On January 26, 1994, in a historic televised speech to Italians, Silvio Berlusconi announced his entry into the political arena. These were the years of Mani Pulite, the political storm unleashed by the investigations of the judges of the Milan prosecutor’s office, started in February 1992, and the birth of bipolarism, which took shape with the approval of a “mixed” electoral system (majority-proportional), replacing the previous “pure” (proportional) system for the formation of the Chamber of Deputies.
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The transition to the new voting formula was established by the law designed by Sergio Mattarella, then a representative of the Italian People’s Party (Ppi). The political scientist Giovanni Sartori nicknamed it Mattarellum, before a long series of Latin-sounding formations launched by journalists or politicians themselves and applied to many legislative reform initiatives in the electoral field, mostly aborted, most of which derived from the names of their promoters or inspirers: Tatarellum (Pinuccio Tatarella), Mastellum (Clemente Mastella), Spinellum (Valdo Spini), Fisichellum (Domenico Fisichella), Manzellum (Andrea Manzella), Dalemum (Massimo D’Alema); Speranzellum (Roberto Speranza); Rosatellum (Ettore Rosato); Verdinellum (Denis Verdini).
Authentic linguistic monsters – some more, some less – like Stabilicum (alternative: Melonellum), invented by Stefano Benigni, deputy secretary of Forza Italia, modeled more on Legalicum than on Italicum and Germanicum (or Brescellum, from Giuseppe Brescia), to suggest the promise of stability made to citizens, giving more weight to the parliamentary majority supporting the current government, by the drafters of the bill. To be added to the series Consultellum (Constitutional Court), Democratellum, Grechellum (or Italikos) and Provincellum, of provincial destination (2017). Last but not least Porcellum, the law of December 21, 2005 (n. 270) which introduced the “corrected” proportional system with which the 2006 general elections were held. It owes its name to the kind definition given to it by its own drafter, the Lega Nord member Roberto Calderoli: a pigsty.
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