More of the same

There is a coalition that has governed a country for 7 of the last 9 years, dominated the political agenda for the other 2, presided over a stagnating economy and a massive arrival of immigrants, its leader facing countless trials and sex allegations, substantiated by audio tapes that clearly link him to dodgy situations. There is a xenophobic party – playing second fiddle in this coalition - managed as a fiefdom by its rabble-rousing founder, flirting periodically with the idea of taking the country out of the euro, and repeatedly showing that general culture is not among the criteria to select its members.

In a moment when the economical crisis is still biting hard, immigrants are blamed for everything that goes wrong and taxes don't decrease as promised, what did the voters choose, in the regional elections held this week? More of the same, of course. The country being Italy, this translates in an electoral victory for PM Silvio Berlusconi, and even more for the second pillar in his coalition, Northern League's Umberto Bossi. Whose son, 21-year-old Renzo, has just won a seat – with the highest number of votes in his town – in Lombardy's regional council. Despite having failed twice – and scraped through on the third time – high school's final exam.

Italians happy with the present economic situation of the country are hard to find, unless you believe the government propaganda. I believe that even if you ask the average Berlusconi or Bossi voter if they are optimistic about the future, most of them will say they're not. Yet, they keep voting for the duo that has shaped Italy's politics for the last 10 years. The Northern League is stronger than ever, since its foundation over 20 years ago. Berlusconi is holding on thanks to his ally; but he can still claim over a quarter of the national vote, and be cheered by supporters when he utters nonsense slogans like “we are the Party of love, the other are only envious and hateful”. Somebody should tell that to Renzo Bossi, who last year developed a Facebook apps called “Bounce the illegal immigrant back” (to the sea).

There are plenty of reasons for this situation, all of them are valid – and I will discuss them in future posts. The opposition, after being battered time after time, still just doesn't get it. Apathy is spreading among centre-left voters. Berlusconi censors opposing voices in the media. But what this bizarre correlation – the country goes to the dogs, hail to the chief! - makes more evident, in my opinion, is the increasing disconnection of Italians from reality/rest of Europe/the world. And it's all part of the plan.

A provincial, uneducated, scoffing-on-culture, egoistic, scared-of-immigrants population wants a strong man to rule. Policies are too complicated: He knows how to do it for you. Those who disturb Him – judges, do-good leftists - are defeatists, enemy of the country. Foreign media criticizing Him – even conservative ones! - are only envious because your food is better than theirs. Immigrants take your jobs. Chinese are shifty and never die. Communists are always around, but until He's around they are luckily unable to harm you.

Not that in the past we were all Nobel laureates. But values were different. You would control yourself in public, instead of spewing racing insults and laugh about it. You would be uncomfortable about your lack of culture. You would work hard to reach a better position. But day after day, in the last 20 years, the importance of all this has been eroded by the media of you-know-who.

After decades of a stolid, self-censored Catholic cultural industry, the audience was receptive. The collapse of the old political order gave space to a tycoon-turned-politician who “says things as they are”. And still owns the media system, giving you light programmes, where fame and money are the key values, and sensible reasoning is impossible to formulate – someone will shout over you anyway, “saying things as they are”. Your leader speaks to the guts, not to your head. You don't need the latter: He thinks for you. And if you vote with the guts, when the world is a scary place, you vote for who promises to protect you from the dangers.

A call to sycophants

Every Italian living abroad, sooner or later, has to face the question “how come Berlusconi is still in power?”. The usual answers (control of TV channels, charisma, populistic appeal to the masses, his it's-ok-not-to-pay-taxes attitude, his macho allure, the use of his multi-billionaire wealth in electoral campaigns... and there's more) are well documented.

Plenty of books have been written on all this. Still, usually those who asked the question remain perplexed. Ever more so when you tell them that the country is sinking economically and morally, but if Italy was to vote tomorrow, Berlusconi would be likely to win again.

Among expats, the lack of hope in the future is palpable. The best and brightest leave. Many, among whose who stay, adapt by following the mother of all Italian justifications against whistle-blowing: “Tengo famiglia” - I have a family, therefore I'm not such a fool to go against the flow.

The last example came yesterday. Writing the final word on David Mills, a British lawyer convicted of corruption for his services in trials involving Berlusconi's dodgy financial holdings, the Corte di Cassazione ruled a sentence of "prescription": that means Mills committed the crime, but as it was too long ago, it is no longer punishable. Berlusconi, it goes without saying, didn't waste a second before attacking the magistrates who had worked on the case.

And how was the news reported? Mostly correctly. But the TG1, the 30-minutes news program on the main state channel, said twice that Mills had been “acquitted”. Innocent, then. Didn't do anything wrong. Berlusconi had been again smeared for political reasons. Now, normally these judicial cases don't move a single vote – those who follow them are already rabid anti-Berlusconites, the “silent majority” doesn't bother. But the silenty majority follows the TG1 as a dinner-time tradition. And Italy, remember, is a country where 70 percent of the population get their news primarily from TV.

There's no shortage of sycophants in Italy, and the TG1 editor-in-chief Augusto Minzolini has proved again and again he's determined to lead the pack. And I suspect Paolo Di Giannantonio, the TG1 speaker who read the news, is more of a “tengo famiglia” type, then a die-hard Berlusconiano. I like to think that he's ashamed of himself, now.

So, I have a dream. That next time, Di Giannatonio or another lackey-type journalist in his position stops reading the news, stares at the camera, says that he's tired of having to lie in order to work, rips up his notes, tell the audience to wake up, and walks away in disgust. Showing some backbone would probably cost him his salary, but he would become a national hero for millions. I suspect some colleagues could follow. And then things would turn interesting.

Mamma mia!, the army in the streets

The government is already hailing it a success. Italians unlucky enough to spend August in the big cities, however, don't know whether to laugh or cry: 3,000 troops have been deployed in Milan, Rome and Naples' streets since last Monday, in order to crack down on petty crimes.
One could wonder what crimes you'd expect in ghost towns as those three cities are during the summer holidays, unless you plan to put a soldier in every block to defend empty flats from burglars. And whether Italy has seen a statistical rise in crime is open to debate: data are open to interpretation, the government and the opposition produce the ones that suit their theories best.
Anyway, the initiative is clearly part of the recent Italian obsession with "security", which usually goes with immigration-bashing. Some months before last April's election, the media agenda has been dominated by news related to immigrants - arriving in mass from Africa, getting stranded at sea, dying on our beaches, joyriding and killing innocents, raping. Every piece of news, every reported crime, kicks up a media frenzy if committed by foreigners. Berlusconi's goverment is playing into the people's fear that immigrants are taking Italy over: last week it even declared a state of emergency.
Being a nation with only a recent history of immigration, Italy could be forgiven for its inexperience to deal with the problem. But the government's populism and eagerness to subtly exploit the immigration card is, I would say, criminal itself. Instead of crafting policies to manage the problem, it sheds responsibility by declaring it insolvable, implying the use of force is the only way. The results: a hysteric country, scared citizens ready to take security into their hands because they don't trust the state, and ultimately a nation that feels besieged. And that, rather than opening itself to the world in the era of globalization, chooses to retract in its own carapace. And therefore, to decline.

Who cares about Alitalia

Three months after the elections, when Berlusconi aroused the traded unions into rejecting Air France's plan and promised a quick solution, the Alitalia saga still looks neverending. The ailing state-controlled air company, after long and overdue negotiations, was about to be sold to the French. Staff cuts were necessary, as Alitalia was (is) virtually bankrupt, and the deal looked reasonable to most observers.
Then Berlusconi, eager to win a third stint in goverment and eyeing a potential electoral coup-de-theatre, upset the table. He knew personally a group of businessmen willing to save Alitalia, and that would be a priority for his government. Alitalia's trade unionists, widely despised by Italians for being out of touch with reality and defending absurd privileges, upped the ante. And AirFrance left the table.

A hundred days later, Alitalia is barely surviving only thanks to a 300 million state loan, highly frowned upon by the EU. The company has cut flights but also lost passengers, and is losing over 1 million euros a day, more than it used to lose daily when a deal with AirFrance was still possible. Berlusconi is still promising to save the "italianity" of the company, but is now warning that some staff cuts will be necessary. Thanks for informing us: it would be bizarre if the new "saviours" cut more staff than AirFrance intended to do. Meanwhile, counting only the last three months, Alitalia cost every Italian more than 5 euros. God knows how much more during the years. And I don't know a single person who actually cares about the "italianity" of Alitalia. Cheaper flights and a better service would be more important.

Italy's opposition, a laughing stock for all

Foreign observers used to laugh at Italian politics because governments changed once a year. Now they make fun of us because of Berlusconi. But the behaviour of the current centre-left coalition deserves the same treatment.
While the government majority has basicly coalesced into two parties (Berlusconi's People of Freedom and the xenophobic and populist Northern League), the opposition is more divided than ever, even after being drubbed in last April's elections.
Following all the splits and name-changing facelifts is hard even by Italian standards. After splitting into three Communist parties, the far left united under one flag but got kicked out from the Parliament. The Democratic Party, the biggest movement in the coalition, was born from the merger between the secular Leftist Democrats and left-catholic The Daisy and was led by Walter Veltroni, a popular former mayor of Rome who took inspiration from Kennedy and Obama, but suffered a hard blow in April, despite the alliance with a small but fiery anti-corruption party led by former Tangentopoli prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro.
After the usual grand electoral promises, Berlusconi swiftly changed his priorities to what he does best: fixing the trials he's involved in with some self-tailored laws. In today's case, by passing a law that would temporarily freeze trials for the four highest political figures.
And how does the opposition reply? The radical left is busy trying to find a new identity, and is nowhere to be seen. Veltroni's Democrats, unconspicuous in their opposition but active with a "shadow government" so shadowy that few Italians realize it exists, apparently are convinced that the best way to tackle Berlusconi is by means of "dialogue for the reforms", a vague mantra that Italian politicians have kept repeating for the last ten years, to the point that nobody knows what these reforms would be anyway.
Di Pietro's Italy of Values, together with citizens who feel unrepresented by any parties but follow Beppe Grillo, a stand-up comedian-cum-firebrand, is the only one actively trying to denounce the prime minister's attempts to muzzle the judiciary.
This week, tens of thousands of people took to Rome's Piazza Navona to participate in a mass protest organized by Di Pietro. Anti-Berlusconi voters watched with a mix of hope and perplexity, but it was a stirring event anyway, when compared with Veltroni's smooth style.
And what happened today? The Democrats attacked Di Pietro, vehemently asking him to choose "between the streets and the Parliament". Another division in Italy's beleaguered opposition. On the other side, Berlusconi must be watching the show and have a laugh, too.

Hello, Silvio talking. But not resigning

Some of them were made public. Others, the really juicy ones, were later destroyed after a judicial order. But, if secret they were meant to be, word got quickly around that countless wiretaps of Berlusconi phone calls exposed some sexually dubious behaviour by the Italian prime minister.
It didn't take long. In one of the conversations, as left-leaning La Repubblica subtly wrote, Berlusconi "boasts about some of his female ministers' qualities". And in his defence of Berlusconi, conservative Libero's editor Vittorio Feltri said that poor Silvio cannot be blamed if he likes "la gnocca" (pussy).
By word of mouth, now everybody points the finger at the Equal Opportunities minister Mara Carfagna, a 32-year-old former beauty contestant and TV presenter, who recently became the youngest minister ever in Italy. Many Italians, who maligned at the time on the reasons for such a quick ascent to power, now can't refrain from snickering.
In another conversation, published by L'Espresso magazine, Berlusconi - at a time when he was just the opposition leader - pressures a state TV manager to find a role for a little-known starlet who keeps saying the prime minister wants to block her career. One would wonder why. Anyway, that's a plain Italian-style recommendation, and not based on work merits.
A plethora of right-wing journalist, and of course politicians of his coalition, rose up to defend Silvio: his private life is his business, shame on the communist judges and journalists who revel in listening to his conversations. Many Berlusconi voters would probably think the same. After all, everybody makes recommendations in Italy, and most Italians didn't understand what the fuss was about, when the US got stuck into the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. The concept of resigning must be so absurd that nobody even mentions it. If somebody dared to, he would be quickly ridiculed.
Yet, nobody seems to get the ethical point. Shouldn't the prime minister explain to his voters if the "qualities" of one of his female ministers were a factor in giving her the job? Doesn't anybody see anything wrong in a prime minister who, when not even in power, uses his influence to favour somebody's career - in Berlusconi's case with a clear conflict of interests, as he appears to have a say in the decisions of the company that rivals his three TV channels? And don't Berlusconi's female voters have anything to complain about how these episodes confirm the depressing situation of "equal opportunities" in Italy?
In some Northern European countries, it would have taken much less to prompt a politician to resign spontaneously. Last April, Finland's Foreign minister resigned after the media exposed his sending improper text messages to a dancer. In October 2006, Sweden's culture minister resigned after she admitted paying a nanny under the table. But it's not just civil Scandinavians that can look down on Italians. In July 2007, Japan's defence minister resigned after suggesting that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inevitable. Last January, Malaysia's health minister resigned Wednesday after acknowledging that he and a female friend were the couple in a secretly filmed sex video. And right today, Kenya's finance minister has resigned after being named in a corruption scandal. Had these cases happened in Italy, it wouldn't have been enough to get a resignation. And whoever had been caught in one of these scandals, they would have said it was all a plot against them.