Rome Letter: The boss is back, calling the shots as electoral reform tops agenda

Prof D’Alimonte held up his hands in frustration. Come on you lot, all you foreign correspondents, you simply do not understand, do you?

The scene was Rome’s Foreign Press Club last week. Prof Roberto D’Alimonte, for long recognised as one of the few boffins around who instinctively understands the mathematics of Italy’s various electoral systems, was addressing the resident foreign corps on the implications of this current, dramatic moment when electoral reform is far and away the hottest item on the political agenda.

In the wake of a general election one year ago which essentially produced a three-way tie between centre left, centre right and the M5S protest movement, just about everyone agrees that the first item on all agendas has to be electoral reform. Except that, of course, almost no party wants it really since almost any reform would make the whole process more, dare one say it, democratic.

Genuine
Worse still, a genuine reform might give punters the right to pick their candidates, rather than have them imposed on them by party leaders benefitting from the so-called "blocked lists" of the current legislation. In the meantime, the abstention movement is growing, while the Beppe Grillo-led M5S protest sits steadily at the 20-22 per cent mark in opinion polls.

The newest kid on the bloc, the new Democratic Party (PD) leader and mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi (38), understands the dangers of voter alienation and disaffection as well as anyone. Overwhelming winner of the PD primaries just before Christmas with 67 per cent of the vote, he is in a tremendous hurry to do two things.

First, he is desperately keen to live up to his long-aired promise to put old-style, never- get-anything-done type Italian politics on the “scrapheap”. Second, he knows all too well that there is a sort of wind in his sails right now and he had better make the most of it.

Hence, the man who has labelled himself "the Scrapman", has immediately gone into overdrive on the electoral reform issue. And, as he contemplates fundamental institutional and constitutional change, he has obviously turned to one of the founding fathers of the nation. Now who would that be? Guess . . .oh yes, he has turned to former centre right leader and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

You might argue that Renzi talking to Berlusconi about radical reform seems incongruous. It is as if Robespierre in 1792 had sent a message around to the royal palace asking for advice on how to run the country. M5S leader Grillo sees it in an even more negative light: “Talking to Berlusconi about electoral reform is a bit like talking to [Mafioso boss of bosses] Toto Riina about reforming the justice system . . .”

And this is where D’Alimonte enters. He is Matteo Renzi’s closest adviser, when it comes to electoral reform. Your correspondent asked him last week if an ethical problem did not present itself in relation to the Renzi-Berlusconi negotiations. Was Berlusconi not found definitively guilty of tax fraud last summer? Was he not accordingly expelled from the Senate? Is such a person really an ideal choice for a two-man negotiation that could reshape the entire future of the nation?

'Realpolitik'
You lot do not understand, said the professor. This is not about "ethics", this is about realpolitik. Who else are you going to talk to, if not to Berlusconi, a leader still capable of winning 10 million votes one year ago.

So, there we have it. The boss is back, still calling the shots and deciding the fate of the nation . . .

By the way, this morning in Naples sees the opening of a trial in which Berlusconi stands accused of having paid €3 million to ex-senator Sergio De Gregorio to “persuade” him (and anyone else he could recruit) to change sides during the 2006-2008 legislature to bring down the centre-left government of Romano Prodi.

On April 10th, then, judges in Milan must determine precisely how Berlusconi will serve out his one year, tax fraud sentence. After that, he faces the appeal case against the “Rubygate” ruling of last June in which he received a lifelong ban from public office and a seven-year sentence. On top of that he is due to face charges of having induced witnesses to commit perjury in the original Rubygate trial, while he could still be called to testify in the Barigate call girl trial in Bari.

The country is in safe hands .