Except for a sudden trip to Canossa by Wednesday and an improbable self-confession of the break with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Giuseppe Conte e M5S seem to have embarked on the not exactly glorious path of the former head of the Communist Refoundation, Fausto Bertinotti. Like Conte he put him in crisis, denying him the confidence in the Senate on the Aid Decree, the Draghi government, i.e. the most authoritative Government possible in this legislature, thus Bertinotti will forever remain in parliamentary history as the head of a party which in 98 brought down the first Prodi government, born from the clamorous electoral success of the Ulivo in 96 when the Bolognese professor beat the leader of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi, in the polls.
BERTINOTTI ANTISIGNANO DI CONTE WHEN IN 1998 HE DROPPED THE FIRST PRODI GOVERNMENT ON THE FINANCIAL
The relationship between Draghi and Conte, who has never come to terms with the eviction from Palazzo Chigi by Matteo Renzi and the subsequent call of the former President of the ECB by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, have never been idyllic but stormy were also at the end of the 90s those between Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Bertinotti. In the 96 elections which marked the triumph of Prodi and the Ulivo, Rifondazione Comunista (RC) – which had signed a desistance pact with the Ulivo – obtained a good result, collecting 8,6% of the votes and Parliament a good patrol of 35 units. But, once the first Prodi government was formed, which Rc supported from outside, disagreements on economic and social policy and on foreign policy soon arose. However, no one would have imagined that Bertinotti, despite the internal dissidence led by Armando Cossutta, would prove so rash as to bring down the Prodi government. However, this was the case in the October 1998 parliamentary vote on the Finance Law. Bertinotti's idea was not a brilliant idea not only for the general interests of the country but, in the long run, not even for the interests of the Communist Refoundation which, after having suffered the split from Cossutta, fell to 2006% in the 5,8 parliamentary elections of votes in the Chamber while obtaining a good 7,4% in the Senate, but a few years later suffered the fatal collapse. It seems to see today's scene again with the Five Stars in place of Rifondazione, the minister Luigi Di Maio who leaves the grillini and Conte who denies trust in the Draghi government. How the trip to the first Prodi government left one indelible stigma of unreliability on Bertinotti, the same seems to happen to Conte after his refusal to renew his trust in the Draghi government.
BERTINOTTI'S DEFINITIVE FLOP ARRIVES IN 2008 WHEN RIFONDAZIONE COMUNISTA DID NOT REACH THE QUORUM AND STAY OUT OF PARLIAMENT
After the electoral result of 2006, Bertinotti, with the support of the Ulivo, managed to become President of the Chamber of Deputies. A prestigious assignment which, however, did not spare Bertinotti and Rifondazione Comunista pains and defeats in a short time. Despite having entered the government for the first time, the second Prodi government, RC – always at the mercy of maximalist pressures – met with a resounding and definitive defeat in the 2008 political elections, failing to exceed the 5% quorum and remaining outside the Parliament. Failure that forced Bertinotti to resign as head of the party and to abandon political life.
The story, as he said Marxalways repeats itself twice: the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce. Who knows if it will be like this again this time but it is no coincidence that the Bertinotti syndrome, i.e. the fear of defeat and political disappearance, is spreading among the Five stars, if it is true that, after having suffered the farewell of Di Maio, they seem to be on the eve of new splits, which would gather the adhesion of another thirty parliamentarians intending to maintain support for the Draghi government. If this happens, Conte's patrol will be reduced to a completely marginal squad on a political level even before a numerical one. But at that point Conte will only be able to blame himself and that team of legendary "statesmen" who give Marco Labor to Rocco Casalino and from Paula Taverna to Alessandro Di Battista they compete to advise him on how to speed up the self-dissolution of the Five Stars.
