LAUGHINGSTOCK: Comedian Beppe Grillo wanted to cut the politicos down to size. And, he did. I suspect he had always wanted to draw on a wider canvas. Behind the political success in this week's Italian parliamentary polls is an unerring instinct for the contemporary Italian zeitgeist. Grillo is on the make. Laughingstock he might well be, but what a story he tells about Italy's farcical politics and how hungry Italians were to hear it. He used the present tense to convey the urgency of his narrative, his agenda if you will — his political perspective. And, what a story he tells his compatriots. They eagerly responded with enthusiasm to his message. He has brought a contemporary sensibility to a centuries-old saga of Machiavellian machinations that helped shape what modern Italy, post-World War II Italian democracy has become. Call it comfort culture. His battle cry was in turns clipped and lyrical, just as mediaeval Renaissance Italian court jesters were supposed to be. Berlusconi turned out to be the buffoon, and not Grillo. Italy has a revelation to share. Clouds continue to clump over the Mediterranean's financial winter. There is no sign of a thaw. Europe holds big equity stakes in banks keeping the continent's economies in a cold grip. And, the Mediterranean region is hardest hit by the cold spell. It was always harder for Italy to follow the Northern European banking strategy. Italy is still in the grip of the past. Reform ought to be simple. Italy's proportional representational system was the crucible that restored the blighted post-World War II country's chutzpah. The Italian parliamentary polls widened the country's Left-Right divide. The prospects of a hung parliament looms large. This does not, however, excuse the disappointing constellation of interests that pit the Centre Left against the Centre Right and their respective scared cash cows. Italy's ivory towers will be toppled. The Italian economy is flat-lining and the politicians seem to have lost the plot altogether. Centre left? Centre right? It is the clown that is calling the shots. And, the clown is not necessarily Berlusconi. The clown in this case is Grillo, the Phantom of the Italian Opera.
PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPS: There are an estimated 47 million eligible voters in Italy. And, in economic terms at least Italy's problem is not public profligacy. Indeed, Italy's overall budget deficit is much smaller in comparison with France's. All political colours and classes in Italy turn out to be the same fratricidal family. Italy right now seems like a real nation poised for a new beginning notwithstanding the initial gloom. If anything there is even more at stake for the Italian people. Yet from Silvio Berlusconi's fabled Fabian extravaganza to the clownish comeuppance of Grillo, a startled almost embarrassed suspicion that the Italians could actually be world beaters, reminiscent of the ancient Romans, by being themselves, is beginning to dawn. Yet, there is no escaping the suspicion that Italian politics is down a notch. Who is to blame? Berlusconi? The Grillo factor? Monti's monotony? Berlusconi, at least as polarising as he is popular in certain circles, is bespattered with scandal. Three topless feminists lunged at Berlusconi as he arrived at a polling station in Milan to vote in Italy's general election with "Basta Berlusconi" or "Enough of Berlusconi" scrolled on their bare backs. It has taken less than three decades for Berlusconi to go from hero to suspected villain. The Italian economy is in shambles. Unemployment is one of the highest in the Western world, 12 per cent and fast rising, and the country is reeling from the worst recession in two decades. Berlusconi made much political capital out of the growing resentment Italians harbour against Germany. Yet, many Italians believe Berusconi is to blame for their country's economic mess. The current caretaker administration is led by unelected colourless and lacklustre economist Mario Monti. He, too, is widely seen as a German lackey — German Chancellor Angela Merkel's poodle. Monti's klutzy and maladroit mannerism is more akin to a German than a boisterous Italian. Monti, a former European commissioner, favours budget cuts and tax hikes. Italy's divided political establishment has yet to reach the point of asking itself whether sticking to its programme of pushing through a tough budget, embarking on a torturous set of structural and liberalising reforms is really worth the pain. And, what about opening up the sheltered sectors of the Italian economy to competition? Grillo prescribed a cure. "In reality it is an explosive combination of a bond, a managed fund and a mortgage. What was the consequence? Anyone who allowed themselves to be tricked (and how can someone who is not an expert avoid that?), landed up not only with no money after two years but also heavily in debt," trumpeted Grillo's official blog. Berusconi left without big breakthroughs. Monti was morose, melancholy and pathetically uninspiring. Grillo's Five Star Movement attracted the attention of Italians. An estimated 800,000 people crammed into the Piazza San Giovanni, the largest square in Rome's Tahris Square. Grillo's anti-austerity Five Star Movement attracted an impressive 25.54 per cent of the vote. "We've started a war of generations," Grillo trumpeted triumphantly. "They are all losers, they've been there for 25 to 30 years and they've led the country to catastrophe," Grillo barked, deriding his detractors. The mainstream parties failed to secure a decisive win. The line former Communist Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the "Centre Left" Democratic Party, must walk is a hair's breadth. So earnest and do-gooding is his image that the former Communist actually puts off certain Italian voters who prefer the devilish Berlusconi. Much has been made of the difference between Berlusconi and Bersani and ideologically they appear superficially to be worlds apart. Bersani's Centre left garnered 29.54 per cent of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house, barely ahead of the 29.18 per cent polled by Berlusconi's Centre right. This development raises two questions. What are the consequences both in and beyond Italy's borders, of the 24-25 February polls? Amid the current scorn directed at Western-style political pluralism, the virtues of the multi-party democracy are easily forgotten, or overlooked. The wilier politician wins, but a change of a democratically-elected leader anytime too soon would disrupt democracy. Nascent democracies cannot afford this, especially if they are saddled with economic woes. For the fledgling democracy will then face the inevitable question: what next?
ECONOMIC CRISIS: "I have been made to believe in this democracy thing, and I am all for tasting this democracy out. The flavour must be good," mused Zora Neale Hurston tongue-in-cheek. Italy is the third largest economy in the Eurozone after Germany and France. Italy is simply too sophistiated and large an economy for the existing rescue fund to bailout. Several Eurozone governments, including Monti's Italy, were forced to sell substantial amounts of debt in bond auctions — Italy's punishingly high bond yields complicate matters. Europe cannot afford to let Italy be forced out of the Eurozone after an ignominious and chaotic default. If anything, there is even more at stake for the Italians. Europeans on the whole prefer to see Bersani rather than Berlusconi in charge of Italy. The Germans, no doubt will call for Rome to adhere to pledges. Berlusconi believes that Italy needs a bit more breathing space. Bersani will be promptly paying back Eurozone loans, if he can get away with it. Whichever jobs change hands in the weeks ahead, Berlusconi and his ilk should not be among them. I dare say that Italians should not fool themselves. Italians will pay for the political satire about the politicians who messed up the country. Italy is too important an economic powerhouse to end up as a Greek tragedy. "It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one," pontificated Marcus Tullius Cicero. Italians will not succumb readily to austerity measures. Moreover, there may be a silver lining to Monti's mishap. At the end of his premiership Bersani could point to tangible achievements. His successes may take place behind closed doors. But, "Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell," I quote Shakespeare. And, yes, I insist, Grillo is a masterful comedian with an instinct for the zeitgeist.
