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ROME: Hold on to your seats, Italy’s odd couple are about to take the wheel of the European Union.
Rome assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1, leaving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and European Commission President Romano Prodi in joint charge of the wealthy-nation club for the next six months.
But cooperation will not come easily to two men who are on different sides of the political divide and have a track record of personal animosity that stretches beyond simple ideology.
“There is both bad blood and political rivalry between them which doesn’t bode well for the presidency,” said John Harper, professor of European Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in the central Italian city of Bologna.
The country that holds the EU presidency sets the political agenda for the bloc and has to work hand-in-hand with the Brussels-based Commission to coordinate policy.
Italy faces a particularly busy semester, with a tight timetable to wrap up negotiations on Europe’s historic new constitution and ambitious schemes to kick start the EU economy.
Berlusconi plans to talk to Prodi daily in the months ahead to facilitate the diplomacy, but they may find that the Italian language is one of the only things they have in common.
Prodi is a former centre-left prime minister and a one-time economics professor. Berlusconi heads a centre-right coalition, is Italy’s richest man and owns a multi-pronged media empire.
Berlusconi loves soccer and owns soccer champions AC Milan. Prodi loves cycling and owns a bike. Berlusconi once dismissed Prodi as “that nice cyclist” while the Commission chief once remarked: “Compared to Berlusconi, Goebbels was just a kid.”
DIRTY DEALINGS : A murkier side to their mutual aversion dates back to a corruption scandal of the 1980s when Berlusconi was just a businessman and Prodi was the head of Italian state industries.
Berlusconi has been charged with bribing judges to help win control of a national food company put up for sale by Prodi. He denies the graft accusation and told a court last month that Prodi had acted improperly during the transaction.
He threatened to reveal more at a later date, but in the meantime parliament rammed an immunity bill into law to protect Berlusconi from prosecution and prevent a potentially devastating verdict from falling during the coming six months.
A furious Prodi rejected Berlusconi’s courtroom insinuations and members of his inner circle say the commission chief will not tolerate further suggestions of impropriety.
“We are prepared to work calmly with Berlusconi during the presidency, but if he attacks us then make no mistake we will strike back,” said one Prodi aide.
Political bystanders hope the two men will lay aside their personal rancour during the presidency to ensure Italy’s reputation isn’t harmed in Europe by any unseemly rowing.
But gentility won’t come easily. Most analysts think that Prodi will return to Italy in 2004 and lead the centre-left into the next general election. Prodi defeated Berlusconi in 1996 and is the one opposition candidate that the centre-right fears. Even if they don’t come to verbal blows themselves, their allies are already primed for action. An early shot was fired by the European Liberal Democrat Party, seen as close to Prodi.
“As a friend of Italy, it pains me to see a country poorly prepared for its presidency of the European Union,” liberal leader Graham Watson said in Rome on Friday in a strike against Berlusconi, his government and its plans for the presidency.
ACCIDENT-PRONE: One thing is certain. Europe’s press will watch Berlusconi and Prodi like hawks and seize on the slightest blunder. Both Berlusconi and Prodi are charming men who are also prone to gaffes, making them easy targets for the media.
Prodi’s observation last year that the EU’s stability and growth pact was “stupid” infuriated colleagues. Berlusconi’s assertion in September 2001 that Christian culture was superior to Muslim culture sent shockwaves around the world. Constant media criticism has wounded both men and they may conclude that a “non-aggression” pact is their best chance of getting through the presidency unscathed, and reserving their firepower for domestic battles that undoubtedly lie ahead.—Reuters
