ROME­ — For the third time in two months, the always arrogant and increasingly ill- tempered former Premier Silvio Berlusconi was slapped down by voters, who scorned his effort to rewrite the Italian constitution in his own name. A mere 38.4% voted with the Berlusconi coalition; a solid 61.6% rejected it. The voting took place Sunday and Monday without incident, and with a remarkably large turnout of 53.6%.

In the waning days while he was premier, Berlusconi passed the bill challenged by the referendum. The last-gasp populist law whittled away at both the parliamentary system and the presidency while expanding the powers of the premier pro-devolution, anti-immigrant ally, the separatist Northern League headed by the xenophobic demagogue Umberto Bossi. In addition, health services, education and police powers were devolved to the twenty Italian regions, not all of which shine for their skills at self-government.

The present constitution is widely honored because written in 1948, when painful memories of World War Two and the 22 years of Fascist dictatorship were still fresh. Although many of his opponents would like to see a constitutional revision (few countries have or need 950 members of Parliament), Berlusconi chose to give the referendum a high-voltage politicization, which became a boomerang against him.

Last night Berlusconi consoled himself with predictions that Premier Romano Prodi¹s center-left governing coalition will implode, which remains a risk, given the fractious nature Prodi’s coalition. But even if Prodi’s rickety governing alliance should fall apart, bringing new elections, Berlusconi is today less likely than yesterday to succeed himself as a future premier. The media magnate still commands a loyal following, but he has lost luster. However narrowly, Berlusconi’s House of Liberty coalition lost the national general elections in May, and Berlusconi personally failed to achieve his goal of becoming president of Italy in a vote a few weeks later. The flop of the referendum further frays his four-party coalition: count on the center-right moderates of Alleanza Nazionale, the “post-fascist” party headed by former genuine fascist youth leader Gianfranco Fini and built on the remains of the old neo-fascist party, the MSI (Italian Social Movement); and the Catholics of the UDC (Union of Catholic and Center Democrats), headed by Pier Ferdinando Casini, to be less supine in the future.

A strong vote for the Berlusconi team did come, but from only three regions: the small Venezia-Friuli Giulia (50.8%); the Bossi stronghold of Lombardy (54.6% yes), business capital of Italy; and the wealthy agri-business Veneto region (55.3% yes). All three are in the formerly Austrian-owned Northeast Italy, and in all three the federalist impulse (Bossi compares Lombardy to Scotland) and anti-immigrant feeling is strong.

The Bossi crowd was not happy with the outcome. “Italia fa schifo, gli Italiani fanno schifo,” snarled the League’s Europarliamentarian Marco Formentini (Italy stinks, the Italians stink); Mussolini-style strong language is popular with the macho Italian right. The reform just rejected was the work of Berlusconi’s wacky former cabinet minister without portfolio, Roberto Calderoli. While expecting Italians to vote for it, Calderoli himself had cheerily dismissed his own law as the “pigshit” reform (okay, Italianists, you try to find a better word for “porcata“).

By five o¹clock yesterday, the results were finally clear, and the Prodi team was just trumpeting victory when the referee blew his whistle at 5:15 Italian time. As the Italian soccer team ran onto the grass to begin their victorious World Cup game (1-0, with a last-minute score by beloved Totti, against Australia), suddenly the sofas of the noisy Italian political talk shows emptied. “It was the fastest vote-counting ever in Italy,” a commentator said as he joined the race to the TV set.

When the chattering classes return to business, they will have plenty to discuss. The Prodi government has yet to get down to work.

After a few embarrassing mishaps, the first weeks were spent in endless meetings during which Prodi made all ministers promise not to issue public statements. But a tough agenda awaits, beginning with the 7.7% unemployment and the flagging economy, fortunately in the hands of the competent Minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, former member of the executive of the European Central Bank. Other issues to be resolved: foreign policy and a pull-out from Afghanistan, opposed by Minister for International Trade Emma Bonino, for one (Bonino’s from the tiny Rosa nel Pugno (Rose in the Fist) party, a federation of Marco Panella’s old Radical Party and the smaller Italian Democratic Socialists, built from remnants of the old, discredited, and hugely corrupt Italian Socialist Party. A veteran pol who is popular for her role in legalizing abortion, Bonino has stolen the limelight from Panella, the Radical’s founder and traditional leader.) Knotty issues also include abuses of the health service; education and research; and, yes, constitutional reform.

The contradictions within the government remain a problem, as exemplified by Fausto Bertinotti, head of Rifondazione comunista and now president of the Chamber of Deputies. Bertinotti made an embarrassing appearance on Armed Forces Day, when he showed up to represent the state while going out of his way to show his scorn of the proceedings. Gratuitous offensiveness against the popular military (still a way out of poverty for the poor) is electorally suicidal.

Brightening the picture is, however, a member of Bertinotti’s party, the newly-elected Luxuria, born Wladimiro Guadagno in 1965. Italy’s first transgender MP has starred on all the talk shows, where audiences applaud as she tells of having financed university studies by working as a prostitute. She is outgoing, a skillful politician and fields questions with the best of them. Check out her fan site by clicking here, and a site where Luxuria is being promoted for president by clicking here.

But Prodi’s Italy still hasn’t caught up with the times: Italy’s Censure Commission has just forbidden the new film by brilliant young French director Francois Ozon, called “Le Temps Qui Reste,” or “Time to Leave” in the English version, from being seen by 18-year-olds or younger — because it has a scene showing two men making love. Vieri Razzini, the film’s Italian distributor, fumed that “the ‘incriminating’ scene was shot entirely in shadow, and there’s nothing to be seen in it that could possibly trouble the public.” The film, which hits Italian screens this coming Friday, tells the story of a successful fashion photographer who is gay, and who develops terminal cancer, and how his illness affects his relations with his entourage and his lover. Razzini added that, “The Italian censors frequently go after independent films d’auteur while passing commercial films that have had much more severe interdictions in other countries. This shows how cultural censorship and the censorship of the market go hand in hand. And boy, does the homophobia of the members of cultural commissions make me sad!” That this kind of thing can still happen with a center-left government in power says a lot about the institutional conservatism and hypocrisy of Italian morals. (You can see clips from the film, which stars Melvil Poupaud and Jeanne Moreau among others, by clicking here.)

Judy Harris, a former staffer in Italy for the Wall Street Journal and TIME magazine, is the Rome correspondent for DIRELAND, where this article first appeared June 27, 2006.

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