The Hindu Business Line : On Ferrari, Prodi, Ravioli and Berlusconi

Last week, I was in Fiorano, the Ferrari test track located alongside the historic home of Ferrari at Maranello in Italy. As we were enjoying the extensive two-day “Pilota Ferrari” driving course, from experienced Ferrari instructors, we heard news that the billionaire Silvio Berlusconi had triumphed in the national elections with a clear majority in both Houses of Parliament and would return to the country’s political helm, a third time.

The Ferrari beauty, fabled designs of engineering excellence and unsurpassed style for both the road and track have always fascinated me. But Italy’s political dynamics have all the time, bemused me as a system that is ham-fisted of assuming responsibility and reaching any decision. The political parties, internally at odds. A country, dead-beat and ill.

Dim-witted Economy

Italy has fallen behind its European neighbours. There is a grave problem with youth unemployment, which runs as high as 40 per cent in areas such as Naples. Many Italian employers also only offer short-term contracts to youngsters since it is nearly impossible to fire employees.

Public debt is expected to stand at 102 per cent of GDP in 2009, rising inflation, and growth of just 0.2 per cent, will make it difficult to keep electoral promises. Sagging public infrastructure and the inability to attract foreign capital have made the economic outlook even worse.

Plans to build a high-speed train connecting Italy with northern Europe continue to experience delays. The garbage crisis in Naples remains unresolved, putting the international reputation of one of Italy’s most famous products, mozzarella, at risk.

Moneyed North, Mafia South

The mythical Padania is one of Europe’s wealthiest regions. The A4 Autostrada between Milan and Verona — the legendary city of Romeo and Juliet — is lined with flat-roofed factory buildings, stylish office buildings and machinery.

They represent thousands of small and successful mid-sized companies. Hardly any of them receives government subsidies, and not all of them pay every conceivable tax, but many are creative and all are filled with contempt for Rome and its politics.

The North’s savvy businesspeople will continue to dream up new market strategies, no matter what politicians in Rome decide to do. And it is likely that the South will continue to ignore the justice system.

In both cases, Rome, with its own problems, is far away. And whether a politician succeeds or fails is accepted with equanimity. One simply looks the other way.

As for Italians, nothing is more embarrassing than the Mafia in the south. It is painful for Italians when the only reports coming out of Mezzogiorno are about protection money, garbage and supposedly dioxin-contaminated mozzarella cheese.

The hoax Italy

Is the supple treatment of the law perhaps the secret that keeps Italian society functioning? Civic contracts cost twice as much as they do abroad, and their implementation takes three times as long.

Neck-deep in debt, which is a consequence of corruption and political nepotism. Jobs don’t go to the most capable, but to those with the right connections. The good ones move abroad.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), real wages have grown at a lower rate in Italy than in Greece and Spain.

High taxes and a high cost of living are to blame, as are the debts of the opulence era and the failure to invest in infrastructure, education and energy. In other words, the past is to blame.

According to an estimate by the Rome-based research institute Census, there were more than six million criminal cases pending in Italy at end-2007. A lengthy trial is all it takes for a case to vanish into thin air and allow the defendant to go scot-free. This is how many scandals in Italy come to an end.

It recently came to light that Italy had two million houses that were not supposed to exist, according to the land register.

It was like the discovery of a continent. Until recently, scholars believed that the famous sculpture housed in the Capitoline Museums, and portraying Romulus and Remus suckling under the wolf, was a masterpiece from the days of antiquity.

New metallurgical analyses have revealed, however, that the statue is in fact a forgery from the Middle Ages!

Criminals in Parliament

Italy has the leading number of Members of Parliament among industrialised countries, and, without a doubt, the best-paid Members of the European Parliament. The Leftist President of the Campania region spends 12 times as much money representing his region as German President Horst Köhler does for his whole country.

There are currently 24 convicted Italian criminals who hold seats in the Italian or European Parliaments. Their crimes include tax evasion, perjury, corruption, violating explosives laws and incitement to murder.

In the Upper House of Italy’s Parliament, there are eight barbers for the senators, who also enjoy perks such as tennis lessons, vacation houses and limousines. Under Berlusconi, even aircraft were available to senators.

Berlusconi Reputation

A five-year term is no small feat for a prime minister in Italy. When Berlusconi held the office previously, from 2001-2006, he became the first person to complete a full term since the Second World War. Berlusconi now faces the challenging task of righting Italy’s floundering economy, which is the world’s seventh largest.

However, he has a record of failing to follow through on important budgetary reforms and a reputation for embarrassing his country on the international stage.

There are certain things you can rely on in Italy, like the nice weather, luxury Ferrari, classy fashions, delicious pizza, and yummy ravioli.

However, given Italy’s temperamental political nature — instability that has seen an average of one government collapse per year since Second World War — it comes as no surprise that the country is back to its whimsical ways, from Prodi to Berlusconi.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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