Toni Iwobi could hardly be happier. Right now, he is the first black senator ever in Italy’s modern history. What’s even more surprising is that he represents the Northern League, the far-right, anti-refugee party — posing quite the conundrum for the Nigerian-born businessman who came to Italy on a student visa and ended up becoming a naturalised bona fide Italian citizen. What’s more, he helped write and shape the League’s populist policies that want to make it easier to deport refugees, use economic incentives to make nations take back their refugees, and refuse to take in any of the thousands of refugees rescued from the waters of the Mediterranean.
The League would also immediately deport any refugee who commits any crime, and it wants to negotiate European Union treaties that say Italy must take in a quota of the refugees who are fleeing violence and conflict in Syria, Iraq and the Sahel.
Given his own experience, Iwobi says he does not oppose immigrants like himself who come to Italy legally and integrate — instead he is opposed to refugees who have flooded Italy and those who are part of what he calls a “clandestine invasion” to settle illegally. Iwobi is also quick to defend the words of one Northern League candidate, Attilio Fontana who, during last month’s election campaign, caused outrage when he asserted the refugees coming to Italy had threatened the survival of “our white race”. Iwobi asserts Fontana was simply referring to the threat posed to Italian “culture”.
The political reality though is that in the six weeks that have passed since that March 4 general election, few deputies and senators notwithstanding their respective political parties, are willing to enter into any coalition deal with the Northern League because of those right-wing policies.
The framework of government imposed by the Italian constitution requires any ruling party or coalition to have majorities in both the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and the upper house, the Senate of the Republic.
Those March 4 elections saw Italian political support fragment, resulting in a hung parliament. Northern League, along with diminished support for Forza Italia, the political party dominated by convicted fraudster and former premier Silvio Berlusconi, took 37 per cent, with the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement taking 32 per cent.
Both fell short of a majority, leaving the incumbent centre-left Democratic Party — which won a meagre 19 per cent — in the role of potential kingmaker.
So far, the deputies and senators have only managed to elect speakers for their respective legislatures, leaving 81-year-old President Sergio Mattarella struggling to produce a viable government for his nation. What’s more, the political horse-trading and impasse could hardly come at a worse time for Italy
Last week, after a second round of failed talks, Mattarella said that he had advised all parties of their responsibilities and “of the necessity for our country to have a fully functional government.” He cited the “urgency” created by the escalating trade war between the United States and China, the prospect then of air strikes on Syria in response in the gas attack in Douma, as well as a critical European Council meeting in June that will focus on Brexit and potential changes to the way the common currency of the euro is to be managed.
While he did speak before the missile attacks launched by the US, the United Kingdom and France, the leaders of the two populist parties that are dominating the talks both have emphasised Italy’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to assure Italy’s allies. Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the populist 5-Star Movement, called for an investigation into the chemical weapons attacks in Syria, and said he would seek a solution through diplomacy.
The head of the centre-right bloc, Matteo Salvini, who has strong Russian ties and has expressed doubts that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attack, expressed “loyalty” to Nato while adding he was “strongly against any unilateral action” in Syria.
Mattarella is Italy’s 12th president and head of state since the country became a republic after the Second World War. If that number sounds low, given the 65 governments that have ruled Italy in the same period, that’s because this role changes only every seven years. It’s to avoid the president being too closely tied to any one parliament; both houses have a five-year term, but in practice they tend to change more frequently.
Ordinarily, the president mostly acts as a figurehead: Mattarella regularly represents Italy on trips abroad or in national speeches on key dates. In between governments, his role becomes more central, including dissolving parliament, calling elections, supervising coalition talks, and encouraging parties to form a workable government — and he is having his work cut out this time around.
Mattarella has two main options in his efforts to push the parties to form a new government.
He may consider giving an “exploratory mandate” to a senior figure from one of Italy’s political institutions to mediate between the main blocs. Or he could confer a so-called preliminary mandate on a leader of one of the election-winners — the 5-Star Movement or the League. Either move would be aimed at putting pressure on the rival parties to overcome their differences.
In true Italian style, Di Maio and Salvini have been courting each other over the past weeks, reaching agreements on election of the speakers and other key figures. The two leaders, however, remain distant on two crucial issues: The premiership, which they have both claimed, and the role Berlusconi’s Forza Italia in a possible government.
Di Maio has asked Salvini to drop his long-time ally, whom the 5-Stars have always stigmatised as the symbol of the corrupt establishment they pledge to fight. But Salvini has been reluctant to break the centre-right alliance, as this would likely mean the League accepting the role of junior partner in a government with the 5-Stars. Berlusconi, however, hasn’t helped the centre-right cause by continuing to antagonise the 5 Star Movement and Di Maio.
But Mattarella has a third option open to him, one that he might force given that June European Union summit: He could opt for an institutional government with cross-party support, though it would be only a short-term solution leading to a fresh general election later this year or early in 2019.
