Monday, April 18, 2005

The end of Berlusconism

Italy is the country of melodrama par excellence. Today, in the Vatican, the Archbishops from all over the world are deciding who will be the new Pope. At the same time, in Rome, Berlusconi is living the last day of his government. A law of perfect simmetry would command that the election of the new Pope coincide with the end of Berlusconi. But this is a matter of contingencies, and it does not matter so much. At the end of the day, we can safely establish an ideal parallel.

The parallel is clear as Berlusconi considers himself as the Pope of the lay italian society. He's the pontiff of us all, in his own philosophy, as much as Bush is the pontiff of Americans [with the difference that Bush believes to be the Pope also in religious matters]. He is the one. The one blessed by god. He is the best, the richest, and the tallest (even if he is only 5 feet and a small banana). He knows about everything, and other people are simply wrong if they disagree with him. Of course, judges too are wrong if they interpret the law in a way that is not favourable to Berlusconi. He is the law-maker, how can the law be against him?

For a while, Berlusconi's friends, and the majority of italian people, believed in Berlusconi. They believed that he could really save us, change us, create one million jobs, and, more importantly, he provided a model we could try to imitate (But, of course, nobody can be like Him). The truth is that since he is prime minister ( obviously not primus inter pares), his coalition has lost an increasing number of votes. The last episode of the saga, the regional elections, saw a defeat 11 to 2 of Berlusconi's coalition.

As a result, the faith many italians had in Berluconi faded away. His friends betrayed him (Follini, the president of the renewed Christian Democrats {UDC}, left the government along with his party members. His miracles did not happen: Italy is still Italy, beautiful and slightly damned.

In short Berlusconism, his philosophy, is dead! Will he be able to resurrect? I don't think so; he is simply like us, after all.

1 comment:

Srdjan Cvijic said...

I applaud the possibility of the fall of the Berlusconi government and commend this excellent piece written by Lorenzo. However, i must say that I was struck by Lorenzo's words "Berlusconi's philosophy". I wander what is philosophical about, corruption, undermining the public interest adn using the public office for the protection of one's business empire and, should I even say, personal freedom. If this is philosophy, then Russell should add another chapter to his "History of the Western Civilization"..."Anti-Republicanism" or something like that...Well done Lorenzo