My Italy

Although the war in the Far East was far away, it still had a huge impact on Italy.

After all, who can care less when their own country's army is fighting thousands of miles away?

However, unlike ordinary people who are concerned about the war and the safety of the soldiers participating in the war, Italian capitalists can open champagne to celebrate. The war that broke out in the Far East was initially detrimental to them. After all, war leads to a decline in business, unless you are in the arms business.

However, as Italy got involved, these capitalists suddenly found that business was easier to do. People from the Qing Dynasty were very happy to buy their goods as long as they were not outrageous, especially the officials. This made the Italians less likely to do business. Affected, but more prosperous. As for whether the orders were obtained from merchants in other countries, it is none of their business. Who can control where others buy.

Even the people in the capital are paying attention to the war situation in the Far East, and the Italian government is naturally more concerned. As a war to relieve Italy's financial pressure and benefit the military. In this Japanese-Qing war, the Italian government paid more attention than fighting Ethiopia.

No, as the head of the government, Prime Minister Despretis is very busy, because in addition to paying attention to government work, he also needs to cooperate with the military in the deployment of materials and personnel for the war in the Far East. You must be very careful about this kind of thing. If you are not careful, you may get cheated by the military. They are all poor people. If you can get more for yourself, who can't know who is who.

"Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent news that the British finally released Fleet K and it is currently passing through the Suez Canal."

"Tell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send someone to guard Suez so that they can't be stopped and inspected by the British again. If necessary, be tougher."

"Okay, Prime Minister."

"Is there anything else?"

"In addition, the Navy Ministry sent a message that they hope the government will help them organize another fleet. Vice Admiral Alvaro's fleet is in urgent need of a batch of maintenance facilities and equipment. I hope we can give a reply within three days."

"Well, send this news to the Ministry of Transportation and ask them to recruit another batch of ships. Also inform the Navy Department that they need to pay for the expenses."

"Also, the Ministry of Education sent news that they want to..."

Over the next two hours, Prime Minister Despretis continued to issue instructions to various departments. Although there are some things that require a short period of thinking, they still do not affect the old man who has been in power for more than ten years. Yes, if Prime Minister Depretis, who is now 81 years old, is not considered an old man, then there are not many people in Italy who can be called old people.

As an elderly prime minister, Despretis has felt increasingly exhausted in the past two years.

Therefore, after dealing with the urgent matters, the Prime Minister, who felt low on energy, needed to take a nap to regain his energy.

"Prime Minister, Mr. Neil Napper has arrived."

Secretary Usopp whispered in the Prime Minister's ear. When he heard the secretary's words, Depretis's cloudy eyes flashed with light.

"Got it, invite Mr. Napper in."

After Prime Minister Depretis finished speaking, he stood up and came to his desk.

"Prime Minister, Mr. Napper has arrived."

Following Secretary Usopp, the short and somewhat bald Napper appeared in front of him.

"Napel, long time no see!"

Prime Minister Despretis opened his arms and stepped forward to hug the visitor. Seeing the Prime Minister's expression as if he had met a friend, the clever Usopp naturally left the room and thoughtfully closed the door when he left. .

After his secretary left, Prime Minister Despretis suddenly put on a serious expression.

"How's the situation?"

"It can't be said to be too smooth. Cavalotti accepted the Prime Minister's proposal and was willing to promote it in parliament, while Bertani was a little hesitant. He thought it would be difficult to push the proposal through. In addition, Crispi said that this kind of proposal is the best It is better to consult with others before voting to avoid misjudgment.”

The three people Napel mentioned are all three people who have enough weight in the parliament to influence the voting results of the parliament. Among them, Cavallotti is the leader of the Republican Party. The Republican Party, as its name implies, seeks the most republican system, so it is very interested in Prime Minister Despretis's proposal. Bertani is a conservative from the same party as the Prime Minister. Although the two have the same It belongs to the Social Democratic Party, but there are considerable differences between the two. However, it is not difficult for Prime Minister Depretis to persuade the other party. The only one more difficult to deal with is Crispi, the centrist faction in parliament. Although he does not have too many parliamentary seats, they are indispensable if he wants to achieve success. After all, Depretis is still more willing to deal with the centrists than the right-wingers who are too involved in the royal family. Especially the proposal he prepared this time requires the support of centrists.

What proposal makes Despretis, who has served as prime minister for more than ten years, still find it difficult to handle?

Of course it is a big event, a big event related to the interests of the political party. Is it a big deal to change the conditions for voting rights?

For anyone who plays politics, certainly.

There is no bigger event that attracts political parties.

Despretis, who has been Prime Minister for more than ten years, wants to amend some of these provisions. However, the core of this modification is to relax the conditions for Italy to obtain the right to vote. He intends to relax the age requirement for the right to vote from 25 to 21 years old. More importantly, he intends to lower the requirement for election qualifications from 40 lire in annual taxes to 18 lire.

It seems that this prime minister is also ambitious and wants to gradually change Italy's political foundation.

Yes, although Despretis got along well with Carlo I, and he also recognized that King Carlo was a very far-sighted ruler. But this still cannot change the fact that Depretis is a politician. What a politician is, he needs to be responsible for overall political decisions. As for Italy's current political system, Depretis thinks it is very unreasonable.

It seems that the Kingdom of Italy implements a responsible cabinet system, and the prime minister needs to be responsible to the king and parliament. But in fact, the Parliament is currently an eraser, and the king is the one who actually holds the power. In the long run, under this system, people's enthusiasm for political participation will be suppressed, which is not conducive to Italy's development.

The best way to change this situation is to change the kingdom into a republic. However, this condition is not feasible in Italy at present, and the king is still enthusiastically supported.

Since this approach is not possible, we need to change our thinking. Expanding the number of people who have the right to vote is the best way.

Speaking of which, thanks to Italy's rapid economic development in recent years, the number of citizens with the right to vote has more than doubled from 2.89% of the total population when he came to power to 6.27%.

Although it has doubled, what is the use of a low base? It has only increased from more than 900,000 to more than 2 million, which is still not representative of the total population of more than 32 million. The role of parliament is too low or the power is too little, which is closely related to the population it represents.

According to estimates, the election conditions revised by Depretis may increase the number of people with the right to vote from 6.27 to about 13%, which is more than double. If we add their family members, at least one-third of Italians can be represented in the parliament, and the importance will be immediately apparent.

However, although this kind of thing is good for all political parties, it is not easy at all to implement because it will infringe on the rights of many people. For example, nobles and kings, this is what Depretis is most worried about.

Having been with the young king for more than ten years, Depretis may have understood the young man's obsession with power better than the king himself. He had not tested the king before and asked him to increase the proportion of people's participation in politics, but he was always ignored by the young king. The king was fooled.

This time he planned to do it differently.

"Cavalotti agreed. As I expected, Bertani was a little hesitant. I will find a time to talk to him. As for Crispi, you give him a message for me. The conditions are whatever he wants, as long as he is willing to voted in favor of the vote in Parliament.”

After listening to the method given by Despretis, Napel buried his head in writing it down.

"Okay, I'll go find Crispi tonight."

After saying that, Napel stood up and was about to leave.

"Napel!"

At this time, Prime Minister Despretis suddenly stopped him.

"Do you have any other explanations, old man?"

"Remember to be careful, this matter must be hidden. Our young people have some hunting dogs with keen sense of smell."

"Don't worry, I know the seriousness of this kind of thing."

Napper made a knowing gesture.

After his old friends and comrades-in-arms left, Depretis was ready to get up to work. With so many things going on in the government, he didn't have much free time.

But the moment he just stood up, he felt a severe angina pain. He quickly stretched out his hands to find a support point. At this time, a strong feeling of dizziness came over him. Then his vision went dark and he fell heavily. on the ground.

Before he fell into coma, he heard his secretary yelling in horror: "Call the doctor! Call the doctor!"