Europe should give this man his chance

Silvio Berlusconi and his business career have always been bitterly controversial but DAVID HINE argues that, now that his election victory seems almost certain, we should accept his right to govern Italy

Silvio Berlusconi's election victory yesterday, narrow though it seems as the votes are counted, is significant for Italy and Europe. In the campaign, an important part of the European press was happy to declare him unfit to lead Italy. That was always primarily a matter for the voters and the courts.

Italian voters now seem to have decided in Berlusconi's favour. Europe should do the same. There is no case for a repeat of the semi- quarantine imposed by European leaders when Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party joined the Austrian coalition two years ago. Almost all Italians would reject such posturing as ill-informed and patronising. The case against Berlusconi is in any case complex and on no count has the evidence ever been clear cut.

Berlusconi has used his enormous wealth to create a successful political party.

Ordinary Italian voters can't hope to do that. It says loudly what applies everywhere: money is power and competitors in a democracy rarely compete on a level playing field. This is not the first time financial power has created or sustained winning parties in liberal- democratic societies. It might seem more questionable when it involves one man rather than several godfathers, or businesses, or trade unions.

But Italy has no law which says that an individual or business cannot found a political party. To his credit Berlusconi makes no bones about where the money comes from. So, as has sometimes happened in this country, the truth has not had to be wrung out drop by drop.

Berlusconi has won his victory in coalition with some strange bedfellows: Umberto Bossi, a populist firebrand from the xenophobic Northern League, and Gianfranco Fini, a right-winger from a party that emerged out of the ashes of the old neo-fascist Movimento Sociale.

Together they make an exotic cocktail. But Bossi's party is set to win only around four per cent of the national vote. For his part, despite his party's past, Fini is no racist. His party's democratic credentials have been pretty broadly accepted across the Italian parties.

Berlusconi's business empire has grown up leaving question marks against its methods and its propriety, but these questions are very similar to those which have been raised against many other businesses in Italy, and indeed several other European countries. They are a matter for the courts to judge.

Cases have indeed been brought to court, but inconclusively, and so long as Berlusconi remains a free man, it is for voters to decide what to make of the courts' decisions.

FINALLY, because Berlusconi's main business is TV, he comes to the Prime Minister's office already in direct control of half the TV networks. Through his parliamentary majority he will exercise a strong indirect influence over the other (state controlled) half. This is a very obvious conflict of interest that would leave voters in much of Europe at least extremely uncomfortable, if not indignant. But the fact is that the outgoing centre-left government had five years to pass a law regulating conflict of interest, and every reason to do so, but failed.

There is certainly enough in all this to make voters think twice before voting for Berlusconi, but he has convinced Italian voters who did not find the outgoing centre-left government appealing that he is the only man to unite the centre-right. Given the fragmentation of Italian parties, this is hardly surprising. Italians do not crave a strong man, and most are probably not taken in by some of Berlusconi's blustering self-promotion. But he has shown the determination and the strategic vision to forge a cohesive unit out of a warring rabble, and that appeals to Italians just as it did when, at least in terms of discipline and organisation, John Smith and Tony Blair turned around the mess that was old Labour.

In this sense, a bigger majority for Berlusconi, and one not dependent in parliament on the Northern League, might have been better. There is much in his programme that Italy needs and there will be a good deal more continuity with the outgoing centre-left than many might expect, particularly in the area of financial reform. Europe, as well as Italy, has an interest in more effective Italian governance.

It is the third largest Euro area economy. Its competitiveness counts, as does its government's ability to respect the terms of the Euro area growth-and-stability pact on public finances.

But Europe also needs an Italian government that it trusts and that it is not embarrassed to do business with. Berlusconi should start by reassuring voters that though he failed to tackle the conflict of interest problem while running for office, he is prepared to address it now that he has won. He seems unlikely to give up ownership of his media assets and the blind-trust formula will be meaningless in his case.

But he can make a start by refraining from attacking the public- service broadcaster, RAI-TV, or trying to appoint his own supporters to manage it. He can also reassure Europe by offering guarantees about the role of the judiciary.

IT is no part of a functioning democracy to have the rule of law jeopardised by doubt cast on the independence of the judiciary, nor would it be dignified or appropriate for a sitting prime minister to do so. And finally when it comes to much needed reforms to Italy's constitutional architecture, he should, given the narrowness of his likely majority, tackle the job as inclusively as possible, consulting all parties, and opting for solutions which win the broadest possible agreement. Europe has no right to question Berlusconi's credentials to govern. But it has every right to watch very closely how he exercises the formidable power with which he is now vested.

Copyright 2001
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