ROME LETTER:RECENTLY, YOUR correspondent had the good fortune to attend a lecture given by Prof John Burland, a soil mechanics expert who was the only Englishman on the 14-man committee for the consolidation and restoration of the Tower of Pisa. These were the guys who between 1990 and 2001 managed to effectively stabilise the world's most famous leaning tower
In a fascinating talk, Prof Burland, emeritus professor of Imperial College, London, explained just how he and his colleagues managed to “straighten” the tower by 45 centimetres, returning it to a position (not dead straight, of course – that would have been very bad for tourist business) it would have last occupied in 1838. Given that the tower had been moving and sinking since 1178, this was no mean achievement.
In the course of his talk, the good professor did point out, in the most polite way possible, that various political interferences did little to help the restoration committee. For a start, given that the committee had been established by a government decree that was never actually passed into permanent legislation, the very legal standing not to say financing of the whole immensely complex and delicate stabilisation process regularly hung in the balance, looking about as shaky as the famous tower it was meant to be saving.
In the end, of course, all was well. In 2008, engineers announced that the tower had been stabilised and that, for the first time in its history, it had finally stopped moving. Listening to this remarkable story, it struck me that not for the first time, the Tower of Pisa offers itself as a perfect metaphor for modern, crisis-threatened Italy.
At the very moment that the leaning tower of the Italian economy is lurching perilously, what are the political classes up to? In reality, just as the tower of Pisa was finally sorted out, despite attempted political interference, it is more than probable that Italy will manage to ride out this storm, despite the shenanigans of one of Europe’s most overpaid, corrupt and unproductive political classes.
These are, of course, belt-tightening times, in Italy as elsewhere in the developed world. Except that it is hard to see just what cuts have been made to a political system which, by one estimate, provides work for 1.3 million people at a cost of €24 billion per annum. ( La Repubblica, 18/07/11).
That huge figure comprises: more than 1,000 national and regional parliamentarians; 1,366 regional presidents, councillors and administrators; 4,258 provincial presidents, councillors and administrators; 138,000 local mayors, councillors and “assessori”; the 24,000 people who sit on the boards of the 7,000 state run (or partly state run) companies and enterprises, not to mention another 318,000 who have a role as consultant with some public entity. On top of that there is the huge body of “assistants” who do the work (on a good day) for all of the above.
That the modern state should require a huge army such as the above may be open to question but it is at least understandable that the government numbers of a huge country like Italy make for eye-catching reading. However, all the signs are that Italian public opinion is becoming increasingly less “understanding” of the political elite, ie their national parliamentarians.
As taxes go up and as benefits are reduced in these times of economic crisis, Italians are entitled to ask themselves just why should their MPs be paid a basic €11,000 a month, plus an amazingly generous set of perks that can add on another €7-8,000 a month ( L'Espresso, 28/07/11).
It seems bad enough that the current parliament basically sits for just three (sometimes two) days a week. For example, for all of 2010 and 2011 parliament has never sat on a Friday. What is clearly worse is that the deputies get more than handsomely paid for their low productivity.
Basic “constituency expenses”, covering travel and office costs, come to more than €5,000 a month. Then there is a further €3,690 for secretarial costs, an expense that is always claimed but which rarely translates into a €3,690 salary for the assistant in question. They often work for free, with a view to “making their way” in the world of politics while some deputies either do their own secretarial work or share a secretary with other colleagues.
Other interesting perks include: a €3,098 annual phone allowance; a €1,500 computer allowance; free national train, plane and autostrada travel. On top of that, then, many of the deputies feature among the “clientele” of Italy’s 72,000 strong army of blue state cars, a figure confirmed the other day by the minister for public administration, Renato Brunetta.
Of course, being spendthrifts is the least of it. La Repubblicarecently calculated that no less than 84 deputies in the parliament have problems with the justice system – 24 of them have been sentenced while the rest are either awaiting trial or the outcome of an investigation. Last month, parliament gave the go-ahead for the arrest of Alfonso Papa, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's PDL party, while agriculture minister Francesco Saverio Romano and former junior finance minister Nicola Cosentino are both under investigation on mafia-related charges.
Add in to all of the above, some of the basic structural weaknesses of the Italian economy and it is little wonder speculators have been aiming their guns at Italy this summer. The good news is that the politicians have agreed to a massive cutback . . . haven’t they? Don’t hold your breath.