Twenty years after a major corruption affair that swept away Italy's postwar political system, graft scandals have moved to the local level. Headlines have focused on Franco Fiorito, a regional councillor from Silvio Berlusconi's party who was arrested on Tuesday and is accused of having stolen 1.3 million euros (1.7 million dollars) from party financing funds.
But other examples of questionable behaviour are rife, also involving Berlusconi's centre-left rivals. Local politicians up and down the country have been exposed as having dined, shopped and holidayyed at the taxpayers' expense That led Prime Minister Mario Monti, a mild-mannered technocrat who has so far concentrated on tackling Italy's debt crisis with fierce tax hikes and spending cuts, to raise his voice.
"I am sure that after the undignified events of recent weeks, citizens are disgusted because they are asked to make sacrifices while the world around politics seems to be immune from them," he said Thursday. "What can a foreigner think when he sees on TV images of unspeakable feasts?" the prime minister continued, in a reference to widely circulated pictures of a 20,000-euro "Ulysses Returns" theme party where guests wore togas and pigs' masks.
It was held to celebrate the move from Brussels to Rome of Carlo De Romanis following his election alongside Fiorito in Lazio, the region around Rome. De Romanis, a former advisor to European Union Commissioner Antonio Tajani, insists he paid for the event himself. Monti spoke after his government adopted an emergency decree which, in a bid to limit opportunities for graft, gives the national Court of Auditors oversight on local government spending and limits local politicians' perks.
The decree also forces city councils, provinces and regions to stick to national and EU balanced budget rules and introduces a 10-year ban on public office for elected administrators who fail to stick to them. Since an ill-designed constitutional reform in 2001 strengthened their powers, spending by Italian regions has ballooned. But "the transfer of competences was not matched by an adequate level of controls," Monti's government lamented on Thursday.
Parliament, where dozens have convictions or are under investigation for graft, is expected to ratify the decree within 60 days. It is also being pressured to approve an anti-corruption law, despite misgivings by Berlusconi's party. The government "is trying to erase and avoid the repetition in the future of features of the present Italy that we would rather not see again," Monti said.
He lamented the "incalculable damage" inflicted on the country's international standing as it tries to reassure investors about its solvency. "Stereotypes which are often used to depict Italy do not correspond to reality," he protested. Corruption - as well as a stifling bureaucracy, a fiendishly slow justice system, high energy costs and the presence of the mafia - is a major drag to foreign investment in Italy.
Monti enjoys an unblemished reputation for integrity - unlike his predecessor Berlusconi, who has been investigated dozens of times for corruption and is currently under trial for having paid for sex with a girl who was at the time underage. In 1992-3, a scandal known as Tangentopoli, or Bribesville, led to the downfall of the Italian Socialist and Christian Democratic parties and laid the ground for Berlusconi's rise to power in 1994.
The full effect of the latest episodes is yet to be seen. So far opinion polls have shown a dip in support for Berlusconi. In 2010, after the centre-left newspaper La Repubblica revealed that Berlusconi had attended the 18th birthday party of a girl who reportedly called him "daddy," his wife filed for divorce and spoke of "virgins offering themselves to the dragon."
The closest Monti came to impropriety was in January, when an opposition politician insinuated that he had used public money to host relatives in the prime minister's residence on New Year's Eve. He replied that he personally covered all expenses for a dinner which his wife cooked and served. But he owned up to possibly using "more electricity, gas and water than usual" due to the presence of 10 guests at his table.
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