Luciana Castelina, a leader of the Italian Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC) and a member of the European parliament, spoke with Green Left Weekly's Kate Shannon about the coming national elections. Castelina will be a speaker at the International Green Left Conference in Sydney over the Easter weekend.
The corruption scandal that has engulfed Italy's industrial and political elite over the last three years became the pretext to introduce a phased abolition of proportional representation. Now, with the election only six weeks away, parties are attempting to get electoral alliances together that could win government on March 27.
Political debate, Castelina explained, was very much changed by the new electoral law introduced after last year's referendum. Seventy-five per cent of seats will be determined by the British system and the remaining seats by PR.
Left and progressive forces, alarmed by the high vote won in December council elections by fascists and the right-wing Northern League, have formed a Progressive Pact of eight parties. It includes the Greens, La Rete (a Catholic left anti-corruption movement), some of the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the PRC. Both the PDS and the PRC came out of the old Communist Party.
"It was absolutely clear that if there was no unity of the various parties of the left, there's no chance of being elected. So a sort of miracle happened", explained Castelina.
"The pact has just signed a common program and presented a common symbol, which means there will be only one candidate in all the constituencies for the Progressive Pact." Recent polls put the pact's vote at 40%, possibly enough to win government if the right remains divided.
"Christian Democracy [CD — the one party in all government coalitions since World War Two] has split. The Republican Party has split; half has joined the pact, the other half remains in the centre with half of the old CD. Then on the right there's the Northern League, the fascists and a newcomer, Silvio Berlusconi, who is the owner of the most important private TV network. It's very difficult for all these forces to come together.
"The pact's program, of course, is not a revolutionary program, nobody could expect this. It is a compromise", explains Castelina. Nevertheless, she adds, "It is a beginning and a progressive direction in which the pact can develop. Within its limits there are possibilities."
The pact's manifesto describes the alliance as made up "of forces emerging from the constraints of socialism and from Catholic, lay and environmentalist inspiration". Prominence is given to "the moral question — to bring fundamental ethical values back into politics."
At this stage the pact's program is general rather than specific. The pact will redefine state intervention in the economy and possibly support privatisations if they can be justified after analysing the options. The right to work is a central demand of the program. The working week, it argues, should be reduced to 32 hours to save jobs.
If Italy is to comply with the criteria set down by the Maastricht Treaty, a government austerity program will be essential. The pact says that its policy will not cause a fall in living standards of the most disadvantaged. The economy would be transformed from one "based upon individual consumption" to one which makes its priority "activity which improves the quality of life".
The Italian media suggest the big surprise in the formation of the pact was the participation of the PRC. La Repubblica argues, "So from the left, even the extreme left, there is a green light, however cautious, to the policies that have characterised the last eight months of the Ciampi government."
The more conservative influence in the pact has been the PDS, but "the PDS is only a part of the pact", points out Castelina. "For instance, the programs of the Greens and La Rete are much more in agreement with us than with the PDS. The role of the PDS is relative, it is not the boss of the coalition. In fact, the difference in votes of the PDS and the PRC is not so large.
"The point is there is a real danger of the right, a risky situation because the forces which are reorganising themselves on the right are very dangerous. In December in the south the fascists won a high vote and in the north there's the Northern League. It is not a fascist organisation but it has the same tendencies and culture; understand this and then you understand how dangerous the situation is.
"It is a moment in which you play a very important game. It can still go one way or the other. I think that this is at stake — a real historical turn to the right. The progressive forces came together to prevent this happening."
There is a real confusion, says Castelina, as old parties are splitting and changing their names. The Christian Democrats are now the Italian Popular Party; the fascist Italian Social Movement is the National Alliance; and the former Socialist Party has split.
"The left coming together has produced a great mobilisation and renewal in political interest and militancy. A lot of people are coming back to political activity because they like the ideas. Two days ago we had a historical workers fight [to prevent lay-offs] in Fiat's Turin factory. It is a long time since Fiat has known such a big mobilisation."