Forza Napolitano!

In his latest book, Forza, Italia!, Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist, draws a line between what he defines as the 'bad' and the 'good' Italy. The bad Italy, he claims, is dragging the country down, preventing it from liberating the energy which the good Italy has been injecting for some time. To Emmott, the chief symbol of the good Italy is the Italian president, the 86-year old Giorgio Napolitano. “If I were a nation,” Emmott writes, “President Napolitano would be my ideal grandfather: wise, friendly and rich with experience." This is high praise, but Emmott’s view is clearly shared by Oxford University, which has just awarded Napolitano an honorary doctorate in civil law.

Giorgio Napolitano may not be a household name in Britain, but he has been a true pillar of Italian democracy since he was elected president in 2006. A former member of the Italian Communist Party, during his time as a party officer he contributed to the formation of the party’s more moderate "meliorist" wing. Napolitano’s most remarkable success was managing to build a solid bridge between his party and the US administration, not an insignificant achievement in the middle of the cold war. To mark this accomplishment, in 1978 he became the first Communist Party officer to obtain a visa to visit the US.

Such bridge-building skills are proving extremely useful today, too. Today's Italy is divided into factions, which find it impossible to find common ground. The Italian political discourse can too often be simplified as a debate between those who are in favour and those who are against Silvio Berlusconi, the most significant and yet also the most divisive political figure Italy has had since the end of second world war.

Frozen in this endless controversy, the country which produced the world’s most famous referee (remember Pierluigi Collina's terrifying glare?) is experiencing a progressive disappearance of its umpires: independent arbitrators who can rise above party politics and be trusted for their judgment. Journalists, judges and economists are routinely accused of making statements which are not based on independent, measured and authoritative thinking and research, but on their presumed political affiliation. Yet despite the toxic political climate, as in the 1970s, Napolitano has once again managed to build a bridge between the factions, whilst enjoying approval ratings which are rarely below 80 per cent.

Napolitano was justly praised for these achievements during the honorary degree ceremony at Oxford in June. Seated in the company of no less than two Nobel Prize winners and George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, Napolitano was honoured as a symbol of the national unity which Italy has often struggled to find during the first 150 years of its existence. The standing ovation he received was a fitting tribute to a man whose firm and balanced leadership has provided the country with the best possible bridge into the future.