Shades of Haider as Italians march into the post-lira era

Date: 10/05/01

By Gareth Harding

Italians go to the ballot box this weekend to elect their 58th government since the war. If opinion polls are to be believed, they are likely to plump for a megalomaniac media-magnate who bears more than a passing resemblance to Benito Mussolini to lead their country into the post-lira era.

Much has been written about the prospect of centre-right contender Silvio Berlusconi becoming Italian premier for the second time. The Economist caused a furore by declaring that the former cruise-ship crooner is "unfit to lead Italy" because of his murky business past and the whiff of sleaze and corruption which clings to the state's richest man like cheap after-shave.

To foreign observers it is indeed incredible that a man who is under investigation for money-laundering, tax evasion and bribery should be in the running to rule the Union's fourth-richest country. But even more disturbing is the company Berlusconi intends to keep when in government.

His coalition partners are so extreme they make Austrian Jörg Haider's Freedom Party look moderate. Gianfranco Fini's National Alliance party was born out of the ashes of Italy's disastrous flirtation with fascism and is allied in Sicily with notorious neo-fascist Pino Rauti.

Fini, who is tipped to become deputy prime minister in a Berlusconi government, is the picture of respectability in his designer suits and glasses. However, the same cannot be said of Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, who is a big fan of Haider and shares many of his views about immigrants and the EU.

The European Union's conscience-in-chief, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, has described the Northern League as a "xenophobic party of the subversive far-right which draws solely on the most sordid aspects of human nature". This may be so, but why should Europe care?

Firstly, whom Berlusconi chooses as his political bedfellows matters because of their attitude to the EU. Bossi recently described Brussels as the headquarters of the "Soviet Union of Europe" and his party's anti-immigrant policies are likely to send a shudder down the spine of neighbouring countries queuing to join the bloc.

Secondly, Europe is as much a union of values as a union of member states and the values parties such as the Northern League and the Freedom Party hold dear run counter to the principles on which the EU is based.

Put bluntly, it makes it much more difficult for the Union to lecture the rest of the world about the need for tolerance and equality when governments within its own borders have only a loose attachment to such beliefs.

And then there is the Austrian dilemma. Surely, say human rights campaigners, if it was right for the Union to slap sanctions on Vienna for letting the far-right in from the cold, then it is even more correct for it to cold-shoulder an Italian regime composed of populist rabble-rousers.

Cynics would say that the simple difference between the two is that Austria is a small member state and Italy is a big one and everyone knows that it is easier to bully the weak than the strong. There is obviously some truth in this, but the more likely explanation is that the EU has learned its lesson from the Austrian debacle. Refusing to speak to a member of a club you don't see eye-to-eye with is a pretty childish way of dealing with differences - especially when that member has a veto over changes to the club's rules.

This is not to say the EU should ignore what is going on in Italy. The Nice Treaty gives member states new powers to monitor political developments in other countries and to act if they believe the Union's fundamental values are threatened. The bloc should use this power to the full.

But otherwise, it should avoid interfering in the Italian democratic process to the extent it did with Austria. This might be difficult for militants like Michel, but at least they can sleep safely in the knowledge that whichever government Italians choose on Sunday, it is unlikely to last longer than a year.

Feature on Italy's National Alliance Party.