Italy Today and the Third Way for Europe
Augustinas Šemelis
Some time ago the famous German satirical newspaper “Der Postillon” posted in a way a very meaningful fake news piece: “Italy is gone”. “During the night from Monday to Tuesday Italy has disappeared without any trace. Sardinia and Sicily are simply gone too, while the French Corsica is still there”. The article goes on to explain how the disappearance of the Italian state from the continent left a deep impact in the region: Switzerland and Austria are preparing to build navy fleets for fishing in the newly-opened-up Mediterranean, meanwhile the Pope is homeless and has been spotted wandering around Germany. From the German point of view, this is what’s left from EU’s third largest economy.
Looking from the common Italian point of view though, their blood is being sucked by the cold bureaucratic monster sitting in Brussels, but appearing as Angela Merkel, or, for that matter, anything sounding or looking German enough. Just recently, the now decadent Il Cavaliere, Silvio Berlusconi, has publicly accused Germany of denying the existence of Nazi concentration camps. He had also stated before that the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz looks like a typical Nazi concentration camp guard. These comments have aroused a confused outrage in Germany, probably more confused than outraged, as they’re so surreal and totally non-based in reality that it could only be matched by a melting clock painted by Salvador Dali.
And so it goes: the South sees the North as pretentious imperialists using financial policies instead of tanks; while the North sees the politicians of the South as artsy populists, trying to paint a Dali picture but only having enough talent to sing a Toto Cotugno song backwards.
But then something unique happened in the middle of EU‘s each others misunderstandings. A young progressive mayor of Florence came crashing up to the national scene. He arranged sort of a coup inside the center-left Partito Democratico (PD); the frustrated Prime Minister and PD member Enrico Letta had to step down in his favor in February 2014. A 63rd Italian government since 1945 had to be formed – a number desperately incredible by itself. There were no reasons to believe that this one would be less miserable and more stable than the few previous ones, except one pretty big reason: this time the Prime Minister of which we are talking about is a pretty provoking brand by himself: his name is Matteo Renzi, to put it in accordance with a bad taste of superhero movie trailers. In this case it’s quite fitting though.
Renzi’s program seems as big as the problems Italy is facing: he planned election law reform in February, labor-market reform in March, then to reform the government in April, and taxes in May. In March, he’s also tried to get rid of the symbolic of that “old Italian politician caste”: he put 1500 luxurious cars of the Italian senate – mostly Jaguars and Maseratis – for sale on eBay. Angela Merkel commented on what Renzi is doing as “ambitious”. It is so far unclear whether that’s a praise or criticism.
On the other hand the new Prime Minister, behind his outspokenly radical façade, seems to carry a potential of bringing together many opposing sides of the Italian life and politics, and churn out a new course for the country. Renzi describes himself as an adherent of the so-called “third way” which is a modern tentative to combine left and right wing politics. So although his party – PD – officially stands on the left, Renzi himself personifies post-ideological ideas, where Welfare State is combined with cutting taxes, deregulation and reducing of the government size and power. It’s possible, of course, only post-ideologically. And the way to make it possible practically – such a paradox as cutting taxes & reducing government size while keeping up the welfare system – is to expand the so-called third sector.
As the third way stands between social democracy and raw capitalism, in the same way “the third sector” stands between the government and the market. In an ideal “third way-third sector” society a large part of government functions of minimizing citizen inequality, guaranteeing health & education and providing a safety net for the poor (as per “the Nordic model”) should be taken over by non-profit NGOs. In accordance with this idea, in May 2014 Renzi has launched a reform pack to stimulate and help grow “the third sector”, il terzo settore.
Leaving aside all the possible flaws Matteo Renzi may have, has, or will have for some other time (and this might be even a broader topic for sure), we still may consider Italy’s switch to the third way politics as the possible and useful trend for Europe in the future. Tony Blair was of course considered to be a third-wayer too and this had little impact outside of United Kingdom, affecting only the inner policies and dynamics of his Labour party. But if Italy will become the first country to break out from the crisis of the South, and if it will make it via the third way, this might set a broader trend. Maybe purely center-left versus center-right economic policies are a thing of the past? If the EU is to become a melting pot of cultures, why not try to be the melting laboratory of economic ideologies? If all else fails and this would happen to work, the prophecy of the previously mentioned German satirical newspaper won‘t come true: Italy won‘t disappear, then Southern Europe won’t disappear, and we will have a properly functioning EU again.
