What (not) happens between Mattarella and La Russa
The usual political hunt for allusions in Mattarella's greetings to the authorities. Damato's Scratches
Even this end of the year, about ten days before the arrival of 2024, we navigate politics between a parliamentary path strangled by the budget law and arguments or controversies over facts and words. Facts, for example, such as the new European Stability Pact agreed between the Economy Ministers of the Union countries, are inevitably of a compromising nature. Where the government and the majority have seen the "a lot" achieved by Italy, as the minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said, and Giuseppe Conte instead, for the Grillina opposition, "the surrender" – also the title of Repubblica and Il Fatto Quotidiano – to the usual Franco-German preferential axis. Which would have granted Italy, on the road to recovering from public debt, greater graduality until 2027. The sufficiency of which to mitigate the risk of austerity prevailing on development would be uncertain.
Among the facts we could also include the end-of-year greeting speech to the – or former – authorities of the State just given by the President of the Republic. Which has induced parties, commentators and leaders to indulge in the usual hunt for allusions, or trial of intentions, to get Sergio Mattarella's even obvious words on their side, such as the warning – repeated in the front page headline of the Corriere della Sera – not to taking “nothing for granted: peace, as well as freedom and democracy”. A hunt for allusions perhaps taken into account by Mattarella himself, complaining about "the mere comparison between propaganda" to which that between parties is too often reduced, which are also in constant electoral campaigns. As is the case practically underway for some regional and municipal appointments from February onwards, until the general vote in June for the renewal of the European Parliament.
That peace at an international level is not a given is unfortunately demonstrated by the ongoing wars, in one of which – that in Ukraine – Italy is involved with aid to Kiev which has just been confirmed for 2024 as well. But in the Middle East we are also called , not only with diplomacy, to contain its effects, to say the least.
That freedom and democracy are at risk in Italy is supported by the oppositions mobilised, for example, against the constitutional reform for the direct election of the Prime Minister which Mattarella himself has authorized the government to propose to the Chambers with a bill with a path that is neither short nor easy. Precisely the role of the President of the Republic – according to the opposition, except for Renzi – would be compromised by this reform, or brought back to its true or presumed original limits, as the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa recently said, incurring criticism and attacks that he he intended to protest as a guest at the Quirinale yesterday, publicly recognizing the "meritorious" performance of the mandate of the current head of state. And Mattarella thanked him, as if to close – I think – the controversies, especially in their instrumental aspects. But I doubt, frankly, that they will stop.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-non-succede-fra-mattarella-e-la-russa/ on Thu, 21 Dec 2023 07:07:05 +0000.