As students of chaos know, small changes often herald major transformations. This is what is happening these days in the relationship between the Monti government and the federalism implementation process, which the old majority bequeathed to the new executive. Certainly Monti will have to implement some of the many implementing decrees approved so far by the Berlusconi government. However, the most realistic goal will probably be to simplify the whole process and, if possible, speed up fiscal federalism.
Both of these decisions are not only plausible but also commendable. In the first case why the federalism lightly promoted by the centre-left in 2001 was transformed by the centre-right into a Babel of Chinese boxes in this last legislature. According to some reliable estimates, at least another eighty regulatory or administrative acts would be needed to make the macro legislative decisions taken so far effective. In the second case because, beyond the occasional linguistic assonances, fiscal federalism actually has very little in common with the litanies that circulate in the periodic rallies of Pontida and instead follows those modern government policies of public spending, which have been establishing themselves internationally since the 70s.
However, there are other signs of a possible change of course. E 'of these days, for example, the news that the ministerial offices inaugurated last July in the Royal Villa of Monza will definitively close their doors. In this way the curtain will fall on a shameful scene, at the time wanted by Ministers Calderoli and Bossi to keep alive that imaginary federalism that has found so much attention in the previous executive. Without many proclamations, with this choice the government Monti demonstrates appreciable institutional sobriety and it also suggests that the country needs appropriate choices and not policies which trivialize problems such as that of a different territorial location of public apparatuses, which are instead terribly serious.
Other signs of discontinuity are linked to the position and credibility that Monti registers day after day on the European scene, where music is now definitely changing. Reached the agreement on the fiscal compact, i.e. on the strengthening of budget rules and public debt control, it is inevitable that it will go further and further another idea. That of one Community that not only socializes the losses thanks to the strengthening of the State-saving Fund, but also sets up a common political program. It is the high road at the end of which the Europe of nation states will necessarily have to give way to the United States of Europe, for reasons that are now clear.
The economic crisis has opened up a constituent phase of European governance, which cannot continue to operate according to the logic of intertwined vetoes or responsibilities that are never effectively divided. There is the expectation of something new, of an idea and of choices that send national selfishness to the attic and this something, said Angela Merkel speaking in early February before the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it is the demand for a stronger political union, especially among the countries of the Eurozone. It is the only possible answer that in the era of globalization a Europe where only 500 million people live can gamble, if it intends to continue to compete with one billion and 300 million Chinese.
Speaking recently before the European Parliament, Monti a in turn he did not resort to the usual rhetoric of national autonomy and instead spoke like the leader of a country that agrees to respect the bonds and agreements signed, without for this reason keeping silent about nepotism, about rigged public procurement, about false accounting and the corruption to which European partners have resorted many times and which we know is also an old Italian vice. The music happens, the Lega supporter Speroni immediately took the floor attacking with his head down, also because the fragile Euro-sceptic axis present in our country has largely cracked and now the League is "dancing by itself".
In this way, a logic proper to the "reverse canon" takes shape, based on a few moves, small tricks, some new players, with results that are beginning to be seen. The country presents itself with a healthy unitary image on the internal level and wisely federalist on the European one. Will the Monti government be able to keep away from that wind from the Padania that was blowing at Palazzo Chigi until yesterday? We will see, but so far there are reasons to be optimistic, and they are not even few.
