A little crazy, not a lot

Life in Italy is a little different today. Italians woke up this morning with no pope and no government. Benedict XVI left Rome for Castel Gandolfo while Prime Minister Mario Monti was cleaning out his Rome office. You already know that Benedict was the first pope to abdicate in 600 years. You may not know that Super Mario is perhaps the only legally qualified person in the country who cannot be the next Prime Minister. (See below for more political details)

So, it’s a little crazy in Italy today. A little, not a lot. Even as headlines are screaming that the economy is headed for the toilet, Italians are not overly upset. Oh, they’re talking about it, to be sure, at the “caffe” or at “passeggiata,” the late afternoon walk. I mean, the pope bolted; the government is gone. That’ll kick-start a conversation anywhere. But it’s not like the national team lost a football game.

Italians are often portrayed as overly passionate, sometimes volatile people. And when it comes to road rage, they might be. Or when it comes to the things they care about: Family, food and football (soccer). These are the prime movers of Italian emotions, more than the church and much more than the government.  The family is the touchstone of all concern. The government is viewed with distance and distain. The church is seen as anachronistic. In Italy, it’s about what happens in the house (casa), in the kitchen (cucina) and in the football (calcio) game on television. So even if the consequences of the election can be called by outsiders as “catastrophic,” the fret factor here is remarkably low.

The news may be hilarious or horrific, but Italians remain largely unaffected. Life goes on. I often wonder about that.

In the post-war years, the church has failed to adapt to the rapidly changing culture. So in this most Catholic country, people are Catholic more in name than in practice. Thankfully, though, they maintain their Christian values while discarding church ritual.

Governments are ephemeral. On average, there has been a new government nearly every year since World War II. But Italians live in homes that have been past down from generation to generation. They work in buildings that are 400 years old. They walk across stone bridges built before Italy’s unification. And they trace their roots to the Roman Empire or even the Etruscan civilization. That heritage provides substance. Those bridges are impervious to governmental change. Those buildings are as enduring as faith. And the family is always safe inside those stone houses.

—

Mario Monti had a glowing international reputation in economics and both the experience in and the respect of the European community. He had been asked to form a government as a “technocrat” a year ago, after Silvio Berlusconi’s government fell apart in the wake of criminal accusations and a worsening financial crisis. When a professional – a political outsider – assumes leadership, it’s called a “technical government.” As Prime Minister, Monti led Italy to economic respectability, but his austerity program rankled Berlusconi. Last November, Berlusconi – always the puppet master in Italy’s continuing political farce – pulled the plug on right-wing support in parliament from the technocratic government, forcing a national election.  Monti joined the race for PM. By becoming a candidate, he was no longer a technocrat, but a politician. But he was a politician with no experience in party politics and no political organization. He finished fourth in a four-horse race. So there is no justification for President Giorgio Napolitano, the ceremonial figurehead, to ask Monti to form a government.

Tags: Castel Gandolfo, Italian soccer, Italy, Mario Monti, Silvio Berlusconi