Italian President Mulling Technocracy After Democracy Yields Annoying Results
Reuters is reporting that Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is thinking about appointing a technocratic government as Italy's political stalemate continues.
The center-left bloc headed by Pier Luigi managed to take the lower house of parliament but failed to secure a governing majority in the senate in the election at the end of last month.
What is most remarkable about the recent election is that the 5-Star Movement, a protest group headed by comedian Beppe Grillo, now has enough seats in the lower house and the senate to be the kingmaker. Grillo has rejected the possibility of a technocracy, writing the following on his blog:
Technocrat governments don't exist in nature but only political governments supported by parliamentary majorities. The Monti government was the most political government since the war,
However, yesterday Reuters reported that the 5-Star Movement's leader in the senate said that the movement was open to the possibility of the 5-Star Movement being part of a technocratic government.
Napolitano has displayed a partiality towards technocracy before. He appointed Mario Monti to be Silvio Berlusconi's replacement in November 2011. Monti then put together his own cabinet of unelected officials.
While Grillo's 5-Star Movement is an annoyance to many Italian politicians its impressive performance in the recent election should remind Italian politicians that there are many Italians who are not happy with how one of the largest economies in the eurozone is being handled or with the mainstream options being offered. The Internet has allowed a movement to be launched in Italy that has paralyzed politics, and it should not be surprising that a president who appointed the last technocratic prime minister would rather do the same again instead of risking further potential deadlock in a new election.
