SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT'S MEETING WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 ROME 000752

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/26/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL IT
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT'S MEETING WITH
ITALIAN PRESIDENT GIORGIO NAPOLITANO

Classified By: CHARGE EDIBBLE

SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT'S MEETING WITH
ITALIAN PRESIDENT GIORGIO NAPOLITANO

Classified By: CHARGE EDIBBLE

Mr. President, welcome to Rome.



1.(U) Summary. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano greatly
appreciates your foreign and domestic policies and is
extremely pleased to be meeting with you. Napolitano is a
senior center-left statesman with a pro-European and strong
Trans-Atlantic bent. In a recent speech, entitled ""Will
Europe Live Up to its Responsibilities in a Globalized
World?,"" he called your policies ""forceful and imaginative,""
characterizing them as having ""opened new prospects"" and
terming the US ""our fundamental partner.""




2. (C) As Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano has generally
lived up to the expectation that he should be an
institutional figure above party politics and serve as a
guarantor of the Constitution. Elected in 2006, Napolitano
is serving a 7-year term. He is broadly respected across the
political spectrum, and has enhanced his reputation by
showing balance as he first dealt with Romano Prodi's
center-left government (2006-08) and now with Silvio
Berlusconi's center-right government. He has occasionally
entered the political fray, usually to try to elevate the
level of discourse. The Italian presidency is primarily a
ceremonial job, and Napolitano's greatest tool is ""moral
suasion,"" something that commentators and contacts agree that
he uses particularly effectively and appropriately.




3. (C) Napolitano earned his political stripes early with his
active opposition to fascism during World War II. During the
Allied occupation of Italy, he worked for the allied forces,
learning excellent English. In 1945, he joined the Italian
Communist Party (PCI) and was elected to Parliament in 1953
under its banner. A moderate, Napolitano was the first
Communist member of Parliament with which the US Embassy in
Rome met. In 2001, he told an interviewer that he strongly
opposed the link between Italy's far left and domestic
terrorism, as well as the anti-Americanism within the PCI in
the 1970s and 1980s. Napolitano abruptly resigned from the
party in 1989, saying that it needed serious reform to
reflect global realities. End Summary




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Napolitano and the Role of the Italian President
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4. (U) Elected by Parliament, the President is expected to be
above party politics, and Italians regard the office as an
institutional, not a political one. The President
countersigns and enacts laws approved by Parliament and has
the power to send them back for re-examination. The President
also has the power to appoint the Prime Minister, the other
ministers, and to dissolve Parliament. While these duties are
often formalities, when a Prime Minister loses a confidence
vote, the President has the crucial role of determining
whether to form a new government, who should be empowered to
seek a mandate from Parliament, or whether to hold early
elections. The President also commands the armed forces and
can offer clemency to those convicted of crimes.




5. (C) Although in office just three years, Napolitano, who
turns 84 on June 29, has presided over the formation of two
governments. His handling of the collapse of the Prodi
government in January 2008 earned him plaudits for his smooth
handling of a chaotic situation. Since Berlusconi took
office in May 2008, Napolitano has sought a non-partisan
approach, with his primary goal the defense of the
institutions of the state. For example, in August 2008,
Napolitano publicly criticized the Berlusconi government for
overuse of confidence votes, arguing that they sidestepped
important parliamentary debate. In June 2009 during the
campaign for the European Parliament elections -- a campaign
dominated by allegations about Berlusconi's private life --
Napolitano called for a higher level of political debate.
Napolitano's balanced approach has won him wide praise and
garnered greater regard for the office. Politicians from the
center left and the center right consistently express
approval for the way Napolitano has governed.


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President Napolitano's Foreign Policy
--------------



6. (U) President Napolitano uses his office to advance a
moral and progressive world view that is pro-European and
pro-Translatlantic, recognizing the inevitability of
globalization and Italy's need to meet its challenges. In a
speech delivered in London on May 19, 2009, entitled ""Will
Europe Live Up to its Responsibilities in a Globalized
World?"" he praised your policies as ""forceful and
imaginative,"" characterizing them as having ""opened new
prospects,"" and calling the US ""our fundamental partner."" In
that speech (and you will surprise and please him if you
bring it up),he focused on a more coordinated and
forward-leaning defense posture for Europe, stating ""Europe
is not fated to become marginalized if we can live up to our
responsibilities in a globalized world."" Noting that Europe
""is still suspected of wanting to lay the responsibility for,
and the burden of, its defense and security on the shoulders
of its American ally, he goes on to say that ""we must be
absolutely sure that the EU and/or its i
ndividual Member States does and do not effectively
underestimate their joint responsibility for the safeguard of
their individual security interests and of those of the Union
as a whole."" Napolitano concludes that Europe can live up to
its responsibilities on condition that it develops stronger
common institutions, policies, and budget resources.




7. (SBU) President Napolitano is very careful, however, not
to step over the constitutional line as head of state into
the policies and decisions of the head of government. While
pragmatic, President Napolitano is highly principled in his
actions, refusing to meet with PM Lukashenko, for instance,
during the latter's visit to Rome in April, 2009, or with
President Ahmadinejad when the latter was in Rome for the
June 2008 FAO summit.



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Topics for discussion
--------------




8. (C) During a ten minute one-on-one session, Napolitano has
indicated to us he will focus on internal Italian politics.
In the past few weeks the Italian political scene has been
consumed with a series of scandalous allegations concerning
Prime Minister Berlusconi's private life. The allegations
that ran rampant during the June campaign for the European
Parliament did not disappear after the election, and
Berlusconi is in a running battle with former PM Massimo
D'Alema and La Repubblica newspaper, which Berlusconi blames
for these charges. Contacts tell us that they fear and expect
new accusations to emerge during the G8 summit. Still,
Berlusconi does not have a clear competitor within his own
People of Liberty party, which is by far the largest in
Italy, while the left remains weak, deeply divided and in low
standing with the public.





9. (U) In a subsequent thirty minute meeting, President
Napolitano proposes the following:

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Middle East Peace Process
--------------


10. (C) Italy has positioned itself to be ""Israel's best
friend in Europe,"" a status that was reinforced when PM
Netanyahu made Italy his first stop in Europe during a June
23-24 visit, and by the extremely warm welcome he received
here, including a meeting with President Napolitano.
Netanyahu's staff were startled that what was planned as a
30-minute drop-by with Napolitano went well over an hour, due
to the apparent chemistry between the two. President
Napolitano regards the Israeli-Palestinian situation through
the lens of the balance between legality and human rights.
He sees the peace process moving forward only with strong US
support. He regards your Cairo speech as a ""masterpiece,""
according to his advisors, and very helpful for opening new
possibilities for political resolution. His message to
Netanyahu was appreciation for recognition of a two state

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solution, and the clear modification of his policies that
this entailed. Napolitano believes that talk of a settlement
will give new strength to Fatah, which can represent itself
as the party that can deliver peace, and which may in turn
cause the two Palestinian camps to talk and reconcile.
President Napolitano will likely ask your advice and views of
how Italy can be helpful to this situation.




11. (U) The May 2008 Turin book fair celebrated the 60th
anniversary of Israel by featuring Israeli writers, and
sparked a noisy controversy in which some protesters called
for a boycott of the fair and questioned Israel's legitimacy.
Napolitano in typical fashion calmly waded into the fray,
using the moral authority of his office to express his
solidarity with Israel in an appearance at the Fair's
opening, and saying ""Italy is working to defend Israel's
right to live in peace.""



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Syria
--------------



12. (C) In light of his desire to be helpful, President
Napolitano will also ask your views on whether to accept an
invitation to visit Syria. While he regards the Asad regime
as problematic, Napolitano does not believe democracy can be
imposed from without, and feels that isolating Syria only
reinforces its relations with Iran. Thus he will welcome
your decision to engage Damascus directly and to return an
ambassador to Syria. Italy (unlike most EU states)
maintained high-level contacts with Syria even after the
Hariri assassination in 2005, but Napolitano has hesitated to
offer the gesture of a state visit.



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Iraq
--------------



13. (C) Having been a partner with the US in the war in Iraq,
Napolitano is now in agreement with you on a troop pullout,
and sees more propitious conditions there to enable this to
go forward.




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Afghanistan
--------------



14. (C) Napolitano regards Afghanistan as an historical
challenge. Despite the many past failures of major powers,
he feels that to leave the country to fall into the hands of
fundamentalists is not a choice. The government has offered
525 new troops for Afghanistan through the fall, as well as a
total of 200 Carabinieri trainers. President Napolitano will
appreciate your perspective on how we view the evolving
international military and civilian effort there meeting the
challenges you outlined in your March speech.





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Iran
--------------



15. (C) Napolitano believes you have been right to open the
door to Iran, and to have kept some distance in your public
commentary from events in the post election period; to do
otherwise would have been ""to weaken the opposition by
supporting it,"" in the words of Napolitano's diplomatic
advisor. Napolitano may wish to discuss nuclear
proliferation and disarmament. On sanctions, Italy has been
a sometimes-reluctant player, although following your June 15
meeting with PM Berlusconi, Berlusconi subsequently put the
chairman of parastatal energy company ENI on notice not to
pursue new deals for the time being.




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Turkey
--------------



16. (C) President Napolitano is a frequent traveler to

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Turkey, and has plans to visit there in November. He shares
the official GOI positive view of EU enlargement to Turkey,
while recognizing that much advance work needs to be done.
He feels that passage of the Lisbon Treaty is key to further
enlargement, however, without which he believes the EU will
lose consistency. In countering the view of some that the
European Union is and should remain a fundamentally Christian
union, he points to the ancient Romans, who brought their
laws to many provinces, not all of whom shared the same faith.




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Russia
--------------



17. (C) President Napolitano regards the relationship with
Russia as a strategic partnership on which the EU should act
together and speak with one voice. On this he is joined by
virtually the entire Italian political class. He believes,
however, that Russia must be supported in its democratic
processes. He appreciates your shift in tone and pragmatic
approach to dealing with Moscow, and particularly your stance
on support for a missile defense system that is
""cost-effective and proven.""



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Global Financial Crisis and the Role of the G8
-------------- --


18. (SBU) In his London speech Napolitano called for Europe
to contribute significantly to addressing problems underlying
the crisis and to involve a greater number of nations in the
effort. While philosophically inclined to work via larger
groupings, Italy has often pushed its international economic
reform initiatives via the more exclusive G8 mechanism, where
it perhaps believes it can better influence the agenda.




19. (U) Napolitano has remained in the background as regards
the day-to-day management of the global economic downturn and
its effects on Italy. The government's main focus initially
was bolstering public confidence in Italy's banking sector,
which dominates the market for capital. Italy's stimulus
efforts have been modest, given the government's already
excessive public debt. The crisis has prompted some
respected figures to call for reform of Italy's unsustainable
model of high taxes and social spending which has stunted
growth for the better part of this decade.




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Napolitano-Berlusconi Relationship
--------------



20. (C) We understand that PM Berlusconi respects Napolitano,
although the two come from very different backgrounds and do
not have a close personal relationship. Napolitano is much
closer to Chamber President (and occasional Berlusconi
critic) Gianfranco Fini, and these two often find themselves
on the same side of political debates in defending the
institutions of the Italian state. Napolitano became the
object of attacks from Berlusconi proxies during the debate
over an end-of-life case involving a young woman who had
spent years on life support. Nonetheless, at the time of
Napolitano's election, Berlusconi refrained from throwing out
anti-Communist attacks, as he has done with others of
Napolitano's background. Napolitano publicly has said he is
not opposed to the immunity law that protects Berlusconi from
prosecution, and in June he declared the tone of the campaign
for the European Parliament elections overheated amidst a
storm of personal attacks against Berlusconi.




21. (C) On immigration, without directly criticizing the
Berlusconi government's tough policy, this spring Napolitano
underscored that it is Italy's and Europe's responsibility to
help with the humanitarian emergencies driving immigrants to
leave their homes, and warned that despite the economic
crisis, Italy must continue to follow its laws and stay true
to its values as it deals with immigration. In taking this
stance Napolitano is at odds with many of Italy's
center-right leaders, who have largely created a false link
in the public's mind between crime and illegal immigration.

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Biographic Sketch
--------------



22. (U) Napolitano is a veteran politician who earned his
political stripes early with his active opposition to
fascism during World War II. A native of Naples, during the
Allied occupation of Italy during World War II, he worked
for the allied forces, learning excellent English. In 1945,
he joined the Italian Communist Party and was first elected
to Parliament in 1953 under its banner. He rose through PCI
ranks, eventually becoming a member of its National Committee
and one of the party's most influential members. While in
Parliament, he focused on policy toward southern Italy; for a
time he managed the PCI's economic policy, and later focused
on foreign policy.




23. (C) A moderate in PCI, Napolitano was the first Communist
member of Parliament with which the US Embassy in
Rome met. In 2001, he told an interviewer that he strongly
opposed the link between Italy's far left and domestic
terrorism, as well as the anti-Americanism within the PCI in
the 1970s and 1980s. Napolitano abruptly resigned from
the party in 1989 (and was one of the first senior leaders to
do so),saying that it needed serious reform to
reflect global realities and to bring it closer to social
democracy. He was instrumental in hastening PCI's eventual
demise in 1991, and its transformation into the more moderate
Democratic Party of the Left, a predecessor to
today's Democratic Party. During his long tenure in
Parliament--including as President of the Chamber of
Deputies (1992-94)--Napolitano served in the Foreign Affairs
Committee, was a member of Italy's NATO delegation,
and presided over the Special Commission for the
Reorganization of radio and Television. He also served as
Minister of the Interior (1996-98),as well as two stints in
the European Parliament (1989-92, 1999-2004). In 2005,
President Ciampi named Napolitano Senator for Life, a
distinction reserved only for Italians who have served
either as President of the Republic or who have performed an
extraordinary service to the nation.
DIBBLE
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