Dispatch from Rome—
Matteo Renzi: Young, ambitious and in a hurry. But what about his integrity?
Gaither Stewart in Rome
Most Italians agree that political change is no longer an option in this confused and static nation, but a socio-political necessity for its very survival. Therefore the downfall of the outgoing mild and congenial Premier Enrico Letta, so loved in the United Europe corridors in Brussels where Italy’s existence is essential. And step forward the next: the brash and ambitious 39-year old Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, a man truly in a hurry.
Letta’s Premiership of a Left-Center-Right government lasted 10 months. It accomplished very little. Can-do man Renzi promises a dynamic government until 2018 based on change, change and more change.
Letta, of the Center-Left Democratic Party (Partito Democratico), was hampered by an unnatural coalition government together with a splinter Rightwing party which broke away from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. Since his proposed legislation met with obstacles from both Right and Left in Parliament, Letta spent much of his time in Brussels and foreign capitals encouraging investments in Italy’s staggering economy.
Dynamic, charismatic Renzi, with his unstoppable rhetoric, meanwhile spread terror on the right and the left because of his well-known electoral appeal which threatened to sweep aside all opposition of every color. At first coy about the Premiership, Renzi preferred patience. He would wait for a new electoral law before making his play. But his ambition quickly proved more powerful than his patience.
The 39-year old Mayor, at the acme of his national popularity, his image in the dozens and dozens of TV channels, his pictures filling the press, Renzi saw his chance. He went for the golden egg: Palazzo Chigi, the Rome palazzo that is the seat of the Italian government,, i.e. of the Premier and his cabinet and all their advisors.
Today at 1 p.m. Letta ascended the Quirinal Hill to the Presidential Palace and handed his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano. Yesterday evening his party, the Partito Democratico (PD), had voted him out and Renzi in.
In three swift moves Renzi has executed a power play that the Five-Star Movement (M5S) calls a coup d’état. First, based on his victory in party primaries, he became Secretary General of the PD. Second, he set in motion a powerful campaign for political reforms that everyone wants but party rivalries have made thus far impossible to achieve. Third, he rallied around him a sweeping majority of the PD to vote a no-confidence in their former leader, Enrico Letta.
Most likely tomorrow, Saturday, President Napolitano will charge him to try to form a new government majority in the Rome Parliament. The chief challenge facing Renzi is how to avoid a repetition of the Letta attempt to coalesce with the Right.
Renzi has been in a hurry. He is even more so today. He is also risking. Charismatic leaders in Rome have risked since the ancients of the Roman Empire. Italy too is risking. Quite a few see a more modern, a more liberal Silvio Berlusconi in the person of the 39-year old charismatic Matteo Renzi.
