Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung

Europäische Länderberichte

Pause oder Stillstand auf Italiens Weg zum Föderalismus?

Francesco Palermo / Jens Woelk

S. 345-356

Also during the last year, the process of transforming the Italian Republic into a federal system, which has begun nearly a decade ago, proved to be extremely complex and politically difficult. The implementation of the Constitutional Reform of 2001 has stalled, both at national and at regional level. Thus, it was mostly the Italian Constitutional Court, by deciding on a huge amount of controversies, to determine the new balances between State and Regions, while mainly stressing continuity of the regional system. Especially the fierce political controversies and divisions in view of the national elections in April 2006 as well as the adoption of the constitutional amendments by the Centre-Right-Majority in November 2005 have caused a standstill on Italy's way to a federal system. Necessary precondition for progress with reform is a general political consensus across party lines regarding the fundamental issues of federalisation. However, confrontation and tensions are currently far from overcome, as the narrow advantage for Romano Prodi's Centre-Left-Alliance in the national elections demonstrates: he will have to govern with a extremely narrow majority of few seats in the Senate. In addition, the referendum on the reform of the reform due in June 2006, promises new political clashes and division, as it will be interpreted as revenge or confirmation of the elections. Even after the elections and the change of government, a constructive dialogue for reaching a consensus regarding Italy's federalisation is thus very unlikely. This is partly due to the main fault of the system: the lack of institutions and procedures for the effective coordination of the State and the Regions, which is not unilaterally imposed.

Zitiervorschlag für diesen Artikel:
Palermo, Francesco/Woelk, Jens 2006: Pause oder Stillstand auf Italiens Weg zum Föderalismus?, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2006. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, S. 345-356.