NINO RANDAZZO AND MARCO FEDI INTERVIEW - Wednesday 23rd April, 2008
Last week, Italian politics, even for those of us besotted by
the place, got more curious than ever. Silvio Berlusconi - he of the
perennial tan, seemingly ever-smoother skin and more and darker hair,
scrillionaire magnate of you name it, including the country's media and
accused corporate cheat - somehow managed to get himself returned to
power. Only via Italy could it happen, but two Australians were also
re-elected to the national parliament in Rome, to represent a massive
off-shore electorate of Oceania that takes in not just this country,
but also Africa and Antarctica. Get your mind around that. For a local
take on the political conundrum that is Silvio Berlusconi, George Negus
talked with Nino Randazzo and Marco Feddi, ex-pat Italian MPs, in our
Melbourne studio.
GEORGE NEGUS: Gentlemen, first of all we have to explain to other
people in this country have come at you two dinky-di Australians have
found yourself members of the Italian Parliament. Nino, remind people
of how it happens that you guys can be members of the Italian national
government's Parliament.
NINO RANDAZZO, ITALIAN MP: Quite easily explained. For the
very first time in 2006 Italians were able to vote overseas for their
own representatives so there are I think members of the Italian
Parliament elected overseas. If there is one member in this part of the
world of the upper house and one member of the senate and one member of
the lower house are elected. So, we went into Parliament in 2006 for
the election. We, Marco Feddi, in the House of Representatives and I in
the Italian Senate have been re-elected this time, again.
GEORGE NEGUS: Marco, I think it is all to do with the fact
that you people have dual citizenship but as I understand it, it is a
pretty good gig. The rest of us have to pay a lot of money to go to
Italy. You get paid to go to Italy.
MARCO FEDI, ITALIAN MP: We do. That is very good travelling
too. We enjoy doing it because, guess what, we represent Italians
living in Australia and it is a very good feeling.
GEORGE NEGUS: Is it about seven trips a year?
MARCO FEDI: It is probably more, but it really depends because
parliament in Italy is in permanent session so we work very hard when
we are there and we travel back to Australia probably every six weeks
on average, but also keep in mind that we have to travel to the other
parts of the world, such of our electorate needs us.
GEORGE NEGUS: You are both, as I understand it, from the
Democratic Left. Is that the best way to describe ideologically we you
coming from?
MARCO FEDI: Democratic Party. The Partito Democratico was born
out of two parties - a centrist party and a left party - so democratic
left would be a very good way of describing to our audience. We played
a very good card in the Italian elections in 2008. I think that the
Australian electorate recognised our strong message about stability and
governability in Italy - give Italy a opportunity to become a normal
country where there is a majority that governs and an opposition that
does what it is supposed to do - to keep the bastards honest, if I'm
forgiven for that simplistic way of doing it.
GEORGE NEGUS: You would have to say at the moment, Marco or
Nino, that you appear to be out of step with the majority of people in
Italy because, somehow or other, Harry Houdini, the master magician,
Silvio Berlusconi has got himself re-elected, despite his record, so
are you out of step?
NINO RANDAZZO: May I say that Italians in Australia in many
cases are better informed than some in Italy and they are more aware of
the real situation of Italy and they have watched exactly what we have
been doing in Italian parliament and they have in a way rewarded us
with re-election in Australia with a larger number of voters.
GEORGE NEGUS: How come - what is your explanation for a man
like Berlusconi getting re-elected?
NINO RANDAZZO: The point of this is that in Italy there is an
anti-politics movement which has hit most politicians. There is also
the desire, a need, to have a normal government that runs a normal
country – as Marco just said. We're moving. This is the
important thing. We are moving towards a sort of Anglo-Saxon type of
democracy with two major parties, instead of having 30 parties. Just
remember that in the past parliament, we had 30 parties altogether. So,
we are moving forward and the democratic party is leading the way
towards the normalisation of politics and the normalisation of living.
GEORGE NEGUS: In the meantime, Marco, has Italy moved to the
right? Is
that why people have decided they want to give Silvio Berlusconi
another go?
MARCO FEDI: My understanding is that we have seen a very
different
Silvio Berlusconi in this campaign. He has been very, very careful. On
the Alitalia issue, he applied a few tricks because I am sure that
Alitalia is still in bad shape and will need market intervention. The
Italian airliner will need market intervention, certainly not political
interference. Otherwise we have seen a very careful Berlusconi who has
played his cards very, very well. He has attracted the centrist vote.
Believe it or not, up north, even votes from the left have gone to his
party.
GEORGE NEGUS: What is the explanation for this though Marco,
he is a
man who has been accused of all sorts of things but somehow or another,
with lots of parts of Europe moving back to the centre-left,
Berlusconi, who we thought was yesterday's man, suddenly finds himself
back in the chair. It is pretty astounding.
MARCO FEDI: It is. The message that Veltroni was trying to
bring to the
Italian people was a very sophisticated message. He was talking about
stability - give Italy an opportunity to become a country where the
opposition can have a say and the majority can govern on a specific,
clear mandate. That sophisticated argument was not a tangible argument.
Berlusconi was very clear in his campaign on specific objectives. He
said we have to be very, very careful - extremely careful. The
centre-right has been accused over the last five years, when he was in
government, of not paying enough attention to the public deficit, to
the accounts. He has said that he wants to fight tax evasion, which, in
my opinion, is the very first time we have Berlusconi saying he wants
to fight tax evasion when in fact in the previous government in the
five years he was in the government, tax evasion increased. He also
said that we have to look at that accounts very closely and remain in
Europe. So, a very different Berlusconi that probably has helped him to
sell his message which was much more tangible and concrete than the one
that Veltroni was trying to sell.
GEORGE NEGUS: Is that the case that Silvio Berlusconi just
outsmarted
anyone to his left.
NINO RANDAZZO: Well, that could be the case too but I am
saying that he
has tried that trick before and at the end we found ourselves in a
rather disastrous situation. I am worried at the thought that the same
thing might happen this time. I can see some rather bad signs, some
dark signals coming from the new majority in the wider dealing with
security problems, with the foreign press and so really, he has
succeeded in tricking Italians to support him and in the end, Italy has
found itself on the verge of economic collapse. If it were not for the
Prodi government, the centre-left government last year, Italy would
have been kicked out of their Euro area, for instance. It would have
become another banana republic if that had happened.
So, let's wait and see. The opposition is there exactly to scrutinise
every piece of legislation and to keep a watch on the direction that
the new government will take.
GEORGE NEGUS: Gentlemen, we're just about out of time, but
speaking of
Italian politics in general, explain to Australians, if you can, how
come not only is Italy the champion of the world in football but the
champion in the world of throwing out governments - 61 governments
since the Second World War. How are the rest of us expected to
understand Italian politics when it is so volatile?
MARCO FEDI: The new parliament will be a very different place.
On April
29 when we go back to Italy we will find a parliament in the chamber of
deputies with only three parliamentary groups. So Italy has changed
forever and Walter Veltroni and the Partito Democratico has at least
achieved that because Berlusconi went to the election with an old-style
coalition made up of parties. It is not a new party - it is an
old-style coalitions. Veltroni made a courageous decision that changes
Italy forever. Only for that, I am glad to be in parliament and be
representing the Italians that live overseas and in Australia.
NINO RANDAZZO: This is going to be a rather exciting and
rejuvenating
experience for everyone in the majority and on the opposition benches.
GEORGE NEGUS: This is what you meant by Italian politics
becoming more
normal?
NINO RANDAZZO: Exactly. Put it this way - more Anglo-Saxon.
GEORGE NEGUS: Indeed, it has been anything but normal up to
now. Enjoy
your next trip to Italy. I envy you.
MARCO FEDI: Thank you.
NINO RANDAZZO: Thank you.
GEORGE NEGUS: Grazie - buona sera.
NINO RANDAZZO: Prego.
MARCO FEDI: Ciao.