We’re so distracted by the economy that we no longer know what democracy is. In Italy there’s a government, a parliament, a President of the Republic, but there’s no democracy. Monti represents just himself. No one has elected him. His function is that if the liquidator who has to preserve “international credibility”, basically the value of State bonds purchased by France, Germany and Great Britain to avoid the default. Anyone sober and with a clean criminal record, coming after this party-cratic class, of which Berlusconi is the caricature, would have been welcomed as a saviour. And that has happened. The fear of losing everything on the side of the Italians, has worked the miracle. It has transformed an old professor into a father of the motherland. The previous governments were the triumph of the party-cracy. The party secretaries, thanks to an unconstitutional electoral law, did a desk job to elect all the senators and all the deputies. No party held back in screwing democracy. If commanding is better than screwing, the parties have joined both activities together. Without democracy, without the participation of the citizens in public life there’s no future for Italy. Instead of civil rights, there’s a discussion of spread, of bund and of growth. Whether a current account is more democratic than investment in shares.
For the succession to Monti, in 2013, there’s (being kept nicely warm), the banker Passera. Have we had the “Risorgimento” and the “Resistance” to put a banker as the head of the government? And he’s not the first to be a candidate for the throne. The PDminusL-guy Enrico Letta, the nephew of his uncle, had the gall to put forward Profumo as a candidate a couple of months ago. We’ll go back to the vote according to the census, as in the nineteenth century. You vote if you can afford it. The votes are paid for, not counted. The debate on rights and on duties, on the Constitution, on the motives for staying together and on the construction of a better future has disappeared from any agenda. We have become current account holders instead of citizens. The fiscal code has substituted citizenship. The word “democracy” is used like a stress ball. It’s useful to make us feel better while we talk and squeeze it. “We are a Great Democratic Country” in which the referendum is only to abrogate a law and anyway the parties don’t care about the results, where proposals for popular laws are ignored and where you cannot choose your candidate. What more do you want in life? This lot don’t give a toss about fascism.