The putrid problem of Italian politics

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

There has been much public soul-searching and wringing of hands by politicians of all parties since the garbage men gave up collecting rubbish in Naples just before Christmas.

Rubbish collection problems have plagued Naples for over a decade

A lot of anger has been displayed by ordinary Neapolitans as well, after they read that according to the British medical journal The Lancet the incidence of liver cancer has risen alarmingly among those living near the bursting rubbish dumps in what used to be one of the great capitals of the Mediterranean.

Dangerous toxins are leaching into the soil - perhaps the water supply as well - from piles of rubbish which have littered the area for years.

The waste is compacted into what are euphemistically called "ecoballs". Small mountains of these balls are being stored on rented sites as all the existing official landfills around Naples are full.

The rental costs continue to build up, and so do the ecoballs.

Local organised crime, known as the Camorra, has created a multi-billion dollar industry of waste management In pictures: Naples rubbish

A former national police chief and an army general have been despatched to Naples to try to sort out the mess.

They have been given four months by the prime minister, with help from army engineers, to get the garbage men back to work and to clean up the rubbish.

But no-one seems very confident that they will succeed where previous local and national administrations have failed.

Sabotage

The practical problems of rubbish collection in Naples are complicated by the fact that the local organised crime network, known as the Camorra, has created a multi-billion dollar industry of waste management in and around the city.

Many Italians living in other parts of the county cannot believe the pictures from Naples they see on TV every day Can the EU clean up Naples?

The Camorra transports huge quantities of waste from northern Europe at cut prices and dumps it illegally around the Naples area. Not only that, but it also sabotages the municipal garbage trucks paid for by Neapolitan taxpayers in order to transport the local rubbish themselves, at a profit.

Local administrators whose job it is to deal with household and industrial waste are heavily infiltrated by the Camorra.

Legislation passed in Rome providing for the separation and recycling of different types of waste is completely ignored.

Many Italians living in other parts of the county cannot believe the pictures from Naples they see on TV every day.

I was asked by one state television channel to explain what sort of effect these reports have on Italy's image abroad.

"Not very positive," I had to reply.

Public frustration

Italians are ultra-sensitive to foreign reporting about their country.

When the New York Times ran a front page article from their correspondent in Rome about Italy's political decline or current malaise, call it what you will, the article became front page news in the media here.

The president of Italy, who happened to be visiting New York at the time, refuted the charges saying that Italians could always rely upon what he curiously termed their "animal instincts".

A few days later, Italy's Interior Minister, Giuliano Amato, described such foreign criticism of Italy as a parody, and pleaded that his country not be viewed through distorting lenses.

"Italy is exporting more high value products: helicopters, cruise ships, motorcycles and hi-tech machinery than ever before," Mr Amato said.

Politics is weak and discredited in the eyes of most Italians

True, but practically all the Italians I know are expressing a growing sense of frustration at the inability of this country's politicians to resolve even a relatively simple problem such as garbage disposal.

Weak politics

The much-welcomed implosion of the political system which had run Italy from the end of World War II until 1992 - when the formerly powerful Christian Democrat and Socialist parties were swept away in a tsunami of scandal, and television magnate Silvio Berlusconi arrived on the political scene - has not led to a new golden age.

Romano Prodi has failed to solve the Naples rubbish crisis

Mr Berlusconi failed to fulfil his promises. And now under Prime Minister Romano Prodi the country has slipped back into its bad old ways.

Politics is weak and discredited in the eyes of most Italians, because it is apparently incapable of rigorously pursuing useful general goals.

And this weakness only increases the temptation for politicians to occupy all the available command posts in society.

Rebranding

Familiar faces of the formerly discredited left now suddenly turn up again with new political labels, propelled by new right-wing parties.

There is a word for it in Italian. It is called "trasformismo", recycling yourself and changing your political label while hanging on to power.

This form of recycling has been the bane of Italian politics ever since the country was united back in 1861 and it looks as if it has turned into a permanent feature of Italian society.

They cannot recycle the rubbish, but they certainly know how to recycle themselves.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 12 January, 2008 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.