Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

Italy 97
was defeated, albeit by a tiny margin (less than 24,000 votes) in the 2006
elections. One may ask, therefore, whether, once transposed from opposition
to government, populist sentiments became less acceptable to Italians
or whether, rather, it was their postponement or non-realization which disappointed
part of the electorate.
Analysing the policies of the Berlusconi government, we can say that
some of the issues which were held dear by the populist electorate were
tackled, but in much more moderate terms than suggested by the parties’
manifestos, especially that of the Lega Nord. On immigration, the Bossi-
Fini law introduced more stringent procedures for checking up on and
expelling illegal foreigners but, at the same time, also led to the regularization
of hundreds of thousands of clandestine immigrants already resident
in the country. It also enshrined the principle of annual quotas for immigrants
from countries outside Europe with employment contracts (79,500 in
2005), thus negating the oft-repeated promise/threat of Bossi to send as
many immigrants home as possible.
The hard-line positions taken by the Lega against Islam and multiculturalism,
including protests in various cities against the construction of mosques,
have not stopped the government from seeking dialogue with the Islamic
religious community in Italy, even if the Berlusconi government has followed
the Bush administration’s hard line against Islamic fundamentalism.
Similarly, the Lega’s anti-globalization rhetoric and its calls to rebel against
the ‘Brussels superstate’ of the EU have remained unheard by its coalition
allies. The government has continued to support free international trade
and to involve itself directly in the drafting of a European Constitution,
rejected by Bossi, but signed by the Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini,
who participated in the Constitutional Convention. On the theme of ‘law
and order’ − the fight against crime, security issues in urban areas, drugrelated
problems and squatting − the government has been more committed,
but without making concessions to the more extreme requests of the Lega
such as the restoration of the death penalty for particularly violent crimes,
bounties for the capture of criminals, preventing gay rights groups from
demonstrating, etc. The decrease in the tax burden for families and small
enterprises has taken place, but the reduction was much less than had been
promised, although this was because of factors such as the weight of public
debt and not due to a lack of will on the part of the Prime Minister, who had
staked much on this issue. The transfer of power from the state to the regions
and other local administrations, which should have brought politics closer
to the common people and rendered it more transparent, was decided after
a long and tortuous parliamentary debate, but a referendum (ironically, an
instrument of direct democracy so dear to populists) abrogated the law little
more than two months after the April 2006 general election defeat. The
other ‘anti-partitocrazia’ measures promised, starting with the reduction in
the number of parliamentarians and cost-containment in the ministries,
Parliament and other institutions, were also left unfulfilled.