I know that domestic politics is the focus of all the attention right now, and for good reasons, but I hope you will indulge me if I write about the politics of my homeland, Italy.
Living in the US provides a vantage point for observing Italian costume and politics, pretty much like having a short-term crystal ball, because empirical evidence shows that the trends of American life reproduce themselves almost exactly in Italy, only a few years later. This is specially true for pop culture, and is mainly due to the fact that we used to watch American movies and TV shows few years after they were ran in the US. Nowadays, with the globalization, internet and all that, the time gap is closing, but still Italy seems to operate with a certain time delay with respect to America.
With this in mind, I was not really surprised to learn that this week Italy plunged herself in a deep institutional conflict that has many parallels with the Terri Schiavo case that enfolded four years ago.
The case centers around Eluana Englaro, a 38 year old woman who is in a vegetative coma after a car accident in 1992. Her father has been engaged in a long legal battle for removing the feeding tube that keeps her alive. As with Terri Schiavo, a fierce debate has been raging between the supporters of Eluana right to die and the fundamentalists, with the catholic church and the Vatican being the most vocal voices in opposition. Opinion polls show that a large majority of Italians support Eluana right to die (link in Italian here).
Mr. Englaro legal battle culminated last November when the Italian top court ruled in his favour, stating that the removal of the feeding tube would not amount to euthanasia, which would be illegal in Italy. This week another tribunal ruled to enforce November sentence, allowing for the removal of the feeding tube. This, predictably, enraged the religious right, who cannot stand a tribunal that does not rule according to their principles.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (who cannot stand a tribunal, period), decided to capitalize on the situation and announced he was promulgating an emergency executive order to stop the sentence from being enacted. Only to reinforce the observation that Italian politics mimics the US, Berlusconi even pulled a "Bill Frist diagnosis", stating that Eulana coma could be reversible.
Here is where the analogy with the Terri Schiavo case stops, because the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, unlike George W. Bush who hurried back to Washington DC on Palm Sunday to sign the emergency bill, refused to sign Berlusconi order, rendering it void. Napolitano explained his refusal stating that Berlusconi order was blatantly unconstitutional: the executive branch cannot change a court ruling.
Not deterred by Napolitano refusal, Berlusconi, who controls the legislative branch wit a large majority, now promises to have the Italian parliament to hurriedly approve an emergency bill. This will only deepen the institutional conflict, because Napolitano will most likely refuse to sign the parliament bill too.
I do not know how the crisis will end. One can only hope that president Napolitano refusal to appease the fundamentalists will buy enough time for Eluana to die in peace. I hope also that this will help to show the Italians the real face of the religious right. Having them trying to impose their views on the country with an utter comptempt for the constitution might not be a bad thing after all.
The Terri Schiavo case probably marked the beginning of the end of the religious right in America. The same thing might just be happening in Italy right now.