Some are more equal than others

Don Steptoe, from the lofty height of Arcore, pronounces that if the allies in the centre right coalition arent all equal, then all agreements are off.  Now while Silvio was doing the rounds of his tv stations in the run up to the election it was quite apparent that he, as undoubted winner and the largest party, would be much more equal than  his coalition partners. He would choose the PM, the ministers and decide the agenda. Now, with the lifted sole being firmly on the other foot, there are squeals of it
being unfair that Salvini, as the undoubted leader of the coalition,  should make decisions. Meanwhile, the right wing press is turning on faithful lapdog and Renato Brunetta, who categorically ruled out a government with the 5 Star movement. Instead they want to restore the status quo and have a cosy little alliance with the Pd, as Renzi did before.

Like Status Quo,  the FI and  PD are hopelessly out of fashion, and the electorate wou,d never forgive such a blatant attempt to keep their comodious arrangements. They are so far up their ivory towers that they cant see this, and instead look beyond
the immediate crisis by planning for the long term.  The long term in this case are the renewals of the board of dirctors of Rai,

European elections, a new high court judge and a raft of other politcial appointments that are usually divided up to ensure that nothing really changes. That hope is gone: only yesterday Di Maio threw a 5star shaped spanner in the works proclaiming that any president of either of the twochambers of government must be neither undergoing due process or have
been found guilty of a crime.   . As the FI and Lega nominees are rather bound up in criminal proceedings it has rather made things difficult.
What is the likely outcome?   Probably the Leopardian result – everything will change so that nothing changes. I predict that the president of the republic will end up convening a govenrment of national interest, which will consist of all the usual suspects. If that doesn’t give the 5 star a thumping great majority at the next elections, the. nothing will, and the political class will go on telling us how great Italian democracy is.