mob will string him up, but when Caesarrnconquers the world, it requires Cato’srnvirtues to oppose the gods. Man is bornrnservile, and liberty of any sort requiresrnconstant vigilance. Leave him alone forrna few minutes and you will find him fashioningrna golden calf to worship, and if hernlacks gold, as we Americans do, then hernwill be content with monkey metal. AutrnCaesar aut Clinton.rnThe Italians have higher standards,rnand Mussolini himself seems like a giant,rnwhen compared with Franklin Rooseveltrnand his successors. Italy is the land of thernsuperman, where even artists and intellectualsrnhave been men: just comparernDante with Chaucer, Machiavelli withrnLocke, Leonardo with virtually any non-rnItalian painter, D’Annunzio with OscarrnWilde. Nietzsche, when he saw the portraitrnof Andrea Doria in Genova, declaredrnthat he had laid eyes upon thernSuperman. There is no ironv here, sincernthe wish of every sane Northern Europeanrnis to be Italian. In this light, thernworst thing the Italians eould have donernwas to overturn the monarchy, as theyrndid on a narrow plebiscite after the lastrnwar, and Denis Mack Smith (the Britishrnhistorian of modern Italy) recently endorsedrnpresidentialism as a domesticatedrnsubstitute for the House of Savoy.rnMany Italians are sold on presidentialismrnas the cure for instability;rnhowever, the one party to campaign onrna platform of national revival was thernAlleanza Nazionale, whose nucleus isrnthe neofascist MSI. The Italian press, itrnhardly needs saying, went into hystericsrnover the participation of neofascistsrn(Gianfranco Fini prefers the term “postfascist”).rnThe entire postwar Italianrnregime is built upon antifascism, which,rnlike American equality, gets reinterpretedrnevery 10 years to mean supportrnfor women’s rights, open immigration,rnradical environmentalism, and criminalrnpathology. The growing acceptabilityrnof the MSI is a good indication thatrnthe postwar regime really is cracking up.rnTo understand what is happening, try tornimagine an unrepentant David Dukernin the ne.xt Republican Cabinet—Finirnstill regards il Duce as the greatest manrnof the century.rnGianfranco Fini proved to pla’ veryrnwell on television, and in the period beforernand after the elections he distinguishedrnhimself by his self-effacingrnloyalty to the coalition—above all tornBerlusconi. The Lega Nord took the oppositerntack, warning its partners that thernLega had two barrels to its gun, one forrnthe “progressives” and another in reservernfor Berlusconi himself. Umberto Bossi,rnthroughout the campaign, seemed to bernrunning as much against as with thernpartners of the coalition. The reaction inrnthe press and on the Italian right wasrnpredictable: madman, a clown, out ofrncontrol.rnIt is often emphasized that Bossi hailsrnfrom Varese, the point of which 1 neverrnunderstood, until, driving out of Milano,rnwe were almost wiped out by an incompetentrndriver insouciantly weaving in andrnout of traffic. “He drives like he’s fromrnVarese,” observed my young friend MarcornRespinti. Unstable, erratic, provincialrn—that is the view of Bossi taken bvrnserious-minded Italians. A very wisernfriend of mine, with a blind spot wherernthe Lega is concerned, told me that thisrntime Bossi had gone too far. A prudentrnman would have known how to distinguishrnbetween electoral support that isrnfirm and that which is merely given inrnprotest. The Lega’s failure to improve itsrnposition in this election, he explained, isrna harbinger of its eventual marginalization.rnPerhaps. Then again, I have heardrnthis talk every year for four years, andrnvet it is only now that Senator Bossi hasrnclimbed, if not into the driver’s seat, atrnleast into the car where he can play backseatrndriver. The coalition cannot governrnwithout him, and he is prepared to bernvery tough on the issues that are closestrnto his heart: federalism, federalism, andrnfederalism. He also insists upon no concessionsrnto the fascists. For over a weekrnafter the election no one knew if Bossirnwould even allow a government to bernformed. Then, in one of the Lega’s famousrnmonster-rallies at Pontida, he toldrnthe crowd of perhaps 40,000 “peoplernwho work” that he would stay in therncoalition for six months. If the governmentrnfailed to deliver a federal constitution,rnhe and his senators and deputiesrnwould walk out. Another party leaderrndeclared to the crowd: “I have just onernname for you: Maroni,” referring to thernLega’s demand that Bossi’s young advisor,rnRoberto Maroni, be given a cabinetrnposition, preferably the interior ministry,rna portfolio a good deal stronger than ourrnown department of justice. Control ofrnthe interior ministry is an essential steprnin any march toward federalism.rnMost political experts just shake theirrnheads; however, this ignorant Americanrnis convinced that Umberto Bossi is thernmost able politician in Italy. The phrasern”crazy like a fox” might have been inventedrnto describe him. Outside thernLega it is rare to hear any appreciation ofrnBossi’s political nose, but one intellectualrnwho understands the point of Bossi’srntheatrics is my friend Giuditta Podesta,rnthe sagacious and tough-minded directorrnof the Centro Internazionale di StudirnLombardi, which is my base of operationsrnfor over a week.rnThe senator has to bear two thingsrnconstantly in mind: first, the loyalty ofrnhis own supporters depends on his ownrnfidelity to principle, and if he sells out onrnfederalism, there is nothing left but anti-rnSouthern resentment; second, the onlyrncards he has to play as minor partner in arncoalition are fanaticism and recklessness.rnIf for one moment Berlusconi thoughtrnBossi was a man who could be bullied orrnbribed, the bull mastiff would be turnedrninto a lapdog. By the way, Berlusconi didrnpick Roberto Maroni as minister of interior.rnThe New York Times, which spentrndecades justifying Yalta and other onesidedrntreaties with the Soviets, describedrnMaroni’s elevation as a compromise, butrnMaroni quickly moved to disabuse journalistsrnof any notion that he is a moderate:rnhis first act, after the announcementrnof his appointment, was to demand “arnnew constitution within eight months.”rnCommenting on his statement, the Europeanrn—the USA Today of Europe—rnnow declares Maroni to be the “brainsrnbehind . . . Bossi.” Last year it wasrnMiglio. What no one will admit is thatrnBossi is his own man.rnWhat to make of all this—a coalitionrnthat binds together the old nationalistrnright in the South with the regionalistsrnand federalists of the North? The cement,rnwhich has the strength only ofrnkindergarten paste, is fear of the left. Onrnoptimistic evenings after a good dinnerrnof risotto and roast veal with good winernfrom the Valtellina, I can only cheer anrnelectoral pact that combines (withoutrnfusing) the very best elements of modernrnpolitics: the Catholic right, liberal individualists,rnand regional autonomists. It isrnas if the Scots Nats were to team up withrnthe best of the Thatcherites in a coalitionrnwith Enoch Powell—and even thatrncomparison falls short of what has happenedrnin Italy.rnThe next day, with the taste of therngrappa I should not have asked for afterrndinner still on the tongue, I take arngloomier view. I remember what thernpolitical philosopher Pier Luigi Zam-rnAUCUST 1994/39rnrnrn