PADDY AGNEW LETTER FROM ROMETHE TIMES, they are a-changing. Or are they? For anyone familiar with Italian politics, particularly those of the last 14 years in the wake of the "advent" of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, the climate that marked last week's "confidence" votes in parliament was quite unprecedented.
It was as if a new team of scriptwriters had been engaged, as if Lewis Carroll had been called in to replace Niccolo Macchiavelli. Gone was the football fan atmosphere in which anything from a hangman's noose to a meat loaf might be used in parliament to make a less than respectful point against opponents. Instead, the climate was all sweetness and light, all talk of "dialogue" between government and opposition.
As centre-right leader Berlusconi settles down to his third term of office, he has been bending over backwards to promote such a climate. Speaking to the Senate last week, he said: "I want to underline and to repeat that our work method will be based on the search for dialogue. After the authoritative contributions from deputies Fassino and Bersani, the leader of the Democratic Party, the honourable Veltroni has also this morning stated his willingness to accept our invitation to dialogue.
"We are talking here of a willingness to accept an open and frank confrontation between government and opposition that has no precedent in the history of the republic. Acts like this, of great responsibility and scope, are good for the functioning of democracy, good for the institutions of state and good for the country. I am extremely grateful to the honourable Veltroni for this willingness to dialogue."
Where was dear old Silvio? Where was the man who in that famous "taking to the field" TV speech back in January 1994 had announced his entry into politics with words that have become modern Italian legend: "I have chosen to take to the field and involve myself in public life because I don't want to live in an illiberal country, governed by immature forces and by men (the ex-communists) who are still closely linked to a past that proved both a political and economic disaster." Where was the man who, during the election campaign two years ago, had said that only a "bollocks" would vote for the centre-left? Where, too, was the man who during this recent election campaign had regularly resorted to familiar old, "commies-under-the-bed" tactics, suggesting that the Democratic Party (PD) is merely the latest version of the old PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano). According to Berlusconi (just two months ago, that is), the PD is still motivated by Marxist orthodoxy. It remains a party that distrusts private property and "considers the police force traitors who have sold out to the bourgeois state".
Over the years, Berlusconi has had many legal battles with the Italian judiciary, so much so that he has regularly railed against "red magistrates", often claiming that he has been the victim of a political witchunt. During the election campaign, he suggested magistrates should be periodically subjected to a mental health test. Just five months ago, he publicly attacked those magistrates in Palermo, Sicily, who had tried and sentenced in 2004 his long-time close ally Marcello Dell'Utri to a (suspended) nine-year sentence for "Mafia association".
In the Senate last week, however, Berlusconi used very different tones when talking about the role of both magistrates and the police forces in today's Italy, saying: "To all of them , I want to express my acknowledgement of the commitment with which, in silence, in a spirit of sacrifice and often at grave personal risk, they daily work in the interests of civil society in our country."
Little wonder that one commentator likened Berlusconi to the mythical Greek sea-god, Proteus, a god capable of changing his shape at will. Given the many varied problems facing him, ranging from a sluggish economy to urgent matters such as the future of Alitalia and the rubbish crisis in Naples, his heavy emphasis on dialogue makes perfectly good sense. He is going to need all the help he can get and he realises that. (His Senate speech last week reflected Italy's current economic, political and indeed cultural crises).
Then, too, there is the suspicion that Berlusconi's new-found penchant for the role of "statesman" might contain a not-so-hidden agenda. Namely that just as soon as he is out of the prime minister's office, he would like to become state president. By curious turn of events, Giorgio Napolitano's term of office finishes just one month after that of Berlusconi as prime minister.
If a position of conciliation and dialogue makes good sense for Berlusconi, what is in it for the centre-left? The most intriguing aspect of this new climate of dialogue is that the centre-left has embraced it with unexpected enthusiasm. In a most unusual gesture, the centre-left benches applauded Berlusconi four times during his address to the Lower House last week.
If anyone had any doubts about the new climate, they had been dispelled by events just two days before last week's confidence votes. Investigative journalist Marco Trevaglio, in the course of a TV interview, had had the temerity to point out that the newly elected speaker of the Senate - senior centre-right figure and trusted Berlusconi ally, Sicilian Renato Schifani - had in the past had dealings with subsequently convicted Mafiosi.
It was striking that one of the strongest condemnations should come from senior centre-left figure, Anna Finocchiaro: "I find it unacceptable that such a serious accusation as that of Mafia collusion can be made against the Senate speaker on live TV, without any possibility of reply."
Conflict of interests; Mafia collusion; income tax evasion; bribery of public officials; corruption; perjury; etc - all those "crimes" of which Berlusconi has been accused over the last decade have suddenly evaporated. Maybe it is not Lewis Carroll but rather George Orwell who is writing the script these days. Four legs good, two legs bad.