Gallowglass

The Bald Prima Donna

Like most of us, I’m prone to the odd mistake here or there. Political scientists (who are twenty years behind the curve on philosophy of science) are keen on falsifiable arguments, and sometimes it turns out that my arguments are embarrassingly falsified. But to balance things out, I feel entitled to be a little smug when I make an argument that nobody else seems to be making, and get it right. Two days ago, I did a post on Berlusconi’s outburst, which among other things argued (a) that the European Parliament was trying to capitalize on Berlusconi’s blunder, so as to increase its institutional powers, and (b) that Pat Cox, the current president of the Parliament, was going to be in the thick of Parliament’s efforts.

This morning, the Irish Times has a front page story, saying that Cox is demanding that Berlusconi apologize to Parliament as well as to the Germans. He says

The incident happened on the floor of the European Parliament, not in Berlin. There is a need for clarification by Berlusconi with the European Parliament in order to bring final closure to this matter.

Cox is trying to transform a flap between Rome and Berlin into a confrontation between the Parliament and Berlusconi as President of the Council, as a means of redefining the Parliament-Council relationship. Unlike the Germans, the Parliament has something to gain from picking a public fight - it wants to make the Council accountable to it, just as a national government is accountable to its Parliament. And trying to force Berlusconi to apologize is a good way to start going about it. There’s an implied threat behind Cox’s demand - that the Parliament won’t cooperate with the Council in passing legislation unless the Council comes to heel. The Parliament’s ability credibly to deliver on that threat is limited - it wants the member states to extend its powers in the forthcoming constitution, so that it can’t behave too badly. But it can make life quite uncomfortable for Berlusconi and the Italian Presidency. And very likely will, unless Berlusconi apologizes (improbable to impossible).

The Irish Times also documents Berlusconi’s increasingly bizarre behaviour. He’s denying that he apologized to the Germans (they disagree), and blaming the debacle on Hogan’s Heroes.

Yesterday, as a stony-faced Mr Prodi looked on, Mr Berlusconi said the real culprit behind this week’s political storm was in fact one of the characters in the 1960s US sit-com, Hogan’s Heroes. “[Member of European Parliament, Martin Schulz’s] way of going on and the tone of his voice reminded me of the television character Sgt Schulz of Hogan’s Heroes, the series in which Sgt Schulz shouted and ranted a lot but in the end turned out to be kind-hearted,” said Mr Berlusconi.

Criticism seems superfluous, and indeed almost impertinent. The Berlusconi affair started as a farce; it’s now becoming an Absurdist drama. I’m looking forward to the next act.

Posted by Henry at July 5, 2003 03:00 AM | TrackBack