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Would you buy a used car from this man, or woman? These are not the words he used, but more or less it is the question that Giovanni Sartori, the 84-year old political commentator who writes regularly for Corriere della Sera, Italy's major newspaper, asks of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose fourth government was sworn in to office on Friday. A world-reknowned political scientist who taught at Columbia University from 1979 to 1994 before returning to Italy and who is known, as the Italians would say, for having no hairs on his tongue, Sartori's first comment on the new government was scathingly titled " The Incompetence Factor".
Sartori says some recent developments in Italian politics are encouraging.: For the most part the country's small splinter parties have been eliminated from Parliament. The government was formed quickly and has so strong a majority it is likely to last the full five year term. BUT, he says, and it's a big but, with a few exceptions (he names Economic Minister, Giulio Tremonti, Welfare Minister, Maurizio Sacconi and Civil Service minister Renato Brunetta, to which I myself might add a couple of others) the new cabinet ministers stand out for their in competence of lack of experience. The new minister of Education, University and Scientific Research is a 35 year old lawyer, Mariastella Gelmini. The new minister of Environment has already been a cabinet minister (Equal Opportunity) but as far as anyone knows has no expertise at all in environmental matters. Sandro Bondi, the new culture minister has a liberal arts background and writes poetry but has never been active in cultural affairs. And even worse, the new Minister of Justice (sic) Angelino Alfano, a 38 year old Sicilian who has been in politics since his university days, has not legal or judicial background. Says Sartori: "The Cavaliere [the nickname for Berlusconi ever since 1977 when he was made a Knight of Labor by the then Italian president] boasts about being an entrepreneur. He should therefore explain why it is that for Italy his recruitment standards are not at all those he would use for his own businesses." It is, indeed, very strange. Some analysts believe the 71-year old Berlusconi has appointed a generally weak cabinet so that he himself can direct much of policy. And this may be true. I myself am surprised, however, since I believe he really would like to go down in history as having done great things for Ital and would, therefore, want to choose the best people possible for his government. But it may be that he is simply so much of a megalomaniac that he thinks only he knows how to make change happen, and if this is so, then he will of course fail miserably in his quest.
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