Antonio Di Pietro - Cambiare l’Italia

2 September 2010

The country has to free itself of Berlusconi

Yesterday I was in Turin at the National Festival of the Democratic Party (PD). Here is a part of my speech.

First of all I have to say that I feel at home with the people of the Democratic Party in Turin, at the PD Festival in Turin.
In Italia dei Valori, we have never questioned the bi-polar system, that is: before the elections you choose and you indicate to the citizens which coalition, which programme and which person is to be the candidate for leader. And in this system we have never questioned the need to create a “reformist pole” of the Centre Left, to be co-founders, members in every sense, and forming a part of the same family.
From 17 to 19 September in Vasto, we will hold our programming assembly where friends from the Democratic Party will also be present: there too as in Turin we will relaunch a coalition that offers an alternative to the dark period of Berlusconi.
Italia dei Valori has distinguished itself in the last few years in telling the Italians about the serious anomaly and the serious danger, public danger number one represented by Berlusconi and his clique. We are convinced, unlike others, that apart from the storming of the Bastille with pitch forks, that is not OK, there’s only one way to liberate the country from the Berlusconi clique: that of convincing 51 per cent of the citizens that it is better not to vote for him, because voting for him they will not be better off, but he and a few of his friends will be better off.
For this reason, in order to convince the citizens we are convinced that we need to let them know who he is, what he has done and what he is doing. With this gentleman, we have never wanted to start a dialogue. We have always stood in harsh and determined opposition. If the Democratic Party also does this, the road will be ever more straightforward. But we cannot get together if there is not a shared programme.
Fini and Casini are putting together something against the Centre Left. We mustn’t give space to those who are trying to undermine us.
At this rate, they’ll be taking in a new” Mastella”. Instead, I’m saying this again as long as I’m able: The country has to free itself of Berlusconi, and we can do this with a fleeting alliance that challenges him on a vote of no confidence. Then we can go to elections with a defined programme, leaving aside anyone who does not agree with that programme, those who are always working to put together the Centre Right, those who do coalitions following the political breeze and at the first change of direction are ready to betray, or to offer themselves to the one who pays the most. In this period of crisis, we need to go beyond our own limits and think about the voters and about the country.

1 September 2010

A political revolution is needed

”Let the political scene concentrate on the economy”. It’s not just me saying that, even though it’s an idea that I have been repeating for a long time, now it’s the President of the Republic that is sending out an appeal to save the country. Perhaps even Napolitano has read The Financial Times, just as I myself have done. The forecasts from one of the most authoritative daily papers in the world are not good: the Italian economy can expect a very hot Autumn. The British newspaper writes this in its "Lex Column", in an editorial called "Italy's fading bella figura" dealing with the unfortunate financial situation of our country. (download the article in PDF – 172 kb)
In the last ten years, from 1999 to 2009, Berlusconi has always been in government apart from the brief hiatus with D'Alema-Amato-Prodi. In this period, the gross domestic product in Italy has grown by ten percentage points less than the average for the Euro zone. At the same time, the shares on the Stock Exchange have produced an average of 11 points less than the FTSE Eurofirst 300, the index that measures the trends in the 300 most important companies. The source data discussed by The Financial Times comes from Capital Economics.
But there’s more: the true problem in Italy is the real economy with a level of competitiveness per unit labour cost that, in relation to Germany, has gone down by 26% since 1999, and with productivity that has gone down by 6% in spite of an equivalent growth of 7% in the Euro Zone. All that, while the companies of the Berlusconi family are enjoying great health thanks to the measures and the moves by a Government acting “ad aziendam” {for specific companies}.
The British daily is even talking about a coalition, the one in government, that is self-destructing, of a crisis within the Centre Right that will just lead to economic stagnation and of the Italian economic model that is surviving in spite of the government’s catastrophic choices.
The editorial in The Financial Times is the photograph of how foreign investors look at our country. A country where the public debt is by now more than 120% of GDP, where financial default could be a matter of months, if not weeks. In this context, there’s the Government of “figurines”, administered by “rais Berlusconi” who has kept for himself the Ministry of Economic Development and in order to protect his companies and to end up on Libyan passports has sold off the dignity of the country to a dictator like Gaddafi. Today I want to tell him, using the words of The Financial Times: “Italy needs a political revolution, not a passing political crisis to rediscover its economic mojo .”

Let’s jeer all of them

Marcello Dell'Utri, for whom the appeal verdict gave him a sentence of seven years in prison for external collaboration with the mafia, is a senator with the PDL. And above all, he is the co-founder (together with Silvio Berlusconi) of Forza Italia.
Yesterday Dell'Utri, having been invited to talk about the presumed diaries of Mussolini during the event in Como called ‘ParoLario’ was obliged to leave the stage. A group of citizens were angry that a person convicted of mafia association could be making a presentation during a cultural event.
What has to be said to people by a man that has had relations with the mafia clans, who has done a plea bargain to get a punishment of two years three months in prison for false invoicing and tax fraud in relation to the management of the event “Publitalia '80” and who turns out to be under investigation for the “P3” investigation, about the secret association that has tried to influence the decisions of the judges of the Constitutional Court about the constitutionality of the Lodo Alfano? Or rather, what has an honest citizen, a precarious worker, an office worker, to learn from a guy like that?
The protests against Dell'Utri are a positive sign, in spite of the fact that there’s an attempt to minimise what happened with the usual Italian-style analyses. The arousal of awareness among the people is getting ever stronger. And if people like Dell'Utri are kicked out and jeered from the squares, perhaps the social reawakening is not so far away. There’s still an Italy that is able to be filled with indignation. And it’s really from this point that we must start again. Let’s start by silencing those like Dell'Utri in all the squares of Italy, because they shouldn’t be there but in prison.
I am convinced, today more than ever, that if all the citizens could follow every day the parliamentary sessions in the House, then no one on the PDL benches would ever stand up to speak. Dell'Utri cannot not claim the respect and the appreciation of the citizens, when you consider that the ones like him are seated in parliament thanks to an electoral law that the country doesn’t want, and thanks to which these folk have avoided going to prison. For this reason, let them not show their faces in public. It’s a matter of decency.

30 August 2010

The cavaliere and the rock star Gaddafi

The weekend that’s just gone by will be remembered in Italy for Muammar Gaddafi's visit to Rome. The Libyan leader was welcomed like a rock star. An agency recruited 500 hostesses. Photographers and reporters followed second by second, every movement of the colonel from Tripoli. There’s no newspaper that doesn’t have his photo on the front page. He, the Libyan dictator, wanted to launch an appeal so that Islam becomes the dominant religion.
The President of the Council, Silvio Berlusconi talked about folklore and “asked”, as he knows how, not to make too much of the case.
But how is it possible to sign treaties with Gaddafi? How is it possible that, while the other countries play host to democratic leaders, a dictator arrives in Italy and he is welcomed like a star at the airport with 500 young women recruited specifically for him?
They tell us that there’s a treaty of “friendship” between Italy and Libya, signed in October 2008. Thus Berlusconi would sell off and humiliate Italy, transforming it into a stage setting for a dictator, in exchange for a treaty that would see the disbursement of five billion euro in 25 years to compensate Libya for colonial damage. In exchange, a priority route for Italian companies.
In reality, however, behind this story there’s a massive business deal that directly involves the President of the Council. Gaddafi plays the role of “star” in our land because Berlusconi is protecting the umpteenth conflict of interests. As was written in 'The Guardian' a few days ago, there’s a business connection between Gaddafi and Berlusconi. A Libyan company called Lafitrade has bought ten per cent of Quinta Communications, a film production company belonging to Tarak Ben Ammar, one of Berlusconi’s old business partners. Lafitrade is controlled by Lafico, the investment arm of the Gaddafi family. And Ben Ammar’s other partner in Quinta Communications has “about twenty two per cent of the capital” says 'The Guardian', and is a company registered in Luxemburg, owned by Fininvest, Berlusconi’s finance company. 'The Guardian' drew attention to the fact that Quinta Communications and Mediaset, that is Berlusconi’s TV empire, each own twenty five per cent of a new satellite TV, Arabala Nessma Tv, that operates in Libya as well. The Colonel could have influence on this by means of the share that he has bought from Quinta Communications.
Thus, the premier is selling off the dignity of the country in order to protect his companies.
In return, however, in a few months Berlusconi’s photo will appear on Libyan passports. Perhaps the President of the Council, aware of the forthcoming electoral defeat, has decided to escape to Tripoli that is not like Tunis’s Hammamet but you can be OK there.

29 August 2010

Two countries that are polar opposites

The German Cabinet has approved a draft law designed to give greater protection to journalists in relation to the judiciary and thus to reinforce the freedom of the press. Basically, journalists will no longer be vulnerable to prosecution in the case of collaboration in the publication of secret material obtained from third parties.
However, the Italian Cabinet has been trying for months to place a gag on information n the country with a draft law that even the United Nations has judged to be bad with no “ifs and buts”.
In fact in terms of the Freedom of the Press, today, Germany is in the 17th position and it is classed as a “Free” nation. With this new draft law, it will climb higher up the classification.
Italy, on the other hand is in the 72nd position (next to the last in Europe, worse than South Korea and on an equal footing with India) and it is considered to be “Partly Free”. If the gagging law should happen to be enacted , Italy will drop down even lower (Click here and download the report "Freedom of the Press 2010").
In Germany, the GDP has shown record growth: +2.2% in the second quarter of 2010. This is growth that is bringing about the recovery of the EU. Today, Germany’s development is in a position to keep going forward.
However, in Italy, the equivalent figure for the same period is a modest +0.4% that places it in a position of being at the tail-end of the major European countries. After months of pretend optimism, the President of the Council has woken up and now is confiding in Bossi that there is a Greece risk for Italy. It occurs to me that Italy and Greece are two countries at opposite poles. It’s a shame that Italy is always at the wrong pole. The only solution is an alternative government that is valid and credible. A united Centre Left that has no need of Fini-following pretend moralists, nor of Cuffaro’s party. Because we have already had one Mastella, and he handed Italy into the hands of Berlusconi.
Another solution, a utopian one, would be an exchange of governments, with Merkel in Italy and Berlusconi in Germany. Just long enough to take them to zero growth. And always on the basis that they are willing.

28 August 2010

The windbags and the braggarts

Here is an interview I gave to the daily “La Repubblica”, which hit the newsstands today.

Antonio di Pietro: “Let those who raised the issue of morality have the courage to send Berlusconi home, otherwise it will prove that they are nothing more than a bunch of windbags and braggarts”.

La Repubblica: To whom are you referring there, my Hon. Mr. Di Pietro?
Antonio di Pietro: “To the Fini bunch, also because those middle of the road UDC members still have a First Republic culture and, once they have managed to lay their hands on any posts, you will never get them to budge”.

La Repubblica: So, it seems that Berlusconi and his government will be staying on. So much for early elections?
Antonio di Pietro: “For the good of the Country, I would hope that we could rid ourselves of Berlusconi and his P2-ist way of governing, however, they still enjoy a Parliamentary majority and there simply aren’t the 316 Deputies required in order to force the issue and hold fresh elections. It goes without saying that we of the Italia dei Valori Party are doing everything in our power to send him home”.

La Repubblica: The Pdl does however seem to be falling apart. What do you see coming over the horizon, a technical government or early elections?
Antonio di Pietro: “We need to hold fresh elections as soon as possible, but this will only happen if there is some show of dignity from what I would like to be able to call the ex-majority although, if the truth be told, I think that they are more like Pontius Pilate. As regards technical or institutional governments, as we call them, I have to reject that idea. These are merely tricks by which we would be installing a majority other than the one voted into power by the Country’s voters. In a bipartisan system, they are a smart tactic. As for me, I would prefer to fight on equal terms and with clear game rules. I would very much like to be able to undertake an election campaign with an electoral law worthy of the name and fair, unbiased media rules in place. But let’s be honest, there is indeed more chance of a camel passing through the eye of the needle than there is of these Parliamentarians accepting the responsibility for dealing with the democratic emergency. Furthermore, as far as electoral laws are concerned, Fini wants one type of law while Casini wants another and as for Bersani, well, no one knows quite what he wants”.

La Repubblica: Do you still believe that the government crisis is a done deal and that we will have to return to the polling booths?
Antonio di Pietro: “I would say yes, but only after the appointment of a time-limited provisional government with a 90-day deadline and guaranteed by State President Napolitano, charged with the task of drafting a new electoral law and restoring the plurality of the media and freedom of the press. The issues of the economy and employment need to be addressed by a government that has been legitimised by a public vote. Therefore, now more than ever before, it is important for us to form our coalition. We could well win the elections, in spite of the current centre-left”.

La Repubblica: Do you like the idea of a broad, democratic, constitutional alliance and a new Ulivo Party, as Bersani called for in his letter to “Repubblica”?
Antonio di Pietro: “Let’s do a simple analysis of the situation. Fini will never again be able to form a coalition neither with Berlusconi, nor with the Democratic Party or the left-wing for that matter because not even his mother and his sister would vote for him. So he is has to try to build an alternative centre-right to the berlusconian right-wing. There is no way that anyone can build a new Ulivo Party involving the likes of Fini. How could anyone ever ally themselves to someone that would knife them in the back? To believe that you could, you would either have to be insane, or Bersani. Fini will undoubtedly participate, but elsewhere”.

La Repubblica: And what about Casini?
Antonio di Pietro: “The UDC leader is only getting involved in order to hold on to his swing-vote power, which he desperately needs if he is to have any hope of snatching some government posts when the time comes for the wheeling and dealing”.

La Repubblica: So, thumbs-up or thumbs-down for Bersani’s plan?
Antonio di Pietro: “I like the names “Alleanza democratica” and “Nuovo Ulivo”. We have to be consistent though. For the next legislature, I would be happy to see an alliance with the Democratic Party and the Idv as acting as kingpins for the left-wing forces. However, such an alliance could never be extended to include Fini and Casini, because the former has right-wing leanings and the latter merely likes to make a lot of noise”.

La Repubblica: How would you change the current electoral law?
Antonio di Pietro: “Assuming that ethical behaviour is possible even within this current pigsty, because we certainly didn’t nominate the likes of the Dell’Utris and the Cuffaros. We stand for a bipolar system, a majoritarian system with each constituency entitled to nominate one individual. However, if we want a German-style system instead, then let’s look at it, as long as this is stipulated up front by the coalition”.

27 August 2010

No alliance with Fini and Casini

Yesterday, Democratic Party Secretary Pier Luigi Bersani talked about new alliances aimed at defeating the current Berlusconism. In this interview that I gave to the daily "L'Unità", due to hit the newsstands today, I explain my idea for a credible alternative government. One that doesn’t include either Fini or Casini.

L'UNITA': Bersani is launching a new “Ulivo” in an attempt to bring the Berlusconi era to an end and begin a new political era. Do you agree with him?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “Indeed, as Bersani says, we will have to rebuild the democratic alliance in anticipation of a new legislature following fresh elections and with the Democratic Party and the IdV acting as the kingpin for all the left-wing forces that wish to join the alliance, the movements and the public”.

L'UNITA': Bersani talks about a democratic alliance but he is also looking to include Casini and Fini.
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “Pardon me asking, but where do Casini and Fini come into it anyway?”

L'UNITA': Don’t you want them as allies then?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “With his personal and political background, Fini is trying to build up a centre-right wing whose main aim is to be an alternative for the “Ulivo”. So what does that have to do with our alliance? Casini has never worked for the new “Ulivo”, not does he have any intention whatsoever of doing so. The last thing that we should do is to get involved in impossible situations, otherwise we could find ourselves exchanging Mastella for Casini and Fini, but the end result would be the same”.

L'UNITA': So what is your recipe?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “The new Ulivo must be born with a strong identity as regards its programme and its objectives and, above all, it needs to get through an election after having identified its government leaders. Do we really want to choose these leaders by means of primary elections? No problem, but then they must be real primaries, otherwise we may as well just get together and choose the candidates. Should Vendola and Bersani stand for election? I don’t want to exclude anyone off the bat, but I want to know beforehand what their respective programmes include and with whom they intend to ally themselves because the only person that I’m happy to be with in the dark is my wife. What I cannot accept is for the Ulivo to be built now with these Parliamentarians, and I don’t think that Bersani wants that either. There are simply far too many smart-alecs around that want to govern without going via the polling booths”.

L'UNITA': Do you also reject the idea of a technical government?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “I don’t think that there are enough people in favour with which to form such a government. However, should this become a reality, the IdV would only be prepared to be part of it or to support it if State President Napolitano were to provide assurances regarding such a technical Government’s duration and its mandate: only for three months and to draft a new electoral law, the form of which must be made known beforehand. It could be a bipartisan electoral law that includes a majoritarian system and possible primary elections, or a German-style proportional system with a 5% minimum threshold”.

L'UNITA': And what about other reforms?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “I would not be in favour of a technical government that lands up dealing with everything. That would be a nasty trick in the style of the First Republic”.

L'UNITA': Not even Berlusconi wants to hold elections any more.
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “Berlusconi knows that if we were to hold elections now, he would lose. That’s why I have been telling Bersani that if there was ever an ideal time to beat Berlusconi, that time is now, while his credibility is at its lowest ebb ever, while Casini appears to be unable to establish his third hub and while Fini simply doesn’t fit in anywhere anymore, neither with the PdL nor with the left wing. Instead of chasing after a dream and trying to find some sort of arrangement that includes individuals who have nothing to do with a democratic alliance, let’s rather get our own act together. I accept Bersani’s challenge and, indeed, let’s say that he has accepted our challenge because, since the days of Piazza Navona, I have continued to say that Berlusconi is the public enemy”.

L'UNITA': Are you being controversial as regards the Democratic Party?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “I am not trying to be controversial. I have been saying for years that we have to get rid of Berlusconi. Now. All of a sudden, the Secretary of the Democratic Party comes along and writes a letter. As Travaglio would say, “welcome back from Saturn …”.

L'UNITA': Three days ago, Veltroni also wrote a letter. Have you read it?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “I have written two hundred letters, but no one has ever bothered to publish them, or respond to them for that matter, so I’m going to shut up about that”.

L'UNITA': Now let’s talk about the Premier’s video message. In it, he says that the opposition keeps on re-proposing the same old stories of years ago. He also has it in for you.
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “Berlusconi is very quick to look for the splinter in other people’s eyes but fails to see the tree-trunk in his own eye. He talks about old stories but in recent years all he has done is promulgate an entire fleet of “ad personam” and “ ad company” laws. The Cosentinos and the Previtis are merely the tentacles of the octopus so what we need to do is to chop off the head of the octopus, namely Berlusconi, otherwise everything else is irrelevant”.

L'UNITA': Mr. Di Pietro, don't you think that your metaphor is perhaps a little harsh?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: “Not at all. I’m not talking about the Mafia octopus, but rather the political one, which is even worse because, while the former merely breaks the law, the latter makes new laws to cancel out the effects of the previous laws”.

26 August 2010

Let’s liberate ourselves from the P2-ist

Below there’s an interview I gave that is published today in Il Fatto Quotidiano.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: President, you’ve read Flores’ appeal to organise a united demonstration against the Berlusconi government early in October? What are you doing?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: Well, in this case he’s coming second, because already for some time, there has been the idea, both by the campaign groups and by “il Popolo Viola”, the date is fixed for 2 October. I’m pleased that he too is participating.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: And you’ll be present …
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: You see, we have been fighting since the first day of the legislature, thus I find it absurd that I have to be ashamed to take our banners into the streets. And we, rather than a decline, we are aiming at a rise.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: That is?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: We don’t intend to exclude anyone. Everyone is invited. Citizens with the flag of Italy, with their beloved party’s banner, the tri-colour sash, the university record book.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Even a hoe if there are farm workers coming …
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: Great – as long as they don’t bring a great big fork. Because, you see, I’ve said this to everyone, without falling into that masochistic and suffering manner of presenting demonstrations. Of the type: you have to come but without a jacket or pants of a certain colour.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: So basically, what’s important is to have a big crowd?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: The more people the better and also from other parties.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Including Fini and his followers?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: This has been the enormous mistake of the PD: to make an agreement with the FLI.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Where’s the risk?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: Together with the UDC, they want to defeat the Centre Left. So to give them the possibility to create a structure or to gain credibility, means to put them in a position to win against us.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO:Thus you don’t trust this wrench with Bocchino & Co?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: Listen I’ve not even seen one person in Fini’s group with a lion’s heart. Just think of the vote relating to Caliendo, when they all ran away. The only thing that interests them is to stay in parliament as long as possible and to maintain a prohibition force.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: And Casini and his followers?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: They want to create a third grouping, anything but an alliance with the Centre Left.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Are you saying that there is no dialogue apart from the offer that’s on the table?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: This is a bi-polar system whereby you either stay here or there. Anyone in the middle acts as a prostitute and follows the one who offers the most. And not just that…

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Yes?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: Today there are optimal conditions for beating Berlusconi’s party and finally get rid of him.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Can you describe the scenario ..
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: It’s simple: if there’s voting, Fini will not be able to go with Berlusconi, nor with the Left, because not even his mother would vote for him. Thus he will be a reality unto himself. Casini would stay in the Centre. And here we have at national level what we saw before in Apulia.

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: People have always said that you are the “son” of a Right-wing culture. And yet now you seem to be an avid defender of the Centre Left model.
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: I feel like a post-ideological person, a liberal inside who looks to values like the rule of law, solidarity, the pluralism of information. And I choose to stay on this side because we are defending the most vulnerable in society. And I don’t think it’s right to get certain privileges …

IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO: Like?
ANTONIO DI PIETRO: The right teacher, the best doctor, or an apartment in Monte Carlo …

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