With two days to go until Sunday’s general election, there’s talk of a potential ’mess’ everywhere from the pages of newspapers to the heated conversations at sports bars up and down the country.
So what is an ‘mess’ and why does the word seem to be on everyone’s lips whenever Italy faces elections?
Briefly, ‘mess’ is political jargon that describes any type of dubious agreement or, if you will, compromise reached by two or more political parties generally holding opposite views and ideals.
There’s no direct translation into English, though a native speaker would probably refer to it as something of a dodgy backroom deal.
There is no clear majority.
Eh, imagine. They’ll do the usual mess.
There isn’t a clear-cut majority.
Oh, that’s not new. They’ll go for the usual deal.
Such an agreement is usually necessary when forming a large coalition government, with terms largely assumed to be based on the “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” principle.
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With that definition in mind, it’s hard not to see why ‘mess’ is such a commonly-used word in Italy, a country whose political class has historically been partial to improbable alliances with their previously hated rivals.
What do you think of the upcoming elections?
I prefer not to think. I’ve had enough of these messes.
What do you think of the next elections?
I’d rather not think. I’ve had enough of these political deals.
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Unfortunately, with this electoral law, the mess between parties is the only way to have a government …
Do me a favour. Mess-ups existed even 60 years ago, long before this electoral law.
Sadly, with the current electoral system, a compromise between different parties is the only way to form a new government.
Do me a favour. These types of agreements existed 60 years ago, well before the present electoral system.
While the noble art of the mess goes back a long way in the history of republican Italy, the term itself was only coined in 1995 by Massimo D’Alema, then secretary of the left-wing Democratic Party (PD).
The expression only rose to popularity a couple of years later, when the founder of the term thought it fit to put the word to good use and reached a ‘non-aggression pact’ with the then-leaders of Italy’s right-wing coalition – the agreement went down in history as the pact of the tart or ‘pie pact’ – but we’ll keep that story for another time.
Ever since then, the term ‘mess’ has been regularly used by political commentators as well as the wider public to discuss the various power plays of the country’s major political forces.
For instance, the most classic of mess up was at the foundation of Giuseppe Conte’s first cabinet back in 2018, when Matteo Salvini’s League and Luigi Di Maio’s Five-Star Movement unexpectedly found sufficient common ground to form a coalition government.
So, will we see another mess this time around?
Given the unpredictable nature of Italian politics, you’ll forgive us for not ruling out the possibility of another mess just yet.