Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Guardian: la farsa italiana del Sultano

Trying to describe the situation in Italy in the last few weeks, it's
difficult to resist the temptation to quote Karl Marx's: "History
repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
The tragedy: Mussolini, during the last days of the Salò republic, was
gradually abandoned to his fate and to his delusions, surrounded only
by party ministers and officials who were too deeply involved with the
fascist regime and its crimes to have any perspective. Although the
party was disintegrating, Mussolini still had a direct and charismatic
relationship with the masses and he could even then stir up the crowds
in a speech at the Lirico theatre in Milan, where he raved about
imaginary counter-attacks.
The farce: bearing in mind the difference between a dictator and a
democratically elected political leader, such as Silvio Berlusconi,
the current situation in Italy is reminiscent of the last days of
Salò, with the leader's isolation and progressive loss of credibility
in the eyes of important factions in the establishment.
After Berlusconi's much talked-about split with Gianfranco Fini,
co-founder of the People of Freedom party and speaker of the house of
deputies, the spotlight has now been turned on Emma Marcegaglia, the
president of Confindustria, the powerful organisation which groups
together Italian employers. Considered guilty of making public
declarations that questioned the quality of Berlusconi's financial
policies, she has been mauled by the tycoon president's press.
Marcegaglia, however, does not seem willing to be treated as if she
were an employee of the president's television company Mediaset, and
has talked of "a poisonous smokescreen, which is trying to smother
Confindustria" and of "a malicious journalistic environment, which is
attempting to restrict all entrepreneurial autonomy and independence".
Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy (and chairman of the
international Financial Stability Board) has also been singled out for
a governmental reprimand. His offence is deemed to be very serious: he
dared to point out figures that dispel the mirage Berlusconi has been
assuring us is the truth, by proving that the country's economy is
hardly growing at all, and there are too many unemployed. Draghi has
been rapped over the knuckles by several ministers including Giulio
Tremonti (economy and finance) and Maurizio Sacconi (labour, health
and social policies). They hastened to describe the data as
"anxiety-inducing" and "impossible to comment on in so far as it is
esoteric".
It's like being in a banana republic: the two most important financial
ministers deny the data from their own national bank. In a normal
European country, the controversy would be settled by either the
resignation of Draghi or of the ministers: but not in Berlusconi's
Italy.
And here is one last ingredient in the comedy of Berlusconi's decline,
the typical ploy of all populists when they're cornered: a treacherous
attack on your own party. Last week, he accused the members of not
being active and organised enough in their defence of the government's
achievements.
I'm wondering if the future holds a new TV serial showing Berlusconi
in a Maoist perspective, ready to unleash a "cultural revolution" that
would allow him to eliminate any timid residual dissent in the House
of Freedoms, his own party and business concerns. Who knows? It might
even be fun to live in a permanent carnival celebration with a guard
of tall, blonde Amazonians dressed in light blue, all chosen according
to the leader's aesthetic standards. The final scene of this comedy,
which is really a nightmare from which Italy will wake up to find
itself morally and financially bankrupt, still seems a long way off.
[Roberto Mancini, "Berlusconi's Italian farce", 
guardia.co.uk
,
Saturday 23 October 2010]

 repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
PENSINO AI  LORO PROBLEMI...