Italian Politics
The Next Prime Minister?
One of Italy's freshest, most
exciting political faces these days is Francesco Rutelli,
Rome's mayor. First elected seven years ago on a platform
that promised efficiency combined with a concern for the
environment, Mayor Rutelli was resoundingly reelected in
1997. He loves his job, but nothing would make him happier
than to not finish the balance of his term, which runs through
the fall of 2001. The reason? He has been selected by the
center-left coalition to be Italy's Prime Minister should
the coalition emerge victorious in next year's parliamentary
elections. This tall, good-looking, intelligent man, with
a perfect command of English (he read a passage from As
the Romans Do at the commencement ceremony of the American
University of Rome last spring), faces a tough challenge.
His opponent is the formidable media magnate and ex-Prime
Minister (for six months in 1994) Silvio Berlusconi, who
owns three TV stations and holds the title as the richest
man in Italy. Berlusconi has been campaigning for the job
since April, 1995, when his center-right coalition narrowly
lost the last elections to the center-left. Polls now favor
him, but there is at least six months to go before the elections,
and Italian voters are no longer loyal as they once were
to a given political party -- of which there are many --
but will wait and see which candidate offers the best hope
for a country uncertainly plunging into modernity. Rutelli
was a surprise choice, but his youth, energy, and good looks
might be enough to make voters at least listen to what he
has to offer. It promises to be a long, difficult campaign,
made even more so by the intricate pitfalls of Italian politics,
where today's friends are tomorrow's enemies -- and vice
versa. Stay tuned.
