Politics and the economy are one on top of the other. The one does not exist without the other. Economics depends on politics and politics on economics. It can happen that one triumphs over the other but always in a condition of symbiosis, of reciprocal benefit. Politics is itself economics, one of the most important industries of the country with tens of billions of turnover a year. Money is useful for doing politics and politics is useful for developing the economy of the concessions to Benetton, to the bankers of Geronzi, Fiorani, and Consorte and to the constructors of Caltagirone, Ligresti. Economic politics can aspire to the position of the President of the Council and get it, as happened with Berlusconi, firms holding a concession of the State for the TV frequencies paying 1% of turnover.
Parliament is an economic objective, a social point of arrival, there are no poor parliamentarians. However there are some parliamentarians who have become rich, or at least well off. Politics is a business. Money is its fuel, the oxygen that keeps it alive. In order to prosper, the parties need headquarters (paid for by public financing) , newspapers (paid for by public financing), structures throughout the territory completely similar to a company with bosses and their lieutenants (paid for by public financing) employees under their orders in parliament, in the regions, in the provinces, in the towns (paid for from taxes). The elections are a great devourer of investments, those who can afford it, win, as happened with Mortizia Moratti, who became Mayor thanks to the millions of euro of her oil-baron husband.
The difference between politics and the economy is ever more subtle. The privatisation of the public goods, the matter of the social State, of the pact that connects a community, of mutual assistance, is considered progressive, a sign of efficiency that always translates into profit for someone. The State, that the Constitution says is based on work, is instead based on capital, whoever possesses it, and whoever manages it, makes the State. Politics is a career. Anyone who enters it never leaves it. They believe themselves to be responsible for the good of society, but in the best case they have obtained a position of great media importance and a top class salary. The separation of the career has to start from this marriage of politics and the economy.
The most important result for the 5 Star MoVement is to have obtained half a million votes at 0.8 cents a vote and to have refused public financing of one million seven hundred thousand going under the name of “reimbursement of election expenses”. The Internet makes possible a new politics separated from economic interests, the politics of ideas and of transparency at zero cost for the citizens. The parties are at a crossroads but they cannot take either of the two routes. If they separate themselves from economic interests, from the “stuff”, they will die like a Siamese twin with two heads. If they don’t separate themselves from economic interests, they will be cancelled out by the voters. They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.