Globalaffairs

Issue 18/December- January 2010
By Daniel Puglisi

One day Silvio Berlusconi will be a name in Italian school history books alongside a timeline from beginning to end. His rule, which began for the first time in 1994 will be attributed the title of Berlusconism and university students will write final year theses upon him. His biography will be that of contemporary Italy.

As of 2009, after three separate national election victories he stands as the Italian Republic’s longest serving Prime Minister (1). Interruptions from government collapse, technocratic caretaker administrations and ineffective appearances by the Italian political left have featured in between. To date the billionaire media tycoon-net worth estimated at $6billion and football club owner turned right wing politician has in total only held his premiership for a little over 6 years (2). Yet such is the fragmentary nature of Italian politics that this is an impressive achievement; to date the country has had more than 60 governments since 1945 (3).

Despite periods out of office he has been a major figure in his country for decades, holding influential positions in media and business, publishing and sport. His media empire in particular, whereby the channels owned by his family control a large terrestrial audience share has proved a cornerstone in rousing his support. Equally his Mediaset channels 1, 4 and 5 have been accused of defending his disputes and ignoring some of his more pertinent misfortunes. Included in his biography are his infamous bouts of political incorrectness and controversies; saying fascist dictator Mussolini never killed anyone, allegations of collusion with organised crime, corruption, alleged relationships with women young enough to be his granddaughter and calling a black American president ‘tanned’ to name a few.

Yet he has successfully defended himself, raking in the votes of a majority of the Italian population time after time and surviving every imaginable scandal or accusation. At 73, with a democratic mandate into the next decade he has every chance to extend his history book timeline into a third decade of political activity, yet not much further. For his domestic centre left opponents-the demonised communist enemies of freedom and democracy-the various scandals of the late 2000’s are hoped to prompt an earlier exit. However with a majority in both the senate and the chamber of deputies Berlusconism is likely to retain its grip on Rome and the nation at large.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) speaks with Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, in Rome. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

If it is to be assumed however that the current Italian president will not hold office after 2013 then this is finally the beginning of the end of Berlusconi. At least in purely political terms as leader of the Italian state. A grey haired, retired ex prime minister lapping up a suntan at his Sardinian mega villa could well continue to haunt political discourse. His complete departure from Italian society will only truly begin after his physical death and even then his legacy, after decades of involvement in television, media and politics will have to be confronted by those who follow whoever they may be.

Mr. Berlusconi cannot be blamed for all the failings of the Italian state. Many of the abundant national problems at the time he entered the political arena in the early 90’s such as corruption, clientelism and patronage, a deep divide between the public and the state, a polarized political system and organized crime were not of his making. Yet what has he done to resolve them?

Italian organized crime is currently Italy’s biggest business taking in a turnover of about 130 billion euros according to a 2008 study (4). In late November 2009 Berlusconi said he had no links to the Mafia and was a crime fighter, after a former criminal turned grass implicated him in a trial (5). The very fact that he has to defend himself of the charges, however, whether they are unfounded or not says something about the messy state of Italian politics and the country as a whole. Speaking in March 2009 at the first congress of his new political party and reported in Panorama magazine he declared “it is us who have brought the true morality into politics” (6).

In an Italy still flooded with the broadcast of dancing showgirls, corruption is still commonplace, career advancement is still dominated by the ‘cultura di raccomandazioni’-patronage and clientelism-and all political opponents of the right are still dubbed lazy communists who don’t want to work. In 2009, almost two decades after the fall of Communism, Berlusconi, to his advantage, continues to fight his political battles in an imaginary polarized world where all his opponents are communist enemies. Enemies which include perhaps the world’s most famous international magazine of free market capitalism, The Economist, dubbed the “Ecommunist”.

Respect of ones political opponents, allowing domestic and international press criticism, of diversity of opinion, of the simple fact that one cannot always be right are all absent from Berlusconi’s discourse. The polarization of Italian politics is maintained, voters are encouraged to stick to their rigid identity politics and never vote against ‘their people’ regardless of how many blunders they make. If he ever had good intentions to transform and modernize his country, he has failed. In his defence, he blames the judicial system for a personal witch-hunt, immigrants for crime and disorder on the streets and of course ‘the communists’ (7).

As he nears the end of his lengthy spell of power what is next for Italy?

Gianfranco Fini, ex leader of the post-fascist National Alliance (AN) party has attempted to position himself away from extremist politics to more mainstream conservatism over recent years and stands at present the most likely candidate to take over the reigns. President of the Chamber of Deputies after the merger of all the big centre right heavyweights into the new People of Freedom party, Fini is a big player in centre right politics. Yet the Fini led AN never outperformed Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party when they were coalition partners in previous elections (8).

Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League self proclaimed ‘fedearalist’ party-known for its xenophobic stance toward immigrants-is the next right leader in the pecking order. Yet by limiting himself to region-specific ambitions of a newly envisioned land called ‘Padania’-a concept invented in the late 1980’s-he will never be a national leader. While Berlusconi remains in power he is the glue that keeps his two main right wing allies together. In contrast, his eventual departure will pose a question mark over whether the non-homogenous centre right, which includes such diverse collaborators as northern Federalists, Christian democrats and Fascist apologists can remain intact as a single power block.

It also opens up the possibility of even darker times for an Italy without a viable or strong opposition, something inextricably essential to democracy. Up until now, Berlusconi has far surpassed the charisma or status of any other on the right. A businessman who entered politics, some argue that he was never really a political man, only entering the field for his own economic interests, which incidentally standing in the billions can’t be doing too badly. The others however, extremely politicized hardened right wingers who include some admitted fascists will remain after Berlusconi’s departure and it perhaps the vacuum that they will seek to fill which is most worrying. Already since the formation of the People of Freedom party, a new emergency status regarding immigrants was declared. Fingerprinting a specific ethnic group, the Roma, was considered and received widespread international condemnation in the global press. This suggests more extremist elements of right wing ideology are coming to the forefront as Berlusconi gradually loses his dominance. Thus his end will be the beginning of a new era of Italian politics, one which on present trends does little to offer optimism for the future.

The Democratic Party, the new merger experiment of centre left parties has had 3 different leaders since its formation 2 years ago (9). Despite so much ample ammunition with an array of monthly scandals provided by Berlusconi and his associates it has been almost completely ineffective in presenting itself as a realistic opponent. In party bickering and instability amongst Italy’s left have gifted Berlusconi an even greater comfortable hold on power. In an Italy where image is everything and intelligently constructed arguments count for nothing the left will either have to hope for a miraculous cultural turn around or play Berlusconi at his own game by putting forward a media friendly leader that can garner mass appeal in front of a camera.

The Italian people are the great losers in the continued mess of Italian politics. Neither right nor left since being in power throughout the nineties and 2000’s have improved an underproductive country, whose young generation in their twenties and thirties-the future-will inherit all the financial and social burdens of an aged population whose political class enjoyed the high life on their parents’ taxes.

On Sunday the 13th of December 2009 Silvio Berlusconi was physically attacked in public after a political rally by a man with a history of mental problems. Violent acts of this kind are rightfully condemned as a matter of principal. There can be no benefit to the future of Italian democracy of further perpetuating polarization and of the possibility of political violence, something which gravely plagued the Italy of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Yet a violent act by an individual should not translate into a politicised issue fought out between mainstream left and right. The receiver of the attack is a politician yet this does not necessarily make the crime political, yet it already has instigated a series of vivid verbal political exchanges between competing national factions. The damage has been done. Talk of civil war; of warnings about going back to a violent past were those said by President Giorgio Napolitano the day after the attack. The guiltiness of the attacker is not in question, yet it is more likely that the most severe retaliation will be against the Italian political left as a whole. The right has already begun blaming the opposition for a poisoned culture of hate and violence as cause for the crime. Berlusconi and his failings are likely to be put aside in a new post attack environment where he will emerge stronger than ever. His end will come, hopefully in more peaceful circumstances, for the time being he remains very much the protagonist of the continuing anomaly of the land of the boot.

Daniel Puglisi
BA Honours University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK 2008

References

(1)Agenzia Stampa Quotidiana Nazionale
http://www.asca.it/news-BERLUSCONI__IERI_BATTUTO_RECORD_GIORNI_DI_DE_GASPERI_AL_GOVERNO-857938-ORA-.html

(2)BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3034600.stm

(3)New York Times, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/italy/index.html

(4)ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6238022&page=1

(5)Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6937003.ece

(6)Panorama, http://blog.panorama.it/italia/2009/03/29/berlusconi-chiede-riforme-e-piu-poteri-al-premier/

(7)Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLS70882420091028

(8)Ministry of the Interior,
http://elezionistorico.interno.it/liste.php?tp=C&dt=27/03/1994&cta=I&tpEnte=A&tpSeg=C&numEnte=0&sut1=&sut2=&sut3=&descEnte=&descArea=ITALIA&codTipoSegLeader=

(9)Corriere Della Sera
http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/novembre/07/squadra_Bersani_Letta_sara_numero_co_8_091107035.shtml

The views and opinions of contributors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Global Affairs

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