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Also Italy of Values of Antonio Di Pietro is just an Italian party, and then apply what applies to the others: consistency and honesty are not absolute ideals but rather political opportunities to be used on a case by case basis. Here's how we explain the fact that the party who made the rule of law its flag has agreed to support the mayor of Salerno, Vincenzo De Luca for the regional elections in Campania. De Luca, a member of PD, has been indicted with serious allegations of fraud against the state.

Its line of defense is based on the fact that the abuses of which he is accused were made with the goal of saving jobs. But reading the papers of the two investigations in which is involved the mayor of Salerno, the reality of things is a little different, and the suspicion is the abuse of public funds for the benefit of a network of "friends "and" favors. " Practically the common behaviour for politicians in Italy. So the delegates of IdV party were not shocked much and agreed to support this candidate for governor of the Campania Region. 
De Luca on the other hand enjoys great popularity as mayor, is on his third term and has been rewarded for recovering the city's center, public works, waste collection, so that Salerno was not affected at all by the waste crisis in Campania. And he's always been an opponent of governor Bassolino, finished in the dirt exactly for the issue of garbage. This does not mean that in Salerno there are no critical voices against the actions of the mayor, often accused of having concentrated power in his hands (after two consecutive terms he was replaced by a close ally and after he presented again as candidate for the third), and of having gained popularity precisely with systems of patronage and populist initiatives against "degradation" seasoned with statements that have often recalled the racism of some picturesque Northern League mayors of the small northern towns. In the elections of 2006 a vast area of Salerno's left supported in vain an alternative candidate to De Luca, who had already been elected MP and in fact proved to be one of the most absentee in the House, because of his commitments as a mayor. 
It's also true that the choice of Idv is understandable when you consider the alternatives: the former leading figures of the center-left in Campania are governor Bassolino and the chairman of the Regional Council Sandra Lonardo Mastella, both under investigation. The first for the waste management, the latter for corruption in the regional health care. In the area of the right we find the Under Secretary Nicola Cosentino, under investigation for external association with organized crime and with a brother in law who is a mobster of Camorra, Campania's mafia, and many suspect that the current candidate for the right, Caldoro, is just a facade shows that hides the political group of Cosentino. 
The alternatives were limited and as usual this is the rule in Italy, where too often voters have a choice between the bad and the worst. Yet the Italy of Values, on paper, aimed to give a different image of itself than the usual Italian party, generally free to ignore consistency and honesty because most politicians do not know what they are, press freedom does not exist and citizens are deprived of civil conscience. But in reality beyond the propaganda, the IdV has its limitations as the other parties with regard to consistency, and cannot be otherwise in a country where voters never question their representatives. And so today the choice to support the candidacy of De Luca in Campania seems, for those who had hoped otherwise, the sad confirmation that in the end even IdV is an italian party just like the others.

Francesco Defferrari