague — sembra assai seria.
Of course, with Camus, plague comes in 57 varieties.
Yes, Robert, that’s right.
Dave you are absolutely right.
Mastella, the resigning minister, and Mastella’s wife were only the latest politicians of a very long list of catholic politicians strongly supported by Catholic hierarchy and strongly corrupt.
And italian people know this very well.
The general mood in Italy right now is the worst that I have experienced in the twenty-two years that I’ve lived here.
had lunch today with an American who has worked in the Roman Curia for forty years and he, too, said the same.
He had some humorous anecdotes from the Red Brigade days — black humour, to be sure — but said, “At least you know what was happening and where everybody stood.”
But with this man, and later with some American and Dutch colleagues, we all agreed that with today’s clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine, the wonderful lunches most of us ate, and the historic beauty that surrounds us… well… we agreed that Italy’s seductions are somehow too strong to allow us to look too critically or tragically at it all.
“Sì, è grave, ma non è seria…”
David Willey, a BBC correspondent who has lived here in Italy for the last 35 year or more, will have an article on the current political situation in Italy next week in THE TABLET.