Tomorrow, November 9, 2019, marks the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Last Sunday, the Italian newspaper, “la Stampa” published Fabio Martini’s interview of Romano Prodi and the latter’s recollection of the event that signaled the end of the “Cold War”.
In the interview, Mr. Prodi was asked to explain the impact that the fall of the Berlin Wall had on the Italian political system. Surprisingly, according to Prodi, the fall would shortly thereafter lead to the “collapse” of the two major political parties (i.e., the Communist and Democratic Christian) that in Italy represented the “two blocks” (East and West) that had emerged at the end of the Second World War.
Prodi hits the proverbial nail on the head when he says, exactly like the Author that following WW II, “… Italy [found itself] …divided in two by an ‘internal‘” wall …” and that such wall was a political one represented by the Communist Party and the Christian Democratic Party. Romano, however, bends the truth somewhat, when he appears to suggest that the two walls (i.e., the physical wall of Berlin and the political wall of Italy) collapsed on or about the same time.
Nothing could be further from the truth! If the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, the political wall of Italy has only recently begun to show a crack or two (the recent elections in Umbria for one), but the political division of the Country remains as strong as ever. What conveniently wiped out the political parties that domestically represented “Western” values and interests was the work of the “left-leaning” Judges of “Mani Pulite” (1992-1993), which not surprisingly left the communist party and their allies unscathed. As for the fall of the Berlin Wall, hardly anyone took notice, at least in Italy. Here newspapers, whether “mainstream” or not, hardly mentioned the event. Why? Basically, for the same reasons that recently allowed the modern-day communists, known as the “Democratic Party” and their allies of the “Five Star Movement” to form a government based on votes that in reality they no longer have. In the Italian parliamentary system, the real power lies not in the Country’s “collective and collegiate” Executive but in the Parliament whose members are elected by popular vote every five years. It is the two houses of Parliament that directly elect the Executive, not the voters (who are only indirectly responsible, therefore). The real Government, therefore, lies in the Parliament. The consequence of the above, however, is that no one can opt-out of the responsibility for the political-economic disaster that is Italy’s “Stato Unitario”, least of all “Communists“ and “Catholics”.