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Diary

Carla Powell

Wednesday, 20th February 2008

Carla Powell on the joys of the internet and the politics of Italy

I am a late convert to the internet, but it has changed my life. I can sit here in my little farm in the Roman countryside and cultivate my olives — or, to be truthful, watch Dario the farm manager cultivate my olives — while keeping up with the world’s press, receiving photos of my newest granddaughter in Hong Kong and bombarding my friends with mis-spelled emails. Who needs the hassle of the big city, congestion charging, airport security or a social life? I can live my rural idyll while still feeling a part of what’s happening in the world beyond — enough anyway to sign off my emails ‘Carla (not Bruni)’.

Italy is heading towards elections in April. The state of the country is pretty dire, not unlike pre-Margaret Thatcher Britain. But for once people feel some hope for the future. The mani pulite (clean hands) purge more than a decade ago was supposed to have dry-cleaned corruption. Actually, all that happened was that the parties changed their names to Air-Wick-fresh titles like ‘olive tree’, ‘rose in the fist’, ‘wake up Italy’ and many more, while behaving much as before. But now the realisation has dawned that Italy is being left behind by the rest of Europe and that we can no longer afford the self-indulgence of a multiparty system in which every small interest group can hold the whole government to ransom. The elections will for the first time offer a choice between two clear-cut and unusually united groups, former Rome Mayor Veltroni’s democrats on the left and Berlusconi’s People of Liberty on the right. There is not the same sense of novelty and excitement generated by Sarko in France or Obama in America: Italians are too cynical about their politics for that. But for once I feel optimistic that things will finally change for the better.

The Catholic Church here is giving a strong moral lead — unlike their Anglican brethren. Indeed it is credited with a hand in bringing down the Prodi government by speaking out against its permissive attitude on issues like same-sex marriage. Maybe the best course would be to let the Cardinals run Italy for a while! Man for man — and there is no other way with Cardinals — they are wiser, more talented and strong-minded than our politicians. A new Lateran Treaty, perhaps, in which the Italian state sub-contracts running the country to the Vatican? But then I wouldn’t want to raise the hopes of Archbishop ‘Sharia’ Williams for something similar in Britain.

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