Former Italy PM Renzi struggles with far-left internal opposition and a populist coalition

Wednesday, 22 February 2017 10:16
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While the events in Germany and France, in the light of the forthcoming elections in these countries, get on the front pages of Ukrainian media, the events in the Apennine peninsula, where it is going also to elections, are ignored. Meanwhile, the effects of possible early elections in Italy may be no less fatal to the EU, than the presidential elections in France or parliamentary elections in Germany. To find out what is going on in Italy, read the article by Matteo Cazzulani.

The internal struggle within the ruling Democratic Party between the former Prime Minister and the left-wing minority is to destabilize the political situation in a core-member state of the European Union. Anti-European political forces are likely to take advantage of the situation to gain power and destabilize both the European Union and NATO.

MILAN - Political instability due to the internal balance of power within the ruling political party has always been a characteristic of Italian politics since the post-war period, when the struggle among different fractions of the Christian Democracy party determined both the creation and the dissolution of governments. Nowadays, an internal struggle within the Democratic Party -PD, the main political force in the parliament- between two former Prime Ministers, Matteo Renzi and Massimo D'Alema, is undermining the stability of the Italian political scenario.

The last episode of an internal war between Mr. Renzi and Mr. D'Alema, that is lasting several years, occurred on February 19, when Mr. Renzi, during an Assembly of the Democratic Party, resigned from Secretary and called for a snap congress aimed at electing the new leader of the Democratic Party.

Mr. Renzi's decision to quit the leadership of the Democratic Party is tied to two reasons. On the one hand, Renzi suffered a dramatic loss in a referendum on constitutional changes that Renzi, as the Prime Minister of Italy, strongly supported by facing a transversal coalition of far-left, far-right and center-right parties that were eventually joined by the left-wing internal minority of the Democratic Party led by Mr. D'Alema. On the other hand, the members of the internal left-wing minority -apparently led by Enrico Rossi and Michele Emiliano, the Governors of Tuscany and Apulia Regions respectively, but de facto organized by Mr. D'Alema- declared their aim to form a new party should Mr. Renzi remain the leader of the Democratic Party.

Even though the internal war within the Democratic Party is more a personal struggle for power and leadership rather than an ideological war between different programmatic platforms, the struggle between Renzi and D'Alema has direct consequences on the political agenda of the Italian government with regards to both internal and external politics.

Mr. Renzi, a former mayor of Florence with a Christian-Democratic orientation, who was appointed both the Secretary of the Democratic Party and the Prime Minister of Italy on the wave of his promise to renew the Italian political elites, follows a more centrist political agenda based on moderate liberalism in economics and flexibility with regards to labor policies. D'Alema, a highly-experienced politician who switched from communism to social-democracy and used to fire his direct political rivals within the Democratic Party, such as former PM Romano Prodi and former PD Secretary Walter Veltroni, is a prominent representative of the left-wing of the Democratic Party, supports a stronger role of the state within the economy and backs Labor Unions in opposing any reform of the labor market.

Also with respect to foreign policy, Renzi and D'Alema are quite different each other. While Mr. Renzi seems to be a surrogate of former US President Barack Obama with respect to an energetic political look, style and vision on global affairs, Mr. D'Alema has a strong political affinity with both former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder -who is now serving, as a manger, at the Russian energy state major Gazprom- and former US President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Renzi, who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016, backed the agenda of President Obama with regards to the nuclear deal with Iran and the Syrian crisis. Mr. Renzi, who strongly supported human and civil rights as Obama did while serving as President of the United States, also voiced support for Israel on the international arena, and tried to convince Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on the necessity to the coexistence of a Palestinian state along with Israel.

While serving as the Prime Minister of Italy between 1998 and 1999, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2006 and 2008, Mr. D'Alema supported both NATO air strikes on Serbia and the independence of Kosovo after all. Separation of Kosovo, inspired by the U.S and backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Europe afterwards, had led to the violation of the international status quo, of which Russia has taken advantage to justify its occupation of the Georgian Northern regions in 2008 and Ukrainian Crimea in 2014. Also, Mr. D'Alema maintained deep ties with both Palestinian authorities and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

With respect to European affairs, both Renzi and D'Alema always advocated a stronger integration of the member states of the European Union aimed at creating the United States of Europe. Moreover, neither Renzi, nor D'Alema never questioned the leadership of the German-French axis within the European Institutions.

With regards to Ukraine and Russia, both Renzi and D'Alema maintained an ambiguous position aimed, at supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity without compromising the deep economic and energy bilateral ties between Italy and Russia. Nevertheless, due to his commitment to the maintenance of economic sanctions on Russia amid the annexation of Crimea, Mr. Renzi has been certainly the less pro-Russian Prime Minister, and the most pro-Western one, Italy ever had.

A Pro-Putin coalition to take advantage of the crisis of the Democratic Party

If analyzed with a focus on the general political situation in Italy, the war between Renzi and D'Alema, and the internal crisis within the Democratic Party as a whole, will almost certainly lead to the fall of the Government led by Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, a surrogate of Renzi who became the head of the government after Renzi's loss in the constitutional referendum. The fall of the cabinet of PM Gentiloni will also lead to an early legislative election which is likely to define a new landscape in the italian political arena.

In fact, the Democratic Party would seek a political alliance along with centrist Christian Democrats and the New Center Right party in order to oppose a populist coalition composed by the Five Star Movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo, far-right Northern League and the small post-fascist party Brothers of Italy. According to the newest polls, this coalition of populist parties is likely to gain the majority of votes and form the next government in so doing.

The Five Star Movement, the Northern League and Brothers of Italy share not only an increasing support from both the youngest and the eldest electorate, which is made of citizens tired of years of economic crisis and growing unemployment, but also a staunch opposition to both the European Union and NATO.

In fact, in addition to a referendum to leave the Eurozone and a rhetoric aimed at presenting NATO as an obsolete organization, the three political forces of the populist coalition consider Russian President Vladimir Putin as the absolute champion in regards to order and security on global issues.

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