White and Black
White smoke billowed from the roof of the Sistine Chapel earlier this week, signifying that the Conclave of Cardinals had settled, in relatively short fashion, on a new pope to replace the retired (and tired) Benedict XVI. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 76-year-old Jesuit, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is the new Pope Francis I.
In another part of Rome, the Italian Parliament reconvened today, following last month's indecisive election. Had the parliamentarians indulged in Catholic Church ritual and ceremony, black, not white, smoke would have emerged today from the rooftops of the Palazzo Montecitorio (which houses the Lower House, or Chamber of Deputies) and the nearby Palazzo Madama (where the Upper House, or Senate, sits). Three weeks after the election, not only has no coalition of political parties been formed, and no new Italian Prime Minister selected, but neither of the two houses of Parliament was able to agree even on the respective Speaker positions. Luigi Bersani's PD party, which won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and therefore, under Italy's arcane rules, is awarded a majority, nonetheless does not have sufficient seats in the Senate for control of that body. Without both houses, his party cannot form a new government, except by partnering with others - something of a tradition in Italian politics.
But this time around, such partnering seems especially problematic. It's a case of many politicians having sufficient power to block, but not one having sufficient power to lead. Thus, Mr. Bersani's left-leaning party wants nothing to do with Mr. Berlusconi's right-leaning coalition (which holds the second-largest number of Senate seats), nor indeed with Mr. Berlusconi himself. Mr. Bersani has approached Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement, but the Movement's whole raison d'etre is, if nothing else, to oppose the political establishment, right or left. They have rebuffed all overtures from Mr. Bersani. And former Prime Minister Monti and his centrist coalition didn't win enough seats in either house to make any difference - a fine irony given that it was Mr. Monti who had, over the past two years, begun just the sort of programs of spending restraint and structural reform sorely needed to reverse years of Italian economic stagnation.
President Giorgio Napolitano (quick primer: the Presidency in Italy is a largely ceremonial position) will begin formal consultations with party leaders next week to assess coalition options. Given the deadlock in Parliament, readers are cautioned not to expect white smoke anytime soon.