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PDF FormatBerlusconi also succeeded in creating, almost ex nihilo, a broad conservative political bloc. He founded a moderate center-right party, Forza Italia (literally, “The Italian Force”; in practice, this is a cheer for the national soccer team and means something like “Go, Italy!”), which attracted the urban middle class, the self-employed, moderate conservatives, those with roots in the classical liberal tradition, and admirers of Berlusconi personally.
However, this was still not sufficient, since under the new regional elections system, the votes received by each individual party count for nothing unless its bloc wins the district. Berlusconi, therefore, had to forge an almost impossible electoral coalition with the Northern League and the National Alliance—who were each willing to join with him, but not with each other, as the League’s federalistic tendencies clashed with the Alliance’s extreme nationalism. Berlusconi solved this problem by creating a joint ticket with the Northern League in the north and a parallel merger with the National Alliance in the south. This “Polo della Liberta e del Buongoverno” therefore consisted of different slates in different regions, but it was sold to the voters as a single movement.
Berlusconi was also supported by other groups prepared to run with him but not with each other, such as the Radicals—a small group which nevertheless enjoyed much prestige in Italy due to a number of referenda it initiated and passed against all odds. The Radicals advocated extreme economic and social libertarianism, which enabled Berlusconi to present a lively and risquי element that appealed to younger voters who would otherwise have cast their ballots for the left. The coalition also included a group of conservative Christian Democrats untainted by the scandals, who had left their party to found the Christian Democrat Center. This attracted conservative Catholic voters who opposed the liberal and secular Radicals.
In short, the coalition represented a mix of all the various trends in the Italian conservative tradition: The nationalist right (the Alliance), moderate conservatism and economic liberalism (Forza Italia), decentralization and the defense of local traditions (the Northern League), the Catholic tradition (the Christian Democrat Center), and the defense of individual liberties (the Radicals).
Berlusconi prodded the conservative electorate from its slumber with incessant attacks on the danger a leftist victory would pose to the taxpayer. He concentrated on a simple message to the voter: Do you trust the left? Are the “ex-Communists” really ex-Communists? And the new conservative front proved to be exactly what Italians had wanted but could not find until then. The masses streamed to it, leaving the left stunned by the speed and scope of the phenomenon.
The results of the 1994 elections speak for themselves. The Polo della Liberta e del Buongoverno garnered about fifty percent of the seats in both houses of Parliament. The remains of the old centrist bloc headed by Segni won less than fifteen percent, and the leftist bloc received slightly more than thirty-five percent. The “party that wasn’t” had scored an overwhelming victory.25
Soon after the elections, however, the cost of this hasty assembly of a new ruling bloc came to light. The coalition partners were extremely diverse, and relations among them were far from stable. The conservative bloc had been set in motion like a wheelbarrow, thanks to the push and balance provided by Berlusconi. But a wheelbarrow at rest is unstable. The new government quickly revealed itself to be a motley crew, derided as an Armata Brancaleone (“the army of Brancaleone”)—a patchwork army comprised of whatever came to hand.26
Berlusconi himself was besieged by investigations of his past and his companies. The government’s death blow, however, was dealt by Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, who decided to leave the coalition in order to embark on a new propaganda stunt: The call for secession of the north from the rest of Italy. When Berlusconi finally realized that Bossi was about to betray him and deprive the ruling coalition of the Northern League’s support, it was already too late—the Berlusconi government fell, less than a year after its establishment.
Berlusconi had reason to expect that the new elections which he demanded would bring him renewed victory. But in smoke-filled back rooms, a new alliance was taking shape, with the sole purpose of preventing him from retaking the reins of power.
VIII
Strong Forces
It is much safer to be feared than loved if one of the two has to be wanting.The Prince, ch. 17
Berlusconi’s rise to power had worried many diverse political groups, and over the course of 1995 they found the basis for a common front in their shared desire to stop him. The left realized that Berlusconi could not win the elections on his own. The PDS therefore decided to divorce itself from the extreme left and to join instead with the anti-Berlusconi forces of the old center, with the aim of creating an electorally viable center-left bloc. This alliance was formed by the remnants of the old centrist parties: The PPI (a splinter of the Christian Democratic party); Segni’s group; fragments of the Socialist, Social Democrat and Republican parties; and followers of the technocrat Lamberto Dini, a member of Berlusconi’s cabinet who was appointed prime minister of the transitional government after Berlusconi’s coalition collapsed.
The political base of each of these groups was small and growing smaller. Their real power lay rather in their role as mouthpieces for the key players in Italy’s business world, who traditionally exercise decisive behind-the-scenes influence over political matters in the country. The economic elite’s ability to act in a unified and decisive manner to defend its interests, while maintaining relative anonymity and avoiding dependency on any specific government or ideology, has won it the nickname of the “Strong Forces” (Poteri Forti): Like the force of gravity, they are unseen but wield great power.
The Strong Forces maintain an extensive network of connections and interlocking holdings in hundreds of companies, corporations and banks, including partnerships and excellent connections with the large government corporations, whose directors are often themselves protיgיs of the Strong Forces. All these elements provide continual mutual support and aid when needed, in a manner which overt economic interest would not allow. The network is based on extensive family and personal ties as well as business connections, and is therefore more durable than any fleeting political alliance.
The collapse of the Christian Democrats in the early 1990s triggered a panic among the Strong Forces, who feared the specter of a triumphant left. They supported Berlusconi in the 1994 elections, but with strong reservations. The Strong Forces do not like Berlusconi, since he has always been independent of their network of mutual ties and the network of government aid and corruption that developed under the Christian Democrats. While the rest of the economic elite sought the warm embrace of government and a public consensus granting them hegemony over the economy, Berlusconi sought to create new economic opportunities and compete on the open market.
In addition, many of the Strong Forces’ companies were in serious economic straits in the mid-1990s, and they were desperate for a continuation of government aid, either direct (subsidies) or indirect (customs duties on imports). For this they could not rely upon Berlusconi, whose company had consistently refused government aid; moreover, his camp’s championship of the free market threatened to undermine the cozy triangle of the business elite, government corporations and government aid. Berlusconi’s continued rule would have meant increased market competition and the elimination of heavy government support for their network, a scenario they were determined to prevent. Thus the day after the 1994 elections, the Strong Forces began to take measures to undermine the Berlusconi government and torpedo its economic policy. And when the government fell, the Strong Forces were the prime mover behind Dini’s appointment as head of the transitional government. They believed it would be possible to reach an understanding with a cowed and beaten left after the debacle it had suffered in 1994.
