“The Finns don’t even know what prosciutto is”. Thus spoke Italy’s prime minister in 2001, as Helsinki and Parma competed to host the European Safety Food Agency. The following statement caused an uproar among Finland’s media; one of its main dailys even thought it wise to run a mockr full page advertisement in clarification: ‘Prosciutto is ham’. It seems that whenever Mr Silvio Berlusconi stumbles away from diplomatic maturity, everyone else falls with him.
And indeed, he is too well known for his poor press coverage, doubly at home and abroad. Ranging from a series of scandals relating to an alleged relationship with a 18-year-old prostitute, to diplomatic blunders such as the one described above, his reputation has long lost any credibility. The Economist has made repeated calls against his candidature in Italy’s elections. Criticisms are rife as regards to his attempts to control Italian press, notably television channels, to his favour. Incidents during his years in powers have been rife and most often, highly entertaining. In a most recent flounting of democratic practices, Berlusconi has successfully pressured his government to change electoral rules as to allow his party’s candidates to run for the regional elections in the Lazio constituency; originally, the list of the candidates had not been submitted in time. For all of this, any other politician would have gotten the ax long ago. Hence, what Berlusconi can be admired for is the sheer impertinence of him still remaining in power.
However, some admirers associate him with a fiery, slightly machistic, Italian stereotype, which seems to provide excuse enough for his behaviour. Yet times have moved on, and it is impossible to get away with such nonsense nowadays. Attacks upon the legitimacy of the democratic process, even if slight, are too dangerous to ignore.
Many Italians have found themselves to be of this same opinion. Born of a gathering on Facebook (indeed, where else?) the ‘Purple Movement’ has brought together people from all over the country, united in a distaste of Berlusconi. Their protests have become all the more frequent over the past months, making waves on the Italian political scene.
Their aim is simple: exercise as much political pressure as possible as to shift Berlusconi and his government out of power. Despite being lent infrastructures from the opposition, they refuse to identify with it. According to them, these spineless parties are simply not doing their job.
In the same spirit, the anti-Berlusconi movement chose the colour purple to represent their anger as it was the only one which remained devoid of any political connotation in Italy. This probably shows the lively crowd-gathering, symbol making, nature of the country’s political campaigning. Yesterday, a protest took place in Rome, gathering near 200,000, was a compelling example of this; banners ranged from the simple “Basta” to “vote for Ali Baba, then at least you’ll be sure that there will be only forty thieves.”
Despite all of this, Berlusconi still stands high in his poll ratings. Beyond the scandals and blunders, most Italians still trust him to run the country, or perhaps, see him as a much lesser evil. In addition, his theatrics sometimes work in his (political) favour. For instance, a passerby hitting away at his face with a model of Milan’s cathedral sprung much sympathy from all across the country. However, a few lost teeth are not sufficient to forgo all of Berlusconi’s shady errors. Indeed, it is likely that upon his stepping down from power, the Italian judiciary will be thinking along the same lines.
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