National interest and summer holidays

The new “Democratic Party” – formed
by the “reformist” movements of the coalition, Democratici di Sinistra e La Margherita – meant to
bring some unity to Italy’s
fragmented left, will likely see the light on October 16^th. The
proposal, made by DS Piero Fassino was welcomed by Prime Minister Romano Prodi,
who added that with the administrative elections and the summer holidays coming
up, it will be hard to constitute the party sooner and stressed that “the
constitutent organs of the new Party will be composed in equal parts by men and
women”. 

Recently, Deputy Prime Minister
Fracesco rutelli had expressed the hope that the process could be concluded
before the summer, commenting that “there should be no need to sacrifice one of
the two needs to do things quickly and well”.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary debate seems dominated
by the discussion of the Gentiloni Law, meant to regulate conflict of interests
for those elected to fill posts in the Cabinet.
The low
Chamber’s Commission for Constitutional Affairs has approved the draft,
confirming the incompatibility between government positions and the ownership
of a fortune of a value of over 15 million euros, but rejected ineligibility to
the parliament, with the strong argument that a constitutional right such as
that to passive electorate cannot depend on a person’s wealth.  

Furthermore, the owner of a company
which operates under state concession, such as tv or radio stations, will have
to choose, if elected to the Government, either to sell it or hand their management
to a blind trust.

Former Prime Minister and opposition
leader Slilvio Berlusconi, owner of Mediaset and thus of Italy’s most
important private tv channels, has called the law draft “an ad hoc attempt to%0D
murder Mediaset” and to “prevent me to guide the country again”. On the blind
trust, Berlusconi commented that “no one can ask me to entrust my entire
property to someone I  don’t know,
especially since it’s the result of a life of hard work”.