Return. Smog in Rome

I’ve been away from this for too long.  It’s still early in the year and probably still within an acceptable time period for making new year’s resolutions.  I maybe stretching that time, but I hope whoever regulates these things can give me a pass.  So my resolution is to return to writing here regularly.  That doesn’t mean every day, but at least a few times a week.

I’m working on a long-term writing project, a book I hope, on the Loire River.  I'm probably repeating something I've said earlier.  But in any case, it will be about things I saw while riding my bicycle along the river and things I want to know more about, especially environmental things.  I’m also interested in some of the history, certainly about the chateaux, but also about the commercial and industrial history of the river and canals.

So I’ll be posting little blurbs about those topics.  I also try to follow a couple of Italian newspapers and I’ll highlight environmental stories when I see them in those places; and, of course, similar stories in the U.S.

As it happens, the first post of the new year deals with Italy.  I probably should have know this, but Rome has a serious smog problem.  To try to cut down on auto emissions the local government has decreed a series of no-drive Sundays.  The next one will be this coming Sunday, 19 January.  Others are scheduled for 23 February and 23 March.

The government’s decision applies to the fascia verde or green zone, an area including about half of the city inside the GRA, the Rome “beltway.”  The restrictions don’t apply to the entire day, only the morning hours of 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and then again from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This may be a way of showing people they don’t need to be so dependent on their cars.  But I doubt it will do much to reduce the smog.

Lo Zombie politico

What is it about Silvio Berlusconi and Italy?  The former prime minister, leader of one of the country's two largest political parties, and member of the Senate, has been convicted of tax fraud.  Finally, it's an unappealable conviction.  Meanwhile, he faces charges in at least two other proceedings.  One involves buying votes and the other underage prostitution.  Political commentators repeatedly point out that in any other Western democracy he'd be gone; he'd have quietly disappeared to Arcore, his villa near Milan, to spend more time with his family and maybe his football club, A.C. Milan (which could use some help at the moment).  Instead, like some political zombi, he's still very much a part of the scene, showing his fangs most days on the front page of most newspapers.

Tim Parks has a good piece (subscription required for full access) in a recent (maybe the latest) New York Review that talks about all of this.  Parks is originally from England, but lives in Italy, is married to an Italian woman, and they have been raising their family there.  Still, it sounds like he might be losing patience.  Describing recent media coverage, he says that "it was almost unheard of for anyone to suggest that regardless of moral concern or the desire to uphold the rule of law, Berlusconi simply cannot be of any use to his country politically . . ."  He also has some interesting things to say about the country's "vocation for factionalism."

I don't live there.  I'm in Washington, D.C., several thousand miles and six time zones away.  I've never had to struggle through the glue-y bureaucracy or been required to ally with an influential patron to protect my job and career, things which Parks (and others) see as a normal part of Italian society.  So why do I care that the country finds it so hard to address, let alone deal with, its collective problems, things like youth unemployment, the environment, and, of course, organized crime?

I'm not sure.  I'm not Italian-American and, so far as I know, I don't have any Italian ancestors.  The one's I'm aware of are all from further north -- Germany, Ireland, and Scotland, in particular.  But I have Italian friends and I've gotten to know some of their teenage children.  And this, I think, is the emotional connection.  These are remarkable kids with enormous talent and so much promise.  They deserve a better country.  They could contribute so much, but they're likely to leave and make their contributions elsewhere -- in England, in Australia, or, if we're lucky, the U.S.  There are other reasons to care about Italian politics, but right now that's probably the most important.

A new deal for cyclists in Italian cities?

Positive news from Italy this time.  The association representing Italian cities is proposing some really interesting ideas to make life easier for urban cyclists.  Earlier this week, the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani (ANCI; National Association of Italian Municipalities) presented a set of draft ideas to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Maurizio Lupi.

© Agence France Presse

Maybe the most remarkable of their proposals would be a change in the burden of proof in case of accidents.  In legal disputes. the "less vulnerable" vehicle would need to show that it was not responsible for damage to the "more vulnerable" vehicle, or injury to the latter's driver.  As a cyclist, it's amazing to think that if I was hit --god forbid! -- by a car in, say, Milan, the legal focus would be on the driver to show that he or she wasn't at fault.  What better way to get motorists pay more attention to cyclists.

Some other ANCI proposals would:

• Allow for bike lanes along the right side of each direction of roadways;

• Require, in certain cases, an additional light on traffic signals for cyclists giving them a head start in making right turns;

• Allow cyclists to travel in both directions on one-way streets; and

• Require apartment building owners to provide bicycle parking areas.

The city officials are taking advantage of the fact that the transportation committee in the Chamber of Deputies is preparing to revise the national traffic code (Codice della strada) and that the Minister will be submitting his ideas for revisions sometime before the end of the year.

It's thought that the bicycle measures stand a good chance of being included in the code revisions since the same officials proposing the ideas would be responsible for their implementation.

Ilva Steelworks (again)

Italy doesn't need another long-running saga of corruption.  And my reporting on one doesn't say much of anything new.  But I came in early on this one.  And I've had a kind of morbid fascination to follow the story as it develops.  (See four earlier posts.)

This has to do with the Ilva steelworks, the largest steel producer in Europe.  The facility is located right next to the southern Italian city of Taranto in Puglia.  Last year, faced with hard-to-deny evidence that the facility was poisoning the air and the residents of Taranto, and that governmental authorities were unable or unwilling to stop it, judicial authorities stepped in.  They seized the entire facility and removed Emilio Riva and his two sons Nicola and Fabio.  The sons are under house arrest and the father has decided to live in England for a while.  

Taranto with the Ilva works in the background.

The authorities also began several criminal investigations.  The most interesting character to emerge so far appears to be a Girolamo Archinà, Ilva's director of "institutional relations."  In this position he developed and maintained relationships with individuals in all levels of government, the press, and the church.  He aim was always to allow the company to keep making steel and to avoid any constraining environmental or health rules.  As he would make his case, it must certainly have made a difference that Ilva is the region's largest employer with about 5,000 employees.  Even so, it appears Archinà may have been ready to use other means of persuasion.  He is suspected of paying 10,000 euros to a consultant to the prosecutor's office to have him tone down findings in a study of the sources of pollution in Taranto.

Ilva and Taranto are back in the news because new information from one of the investigations involves several political figures, the best-known of whom is Nichi Vendola, the governor of Puglia, an on-again, off-again national political figure, and subject of a mostly-complimentary Washington Post profile a couple of years ago.

Nichi Vendola, President of Puglia.

Apparently, telephone recordings indicate that Vendola tried to persuade the regional environmental protection agency (Agenzia regionale per la protezione ambientale) to go easy on Ilva so that it could stay open.  Vendola has denied any wrong-doing and says he hopes to meet with investigators as soon as possible.  

Meanwhile, thanks to two governmental decrees, the plant is still open, operating under a receiver.  But there are no signs the air in Taranto is any cleaner.

Flooding in Italy

Two years ago today, heavy mountain rains caused flash flooding in Cinque Terre and other parts of Liguria in Italy. Lynda and I visited the area in 2006 and spent a wonderful day walking the narrow trail above the Tyrrhenian Sea from Riomaggiore to Monterosso. Vernazza (below) was about the mid-point of the 10 km walk.  We never thought of anything like this.  The flood waters rushing down the narrow canyons from the mountains to the ocean directly and indirectly 13 killed people and destroyed homes and businesses.  The area is still getting back on its feet.

Flash flood waters emptying into the harbor at Vernazza. © Tom Wallace

So, along with news about Berlusconi's latest legal problems and the Letta government's new budget proposals, flooding has been on Italian minds lately, at least some Italian minds.

Gian Vito Graziano, president of the National Geologists Council (il Consiglio nazionale dei geologi) warned recently of the likelihood of more such flooding and likely deaths. Everywhere in Italy, he said, misuse of land -- urbanization of agricultural fields, in-fill of wetlands, dikes along rivers -- has reduced its ability to absorb heavy rains like those that hit Liguria.

Unfortunately, the country’s creaky political institutions and sputtering economy (to say the least in both cases) probably mean that heads will be nodded sincerely, but little will change and the flooding risks will remain. (I recognize one could say the much the same thing about this country’s Republican-sabotaged politics and precarious economy and their effects on environmental policies.)

No Big Ships!

Yesterday's post turned out to be more timely than I knew.  More or less while I was drafting it, demonstrators were winding up a weekend of protests against the large cruise ships passing through the Giudecca Canal.  On Sunday, supporters of No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships) lined up at the Stazione Marittima at the port of Venice to block passengers' access to the ships.  Later, dozens of small boats occupied the Giudecca Canal to prevent one of the ships from leaving. 

© Giornalettismo.com

Ultimately, darkness, rain, and wind ended the small boat blockade and the ship departed about three hours late.  

The demonstrators' larger purpose had been to send a message to Venice mayor, Giorgio Orsoni.  Orsoni is due to meet later this week with Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Maurizio Lupi, to discuss new docking arrangements for the ships.  One option would be to develop new basins inside the lagoon at Maghera.  No Grandi Navi, however, wants the ships kept completely out of the lagoon and favors an off-shore facility from which visitors would be ferried into the city.  Anna Somers Cocks, in her NYRB article (see link in yesterday's post), suggests that the real power in the lagoon is not the mayor, but the head of the Autorità Portuale di Venezia (Venice Port Authority), Paolo Costa.  And, she says, he favors arrangements that would remain within his jurisdiction, i.e., something inside the lagoon.

Italian parties on energy and the environment

With elections now barely two weeks away, two Italian economists have searched through statements of party programs to see what they say about energy and the environment.  In general Caterina Miriello and Antonio Sileo, writing for Lavoce.info, found lots of pious wishes and little discussion of financing.  Here's my summary of their very useful summary:

Partito Democratico (PD).  Befitting a party of the left, energy and environmental matters appear in the context of jutice and equality.  The PD says Italians should have equal access to "common goods," which includes energy.  Statements about "sustainable development" include a collection of proposals for supporting innovative small domestic businesses.

Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà.  Nicchi Vendola's party program has a lot to say about developing renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency, but is silent on financing.

Popolo della Libertà.  Berlusconi may offer the greatest number of pious wishes, some of which appear inconsistent, as in encouraging utility companies to invest in new technologies, but promising to reduce household energy bills.

Movimento 5 Stelle.  M5S's program may be the most detailed.  Generally it proposes to meet new energy needs through improvements in energy efficiency.  And the program spells out how this could be done, including financial proposals.  But Miriello and Sileo are concerned about the numbers; they don't seem to have any authoritative sources.

Agenda Monti.  Monti's group has relatively little to say about energy and environmental matters.  The program mentions energy from waste materials, without including many details.  It also stresses an idea that apparently has been discussed for a while -- that of making Italy the entry and distribution point for imported natural gas.  Miriello and Sileo aren't sure what the financial markets think about the idea these days.

Varieties of environmental action

I'm usually skimming through French and Italian newspapers on-line looking for environmental stories.  And I'm sometimes interested in how environmental organizations in those countries compare with those in the U.S.  There's a short article in yesterday's Corriere della Sera that's suggestive.  From the article, Legambiente, the largest Italian environmental organization, strikes me as seeing environmental action in rather broader terms than I imagine most similar organizations in the U.S. do.  Admittedly, it's been a while since I've been to a demonstration, so my experience may be out of date.  But I don't think of, for example, the Sierra Club, or the Nature Conservancy, or the World Wildlife Fund being out in the street with groups demonstrating for housing and smart growth.

In Rome, yesterday, Legambiente representatives joined with a number of other groups to protest the lack of affordable housing while, at the same time, the city is apparently planning to demolish several buildings to open up new development.  About 1,000 protesters carried banners through the streets for about 2 km from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, near the Termini train station, to Piazza Santi Apostoli, just east of the Via del Corso and the Piazza Venezia.  Cristiana Avenali, the Legambiente director for the Lazio region and a candidate in the up-coming elections, told Corriere della Sera that "We're demonstrating to say no to cement projects, to say no to Alemanno's cement projects."  (Giani Alemanno, of Berlusconi's Popolo della Libertà (Pdl) party, is Rome's current mayor.)  Makes sense.

New environmental projects

Clearly almost anyone following Italian news right now is following stories about next month's election.  A lot is stake and there are any number of engaging angles.  But there are other news stories in Italy besides the election.  One recent bit of news with with intriguing possibilities comes from the Ministry of the Environment.
 
The vice-minister for Infrastructure, Mario Ciaccia, has just announced a "Piano Città."  The initiative means to provide 319 million euros to fund local projects to improve "aree urbane degradate" (deterioriated urban areas).  The projects appear likely to be a kind of urban renewal with an environmental orientation.  A committee comprised of government ministers, regional officials, and representatives from the Associazione Nationale dei Comuni Italini will screen the proposals.  Without being cynical, in Italy's present economic situation this kind of infrastructure spending can only be beneficial.  And if the project really do advance energy efficiency and sustainability that's all the better.

Meanwhile, Legambiante, the country's leading environmental organization, has just announced its own initiative called Italia Bellezza Futuro.  The objectives here would go much beyond those of the government's Piano Città.  But I imagine Legambient would be happy to influence the kinds of projects selected for Piano Città funding.
 
Legambiente's project starts with the premise that everyone has always appreciated Italy for it beauty -- the countryside, the historic cities, its food, fashion and industrial products, and its people.  This, the organization declares, is the country's principal resource, one to be preserved and developed, but developed in a sustainable way.

To promote the project, over the next several months the organization will be participating in events around the country.  For example, on the 19th of this month they'll be at Paestum in Campania to support broad protection for the Roman ruins there.  Over succeeding months they'll also be part of similar actions at Agrigento, Cinque Terre, Rome, Aquila, Naples, Turin, and Bari where activists are involved to protect natural resources and the country's cultural heritage.  They have also drafted a a legislative proposal meant to institutionalize means or protecting the country's cultural and environmental heritage.

More as these project develop -- and get reported on.

Green in the flag but not in the elections

There are reasons to be optimistic about next month's Italian elections.  Mario Monti’s decision to get into the campaign means the country could have a real center-right party.  And it could be a party that marginalizes Berlusconi in the contest against the Partito Democratico (PD) on the left.  Also, as someone generally of the left, the strength of the PD in recent polls gives reason to hope.

But there’s also discouraging news.  Aldo Cazzullo wrote in yesterdays’ Corriere della Sera of the “disappearance of the ecologists.”  He points out that none of the major parties -- PD, PDL/Lega, or Monti’s coalition -- have anything to say about significant environmental issues, issues like land use, urban pollution, and alternative energy strategies.  At a more individual level, many, it seems, are scratching their heads, to say the least, over PD leader Pierluigi Bersani’s decision to exclude two sitting senators, known environmentalists, from the party’s list of candidates. 

Ilva: constitutional conflict

Earlier this month, I had two posts about the Ilva steel plant at Taranto (Puglia), its health threats for local residents, and the Monti government's efforts to provide for clean up while keeping open what has been Europe's largest steel producer. 

Back in July, in the face of high rates of cancer and respiratory disease and years of inaction on the part of the plant owners, the local public prosecutor seized the plant.  At the beginning of December, the Monti government enacted a "salva Ilva" measure, legislative decree 207, under which the plant is to be permitted to continue to operate while it undertakes clean-up measures.  At the time, the prosecutor had said his office would challenge this measure as interfering with his authority and now he has done so.

On December 20, the Taranto prosecutor filed with the Italian Constitutional Court a plea to set aside the 207 decree.  The prosecutor's office only announced the action yesterday.  The suit maintains that the decree interferes with the magistrates' authority to carry out investigations of Ilva directors and to apply penal sanctions.  A decision from the Constitutional Court is expected within the next six weeks.

The legal issues are serious and deserve to be resolved.  In the meantime, Taranto residents must wonder when their issues will be addressed, let alone resolved.

Berlusconi in, Monti out

It’s hard not to be captivated by the current drama of Italy’s politics.  It's sort of like watching a demolition derby where a tank of an old Lincoln Town Car tries to destroy all the beat-up Fords and Chevrolets on the track.  Silvio Berlusconi, after announcing his retirement, is back with a vengeance.  He says he’s running again for prime minister, and, notwithstanding recent polls which give him and his party only about 18 percent, he says he's in it to win.  Alexander Stille describes his return as a case of moving from tragedy to farce.  (I wish his La Repubblica columns were available in English.  Update: Turns out this one is, in the New Republic. ) 

Berlusconi made his announcement claiming that Italy is worse off after a year of Mario Monti’s government than it was when he -- Il Cavaliere -- was forced to resign just over a year ago in November 2011.  He back to save Italy once again, he claims.  It should be remembered that he resigned because because financial markets, which to say the least, distrusted his management of the government, were threatening to push the country into default.

Berlusconi didn't just announce his return to politics.  A couple of days ago, he instructed his party members in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, all of whom owe their seats to him, to start voting against Monti government proposals.  These votes wouldn’t automatically bring down the government as long as other parties continue to provide support.  But that support, in the Senate at least, is questionable from vote to vote.

So today Monti announced his resignation effective as soon as the legislature passes a budget.  And elections, which had been tentatively scheduled for 10 March, may now happen earlier.  It's been suggested that Monti wants to give Berlusconi as little time as possible to use his government as a punching bag.  He may also calculate that the sooner elections are held the more voters will likely remember who it was that ended a very popular government.

Hurricanes in the Mediterranean

As the oceans rise and warm up, Italy, like states and cities along the U.S. East Coast, is becoming aware of the increased threat of ocean-generated storms.  Up to now, the most violent storms it has had to face have been periodic tornados.  One, in fact, hit the unfortunate city of Taranto only a couple of weeks ago.

An article in today's La Repubblica reports that weather scientists in Europe, analyzing conditions in the Mediterranean, now think that warmer water is aggravating the intensity of storms and some of these may now deserve to be termed hurricanes.  With this in mind, Italian weather experts have reinterpreted several earlier storms.  For example, in 2006 one with wind of 145 km/hr (90 mph) did major damage in Salento, near the west coast, south of Salerno.  (A category one hurricane has winds of at least 119 km/h or 74 mph.)
 
The possibility of more such storms raises concerns for areas along the coasts.
For example, a hurricane-strength storm could return low-lying areas along the coasts, like the Agro Pontino south of Rome, to their former condition as marsh lands.  Like their colleagues in the  U.S., Italian analysts and engineers are just beginning to think about protective measures.

Fossil fuel subsidies in Italy

While Italy struggles to bring public revenues and expenditures into some kind of balance, Legambiente, the country's leading environmental organization, is suggesting it look hard at the public subsidies stimulating the use of fossil fuels.  Timed to coincide with the Doha meeting and with pending economic development legislation in Italy, the organization has just released a report on the extent of Italian public subsidies for fossil fuels.

The report refers to International Energy Agency estimates that, worldwide, governments provide a total of $630 billion in subsidies to agriculture, transportation, and the oil industry which in one way or another promote use of fossil fuels.  Just eliminating the subsidies -- without even talking about a carbon tax -- would do much to reduce their use.

In Italy, Legambiente estimates that direct public subsidies amount to 4.62 billion euros.  These go chiefly to trucking, energy utilities, and energy intensive businesses.  The organization estimates that another 4.59 billion euros in subsidies is provided for things like highway construction and oil and gas drilling.  The report notes that Minister of the Environment, Corrado Clini, is no record stating that these subsidies will be reduced.  On the other hand, the Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera, hasn't show any support for the idea.

Bersani wins. Now what?

By now, most probably know that Italia's Partito Democratico (PD) held the second round of its primary election on Sunday and that Pierluigi Bersani defeated Matteo Renzi with nearly 61 percent of the vote.  Nearly three million party members came out to choose the party secretary.  They were also, effectively, choosing the party leader for the elections scheduled for next spring.

I noted in an earlier post that the PD primary was generally seen as a contest between a younger generation lead by Renzi, 37 years old and the mayor of Florence, and the old guard lead by Bersani, 61 years old, party secretary since 2009, and member of several earlier PD-lead governments.  Now Bersani has won and the question is what this means for the party and its approach to the up-coming national elections.

I haven’t had time to read much commentary, but Marco Damilano has a good piece in the weekly magazine Espresso.  He points out that Bersani and the PD leadership were reluctant converts to the idea of using a primary instead of the traditional party congress to choose the party secretary.  Still, they did it and it is generally considered to have been a success, strengthening Bersani's position as a national leader and giving the party new credibility.  Now, Damilano suggests, Bersani faces several challenges if he's to build on this.  In quick summary, these are: (1) how to incorporate Renzi and his supporters into the party; (2) how to keep the old guard from pulling the party back to its old habits of opaque decision-making and meticulous balancing of contending internal “currents”; and (3) how to steer around talk of “Monti bis.”

In a sense, a larger question is what the PD primary represents for Italian politics.  Was it, along with the Monti government, another step towards a healthier politics?  On will it turn out to be an interesting diversion in Italian politics-as-usual?  I know those two alternatives are too stark, but they suggest some of what's at stake in the next few months.

Plan for Ilva?

Finally, the Monti government says it has a way to deal with the Ilva steel mill at Taranto (Puglia).  Last Thursday, the Council of Ministers adopted a decree which the government says will allow the mill to continue to operate and will ensure that it engages in a cleanup that will meet health and environmental standards.  The key appears to be the terms of a autorizzazione integrata ambientale, an authorization for the mill to operate provided environmental standards are met.  The Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, said that this authorization includes

“stricter prescriptions than in the past and it’s crucial that for the first time explicit indicators of public health conditions were included to be followed by a real health plan for Taranto and by the already announced monitoring agency established in conjunction with the Puglia Region” ["prescrizioni più rigide del passato, ed è determinante che per la prima volta siano state inserite esplicite indicazioni di tipo sanitario" alle quali "farà seguito un vero e proprio Piano salute per Taranto e la già annunciata costituzione dell'Osservatorio in raccordo con la Regione Puglia.”]

This weekend, however, the national secretary of the association of prosecuting magistrates (Associazione Nazionale Magistrati) expressed concern that the decree could violate constitutional protections of magistrates' authority.  At issue, I think, is the decree's ability to set aside the Taranto magistrate's July order taking control of the facility to prevent further health risks.  Prime Minister Monti, Minister of Health, Balduzzi, and others in the government have responded, saying that they consulted widely before adopting the decree and that they are confident of its constitutionality.

So there we are.  The steel plant is still operating; for the moment the magistrates are standing by their authority over it; and the government is standing by its decree.  It looks like there will be some serious discussions in the next few days.  But even if questions of authority get cleared up, there will still be issues of how the cleanup is to be paid for and how serious the monitoring will be.  The current owners and managers do not have a record that inspires great trust.

Ilva at Taranto

Besides Sunday's primary for the Partito democtratico, one of the top news stories in Italy at the moment involves a steel mill at Taranto, in Puglia, closed by court order because of toxic emissions.  Italian newspapers have been carrying the story for several months but the situation has recently become more acute.  On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that workers had stormed the locked gates at the Ilva mill site in Taranto and that 1,000 workers at a sister facility in Genoa had taken to the streets.  Meanwhile, the Monti government is looking for a way to keep the plant open and at the same time make sure it's no longer a health threat.
 
Back at the end of July, local prosecutors had ordered the plant closed for health reasons; additionally 150 "injured parties" had health-related claims pending against the company.  The prosecutors charged that the Ilva plant, the largest steel mill in Europe, was emitting dust particles containing dioxin and PCBs, which had been settling on the city and surrounding countryside.  Although the company claimed to be complying with environmental rules, investigators had shown that it only did so during the daytime.  Italian newspapers at the time also recalled that several years earlier some 2,200 cows and goats on nearby farms had to be killed after they and their milk products were found to contain dangerous levels of toxic materials.
 
In August, a report to the Minister of Health found serious health problems in Taranto.  Rates of lung cancer were 30 percent above those for Italy generally; for respiratory illnesses rates were 50 percent higher for men and 40 percent higher for women.  It that point, almost three months ago, it was expected the national government would take the lead in finding a way to keep the plant operating while it was cleaned up.  There was talk of a total cost of 336 million euros, of which 98 percent would come from public funds.  Somehow, though, nothing happened.  And the Monti government is still trying to find a way out of the mess.


One might wonder how a steel mill came to be located in an area without much, if anything, in the way of necessary raw materials.  According to historian Paul Ginsborg (A History of Contemporary Italy), the original investment at Taranto followed designation by the Cassa del Mezzogiorno, a development agency for southern Italy, as a poli di sviluppo (development center).  Pressure from local Christian Democrat politicians helped the agency to commit to providing generous public assistance: straight-out grants of up to 20 percent of the  initial investment costs, plus loans of up to 70 percent at 4 percent interest for 15 years.  Given this early history, it's not surprising that the government would be heavily involved now to keep the plant operating and the workers employed.

Partito democratico primary

One of my first posts here involved the primary election to be held by Italy’s Partito democratico (PD) on November 25.  The two leading candidates for the party leadership were Pierluigi Bersani, 61 years old and the party’s current national secretary; and Matteo Renzi, 37 years old, mayor of Florence, and challenger of the party’s gerontocracy.  At that point, at the end of September, polls seemed to show the two about even.  As it turned out, the vote yesterday was not that close.  Bersani received 44.9 percent and Renzi 35.5 percent.  They will face each other in a run-off vote next Sunday, December 2.

The percentages for each of the five candidates were:
Pierluigi Bersani            44.9%
Matteo Renzi                 35.5
Nicchi Vendola              15.6
Laura Puppato                 2.6
Bruno Tabacci                 1.4

(Although it’s not clear on what basis, Renzi has challenged these results.  He claims Bersani’s vote should be 43.4 percent and his own 38.8 percent.)  Clearly the question is where Nicchi Vendola’s voters will go.  Vendola, the president of the Puglia region, is considered an environmentalist and the most “left” of the candidates.  Interestingly, it was to Bersani that Vendola directed the suggestion that to claim his voters Bersani would need to offer a profumo di sinistra (literally, a "scent of the left").

The total number of voters (3.1 million) was the same as in 2009 and below the party’s primaries in 2007 (3.5 million) and 2005 (4.3 million).  Still, observers saw the turnout as an indication that anti-political attitudes among Italians may not be as strong as has been thought.

Monti as candidate?

I'm back home after my extended stay in Italy.  I enjoyed Bergamo a lot and I think I made progress in the language.  On the plane coming home yesterday, I had time to read a little on Italian politics.  Italy's Partito democratico (Democratic Party) is holding its primary election next Sunday, the 25th.  Five candidates are competing for the party’s nomination as party leader for the national elections now set for March 10 of next year.  Meanwhile a different kind of nominating process is at work.

A good many Italians would like to see Mario Monti continue as prime minister.  And they’d like to see him do it openly and explicitly as a candidate competing with the others.  Massimo Cacciari makes the case for a Monti candidacy in the current issue of Expresso.  In an open letter to Monti he argues:

- The prime minister isn’t the simple technocrat he often portrayed as; he has long experience working in political settings and, by implication, can been an effective politician.
- He has made a good beginning at putting the country on a new course, but it’s only a beginning.  He shouldn’t want to be know only as la premessa, the prelude to what comes after.
- None of the Italian political parties is ready to continue his work.  If anything, the parties are in worse shape now than when Monti took over a year ago.
- An open Monti candidacy would bring people to the polls, avoiding the widespread abstention seen in the recent Sicilian elections.
- Becoming prime minister only after the elections fail to produce a clear majority for one party or coalition (a possibility suggested by Ilvo Diamanti) would mean operating in a political setting worse than the current one.  No program for a new Monti government would have been articulated and he would face a more coherent opposition.

Is Monti listening?  He’s probably heard these, or similar, arguments already.  And he seems a serious man ready to consider serious arguments, which I think these are, especially the last one.  But I wonder how ready he is to become a full-fledged politician?  I don’t really know, but I’d guess he’ll decide against it.

Monti bis?

A frequent element politial discussions here has been whether Mario Monti will continue in government after next Spring’s elections.  (As of yesterday, it was finally decided these would be held on March 10, provided a new electoral law is adopted.)  This is usually referred to as "Monti bis" (Monti encore).  Some see him in a ministerial position -- possibly finance.  His participation, it's said, would reassure the rest of the world -- and Italians, too -- that the new government would continue his sober approach to governance.  Others see him returning, not as a minister, but as prime minister.  Monti, himself, has said he would accept the position if conditions somehow required it.  I don't think, though, he's indicated just what those conditions might be.

Yesterday, I read the most affirmative statement I’ve seen so far (admittedly from a fairly small sample) that Monti will continue as prime minister.  Curzio Maltese, a journalist with La Repubblica who writes a regular column in the paper’s weekend magazine, Il venerdìi di Repubblica, says that, whichever party wins the elections, it’s 90 percent certain Monti will be the prime minister.  This, says Maltese, is because the Italian political class lost its legitimacy 20 years ago with the Tangentopoli scandals and hasn’t yet been replaced by a new generation.  He cites Germany, Spain, and Great Britain (he could have included France) as countries where credible national leaders have come out of the political parties.  This isn’t possible in Italy, he says, and for this reason, even if one or a coalition of parties wins the March elections, he’s virtually certain Monti will be prime minister.  We’ll see in a few months.