the two decades of the Knight
(Massimo Giannini - La Repubblica)
anticipate part of the introduction of the book of "The Statesman. The Fascist Berlusconi between fascism and populism" (Baldini Castoldi Dalai, pp. 280, € 17) in bookstores these days
"The cowards and thugs of the radio controlled by the billionaire publishing of the White House gang of Lindbergh said that Winchell was dismissed for shouting 'fire "in a crowded theater. Mr. and Mrs. New York City, the word was not" fire. "Era" fascism "that Winchell yelled. It still is. Fascism! Fascism! And I will continue to cry "fascism" in every crowd of Americans that I can find until the party's betrayal of Herr Hitler's pro-Lindbergh will not be expelled from Congress on election day. "
I do not know why. But when I began to think of a book about Silvio Berlusconi, the first images that came to mind were those described by Philip Roth in his conspiracy against America, the political narrative fiction about Sir Charles Lindbergh wins the elections of 1940 to Roosevelt instead of plunging the United States and the world in the nightmare. Grand aviator and fly across the oceans, wherever you land with its mythological Spirit of St. Louis is waiting for the reporters of newspapers and thousands of people gathered to watch and cheer their young president, with his famous jacket and leather aviator's helmet.
Roth's novel is a magnificent fresco on the decline of a nation addicted. On its progressive loss of attention to social and moral tension. Question of places, a matter of symbols. The Roman Palace instead of Washington. Italy deep instead of America. The running board of a Mercedes instead of a cabin monoplane. Instead of the double-breasted jacket. Or the bandana instead of the headband. I do not know why. But as bold and imaginative, the comparison convinced me. I started writing. Inspired by the loving thoughts of a Grand Old Man of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi: "The Italians are caught by a strange yearning for servitude. And more Berlusconi tears up the institutional fabric, the more they demand to be servants." It's not a pretty picture. But unfortunately it is dramatically true.
The first argument of this book is that the Knight is now a statesman. Among the worst of the country's history. But a true statesman, who firmly in hand the destiny of the nation ... Fifty years from now, when they finally purged the last ideological sewage dell'estenuante Italian Novecento, the center looks out over the abyss of the First Republic and will have to recognize that everything that came later (in the case of Second, Third or No Republic) is Berlusconi calls. What we have lived and are living in 1994, with some marginal intermission, is to all intents and purposes the Fascist Berlusconi. There is no vice
private or public virtue, character or ethos of popular culture, the man of Arcore was unable to anticipate or amplify the same time, in a dizzying and sometimes mysterious game of mirrors in which the end was and is increasingly difficult to distinguish who reflects what. By the third electoral victory in 2008, Berlusconi was Italy permanently resumed ... Fascism and how to Piero Gobetti, Berlusconi has also come to really turn into another "biography of the nation" ...
He says it himself, the constituent of the PDL: "Ours is not only a new party is the new Italy. It 's a major political force that brings together all the Italians who do not identify with the left and we have made known their wishes in the last election." Nothing to object when he is right, you're right ...
The second thesis of this book is that the Italian is now a democracy in profound transformation. The Statesman is dragging on the ground that Italy would call "post-democratic", according to the formula coined by Colin Crouch ... It is not a dictatorship in the classical sense, but certainly a democracy "in its downward flight."
But descending to what? The drop point of this drift Italian is a modern form of "totalitarianism" post-ideological, philosophical and understood in a technical sense. Italy is too disenchanted to stumble on a true "system" in which fundamental freedoms are trampled ... At stake is another. It 'a new, subtle but dangerous form of political-cultural hegemony. E 'emptying and the weakening of the "places" in which they develop an oppositional thinking and a positive outlook on Italy and that is what we would like.
E 'the absence of autonomous powers that balance the excessive power of the executive, economic and financial institutions all'establishment, reduced to a mere role of vassalage, blackmail and blackmail through the mechanism of government concessions and incestuous pervert the circuit of bank financing.
E 'the breakdown of the contents of the policy, the systematic dismantling of the truth of the facts, the disintegration of the scientific language, which transforms the information in the "white noise" and irrelevant unlistenable, and homogenize everything, consensus and dissent, of assent in a blender ... Fareed Zakaria, in his Democracy without freedom theorizes the existence of "illiberal democracies," which combine elections and authoritarianism. "Often, democratic governments claim sovereignty, or absolute power, and this leads to an excessive centralization of authority, often by means extracostituzionali and with results not always appreciated.
The result is a form of government is not too different from a dictatorship, despite the greater legitimacy. "I do not know why. But once again these arguments make me think about things that happen in our country.
The third thesis of this book is that the statesman must now be taken seriously. In his "branch" is really the 'professional' best on the square, and can no longer be treated like a freak. And his right-wing government inevitably reflects the pure and hard " totalitarian vocation "of those who guide, but is saying and doing things like that ... He says Italians Giulio Tremonti, an ideologue of the majority:" Italy is a country essentially center-right. There was a center-right majority, and there will be. The problem is to give a representation in this mass majority of votes. "
I am convinced, reluctantly, that the superministro Economy is right ... The conflict of interest and is certainly" a "problem. But is "the" problem. What Umberto Eco had described in his time "Caesarism electronic," as the new power digit Berlusconi, and today only the corollary of a political and social epiphenomenon much more rooted and complex ... It is no true that he once wrote Furio Colombo, and that is that we are in the presence of "a leader who does not have an electronic people, but a public audience. "
The novelty of this third reincarnation Berlusconi is the leader is no longer just" electronic ", but became fully" political. "Above all, no longer only a" public ", but now it is also built a "people" ...
The fourth argument of this book is that Berlusconi has indeed some features in common with fascism. The contiguity, and continuity, it is obviously a scheme structure as violent and repressive . But as the political superstructure, social and cultural prone to authoritarianism and a plebiscite today that may scare many of us, but to meet these people. Nothing happens by chance. There will be a reason to date, despite an episode except the last April 25, the Statesman has never been able to declare openly and peacefully "fascist."
There will be a reason why today we are reassessing that mayors and ministers who celebrate the Fascist Salò. There is a reason why a group of young neo-fascist squad bursts in studies Rai via Teulada for a "punitive expedition" against a television program. And yet, there is a reason why today, 27 years after the discovery of the famous villa in the list of Castiglion Fibocchi, crops up out of Licio Gelli, even in his own show on TV: "I was born under fascism, fascist and die are fascist. The only one who can .. carry out the Plan of democratic rebirth is Berlusconi. "
No one, least of all me, think why the prime minister does not represent the country's legitimate government, democratically elected by the Italians ... But the awareness of the legitimacy of non-formal must stop to see, and above all to challenge the ineligibility of many significant utterances and many decisions. For the most illiberal, sometimes even unconstitutional ... Compare the two decades of Mussolini's Fascist Knight is not a crime.
Both more than is now the same statistics to allow comparison, joking with reporters: "With another five years added to 19 years of political activity. How many are missing, to get to that guy? "Yet again, there is little to joke. I read from democracy and dictatorship, written in June 1934 by Gaetano Salvemini:" The leader of a democracy, he says to his opponents: "I think you're right , but I could be wrong, let me try to see what are the practical results of my actions. If they are negative, then you will get your chance. " The dictator says, "I'm right, and the results of my work will always be good"; "or with me or against me"; "all in the state, nothing outside the State, nothing against the state", "the State shall I, who opposes the state is an outlaw. "See you on the basis of what he says and does, where more just put our Prime Minister.
(November 15, 2008)
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