Groups of ‘wise men’ bid to end Italian deadlock
Two groups of “wise men” appointed by Napolitano to try to forge a policy compromise between squabbling parties to end the impasse since the Feb 24-25 election started work yesterday. Napolitano said they would report back in eight to 10 days.
The 87-year-old reacted angrily to suggestions from the centre-right of Silvio Berlusconi that his plan, which came after all other efforts to find a government failed, were a waste of time which the economy could ill afford.
“After seven years, I am ending my mandate in a surreal way, finding myself the subject of absurd reactions, suspicions, and incomprehensible paranoias, from the harmless to the unhinged,” Napolitano was quoted as saying by Corriere della Sera daily.
Since the election, the parties have refused to budge from irreconcilable positions that “made one despair of the possibility of governing this country”, Napolitano said.
Even the experts seem pessimistic about their chances of success and Napolitano’s move may be aimed more at letting the situation “decant” in the hope that the parties will finally agree to a compromise.
The two working groups, one of which will discuss social-economic reforms and the other institutional changes headed by a new electoral law, include representatives of the main centre-left and centre-right blocs, the head of the national statistics agency, legal experts, and a senior Bank of Italy official.
Berlusconi’s centre-right say that either Pier Luigi Bersani, the centre-left leader who failed to gather enough support for a government despite a week of efforts, agrees to a broad alliance with them or the country should return to the polls in June.
Bersani yesterday again rejected a governing coalition with Berlusconi and said new elections would not fix Italy’s problems.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
