Italy's heirs of Marxism play role in Prodi's fate

Italy's heirs of Marxism play role in Prodi's fate
By Elisabetta Povoledo International Herald Tribune
MONDAY, MAY 8, 2006

ROME In its heyday 30 years ago, the Italian Communist Party held sway among a third of the country's voters. The party no longer exists, but its legacy lingers on, influencing the fight for the Italian presidency and the staying power of Romano Prodi.

In a Parliament where Prodi's center- left coalition holds a wafer-thin majority, heirs of the communists hold the balance of power. For the center-right opposition, that means Prodi will almost certainly face strong pressure, and may even be held hostage to the demands of a radical fringe.

The issue has been playing out in a volatile public debate over the successor to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 85, whose seven- year term as president ends this month. Parliament was scheduled to convene Monday to elect a new president.

Late Sunday night, Prodi's coalition nominated Giorgio Napolitano, 80, a life senator with the Democrats of the Left, former speaker of the lower house and once a top official of the Italian Communist Party, as their candidate for the post.

In a note, Prodi's coalition said that Napolitano represented someone with a "strong institutional profile."

But it was unclear whether the nomination of a one-time believer in the Marxist credo would be palatable to the entire assembly. For many conservative lawmakers, a former communist cannot be representative of the entire Italian population.

Officially, Napolitano divorced himself from his communist origins more than 15 years ago, after what was once Western Europe's largest communist party split into Marxist and moderate factions. The moderates became the Democratic Party of the Left, and Napolitano was instrumental in its transformation into a progressive leftist force allied with the political center.

The dominant party of a coalition that won elections in 1996, Napolitano's group dropped the hammer-and-sickle from its symbol in 1998 and became the Democrats of the Left.

Silvio Berlusconi, the departing prime minister, had repeatedly rejected such a notion but the statement issued by Prodi on Sunday night suggested that Napolitano could be acceptable to Berlusconi.

For many, the election as president of Napolitano would be the natural conclusion of a process that over the decades has seen the Communist Party gradually metamorphose into modern social democratic party, open to a free market economy and with a broad European bent.

In the elections last month, Napolitano's party emerged as the strongest in the center-left coalition, with close to 20 percent of the vote.

But what surprised many analysts was the strong showing by the Refounded Communists and the Italian Communists, both of which preserved their ties with Marxism when the Communist Party broke up in 1989.

The parties took 8.1 percent of the vote, which in the lower house gave them a total of 57 seats of the majority's 340. That was a strong enough showing to get Fausto Bertinotti, leader of the Refounded Communists, elected as the speaker of that chamber.

So the communists are in a position to exert considerable pressure on the political agenda of the center-left coalition. In 1998, Bertinotti brought down Prodi's first government after a tough budget was introduced to help Italy qualify for the euro. Bertinotti asserted that the budget would sabotage social programs.

Exacerbating the debate now has been the election with the Refounded Communists of two controversial figures: Francesco Caruso, a leader of Italy's anti-globalization movement, and Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender gay-rights activist - whose stands in such areas as labor reform and same- sex marriage are not shared by the more moderate elements of Prodi's coalition, which includes Catholic parties.

ROME In its heyday 30 years ago, the Italian Communist Party held sway among a third of the country's voters. The party no longer exists, but its legacy lingers on, influencing the fight for the Italian presidency and the staying power of Romano Prodi.

In a Parliament where Prodi's center- left coalition holds a wafer-thin majority, heirs of the communists hold the balance of power. For the center-right opposition, that means Prodi will almost certainly face strong pressure, and may even be held hostage to the demands of a radical fringe.

The issue has been playing out in a volatile public debate over the successor to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 85, whose seven- year term as president ends this month. Parliament was scheduled to convene Monday to elect a new president.

Late Sunday night, Prodi's coalition nominated Giorgio Napolitano, 80, a life senator with the Democrats of the Left, former speaker of the lower house and once a top official of the Italian Communist Party, as their candidate for the post.

In a note, Prodi's coalition said that Napolitano represented someone with a "strong institutional profile."

But it was unclear whether the nomination of a one-time believer in the Marxist credo would be palatable to the entire assembly. For many conservative lawmakers, a former communist cannot be representative of the entire Italian population.

Officially, Napolitano divorced himself from his communist origins more than 15 years ago, after what was once Western Europe's largest communist party split into Marxist and moderate factions. The moderates became the Democratic Party of the Left, and Napolitano was instrumental in its transformation into a progressive leftist force allied with the political center.

The dominant party of a coalition that won elections in 1996, Napolitano's group dropped the hammer-and-sickle from its symbol in 1998 and became the Democrats of the Left.

Silvio Berlusconi, the departing prime minister, had repeatedly rejected such a notion but the statement issued by Prodi on Sunday night suggested that Napolitano could be acceptable to Berlusconi.

For many, the election as president of Napolitano would be the natural conclusion of a process that over the decades has seen the Communist Party gradually metamorphose into modern social democratic party, open to a free market economy and with a broad European bent.

In the elections last month, Napolitano's party emerged as the strongest in the center-left coalition, with close to 20 percent of the vote.

But what surprised many analysts was the strong showing by the Refounded Communists and the Italian Communists, both of which preserved their ties with Marxism when the Communist Party broke up in 1989.

The parties took 8.1 percent of the vote, which in the lower house gave them a total of 57 seats of the majority's 340. That was a strong enough showing to get Fausto Bertinotti, leader of the Refounded Communists, elected as the speaker of that chamber.

So the communists are in a position to exert considerable pressure on the political agenda of the center-left coalition. In 1998, Bertinotti brought down Prodi's first government after a tough budget was introduced to help Italy qualify for the euro. Bertinotti asserted that the budget would sabotage social programs.

Exacerbating the debate now has been the election with the Refounded Communists of two controversial figures: Francesco Caruso, a leader of Italy's anti-globalization movement, and Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender gay-rights activist - whose stands in such areas as labor reform and same- sex marriage are not shared by the more moderate elements of Prodi's coalition, which includes Catholic parties.




イタリア：トランス国会議員ルクサリア、トイレ「アパルトヘイト」と闘う