We need to hurry; there are only 9 days (and a few hours) left but we can avoid a new Parliament going into place. We can carry on for a while with the old one. On one side Consentino would be happy and also D’Alema and Veltroni on the other. Everything stays as it was before February 24th; the parties could take a breather and the Grillo followers would not enter government and even they could digest the situation.
All we have to do is declare war. There will be someone to declare a new “fair war” to!” There will be a nonviolent dictator somewhere, someone who is preparing to conquer the world. If there isn’t one we can create one; Italy already did with Saddam, create false proof, what do you need to do it with any old Joe Blow dictator! The Constitution allows it. In artlicle 60, precisely after having established that the Senate and Chamber preside together for 5 years (Before the Senate lasted one year longer and voting always had to be done prior because the MP’s were not happy that the Senators lasted longer.) our main playing card offers an ace in the hole: “The duration of each Chamber – our founding fathers wrote – cannot be extended if not mandated by law and only in case of war”.
And this is the way out. As long as the old Chamber is still in charge, war is declared on someone far away; it is not necessary to actually do it, let is suffice that there is a “state of war,” the Card flies high, it doesn’t falls from details of bombarding or an irrational card, let it suffice that war is declared because it is. We choose a potential enemy state far away, take time to organize the invasion, then maybe we postpone a bit because the weather is not right: it’s too hot – it’s too cold. Or, a stroke of genius, we invent a name, a little like the movies of the ‘30’s, we declare war on Mandaronia, on Pupponia, (not on Manfredonia, which is an Italian city and would not count). While everybody is there, looking for this Pupponia, asking themselves what the capital is, and in the meantime in the Chamber, amidst laughing bouts (but done in the corner, in the bathroom, so as to not be discovered by journalists), we could carry on as before. Or we could discuss how to handle the after-war with Grillo still there. But at least we wouldn’t be taken by surprise; we could try to understand what the million votes for the 5 Star Movement mean. Not even Grillo would be surprised to become the leader of the first Italian party and in the meantime could think about what to do with the 25% of votes after going to the other side – the one where one governs and not just protests. Because he who was called to be there by the voters. Without D’Alema, Fini, Cosentino, Veltroni, or even Di Pietro.
Lorenzo Robustelli
