Napolitano urges ‘profound’ renewal of public policy
(ANSA) – Rome, November 29 – Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called Friday for a “profound renewal” of public institutions and political participation to support democratic development.
It is time for a “profound renewal in political participation, to combat the phenomenon of inefficiency and the consequent disappointment and detachment,” that destroys democratic “depth and vitality,” Napolitano said in a message to the congress of the tiny Italian Socialist Party.
Work on reform and renewal of politics and policy “must be pursued with vision, without succumbing to easy demagoguery and keeping in mind the domestic and international context,” in which Italy exists, he said.
Napolitano’s call comes as Premier Enrico Letta’s government plans a series of institutional reforms designed to make Italy easier to govern.
Letta has pledged to move forward with structural reforms deemed necessary to revive an economy battered by a long recession and a decade of sluggish growth.
His coalition government made little progress with these after being cobbled together in April to end the long deadlock after February’s inconclusive general election.
In large part this was due to major policy wrangles between Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s recently disbanded People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Letta said this situation should now change after his executive survived a confidence vote this week in the Senate on its 2014 budget bill despite Berlusconi’s FI voting against the package and completing its move to the opposition.
Berlusconi was subsequently ejected from the Senate in a vote following his conviction for tax fraud.
When he was sworn in, Letta set himself an 18-month deadline to introduce a new election law and usher in changes to Italy’s Constitutional set-up to make the country easier to govern.
Changes to the Constitution should include stripping the Senate of law-making powers and turning it into a regional assembly.