To outsiders, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is one of the least prepossessing of world leaders. His boorish manners, fatuous pronouncements, dubious personal conduct and the corruption allegations that dog him consistently, combine to make him an unlikely leader for a Western democracy. Yet supporters of his center-right Forza Italia party worship him. Many less committed Italians still find him a refreshing change from the often gray, institutionally corrupt and ineffective norm of their country’s politicians.
By the same token, however, there is clearly a proportion of voters that loathes him. The extent of that hatred was made astonishingly clear in the online reaction to Sunday’s assault on Berlusconi by a man wielding a model of Milan cathedral. Within hours, more than 20,000 people had signed a Facebook petition congratulating the assailant.
This is disgraceful. It matters not that in the eyes of the world Berlusconi may be a buffoon. No political leader deserves to be attacked in this manner and it is frankly abhorrent that anyone should even think of publicly endorsing the crime and lauding the criminal. It is also inimical to the very spirit of an advanced European democracy that Italy is supposed to be.
Does this extraordinary behavior perhaps point to a deeper malaise within Italian society? Supporters of the injured prime minister started their own Internet message area in which they responded angrily to the awful rejoicing at his injuries. The nature of some of these postings was hardly more reassuring. The man who announced that he wanted to “wash his feet in the blood of these communists” was by no means alone in posting such extreme sentiments.
Political polarization is not necessarily an alarming development. Provided that both sides of the political spectrum accept that their rival views must be presented to the electorate at the ballot box and the result accepted, there is no danger. The losers then have to grin and bear it until the next election.
Berlusconi is a man who inspires strong feelings. The last Italian politician having the same effect was Benito Mussolini. The world thought him a clown too. Berlusconi is far from being a military dictator. It could be argued his immense fortune and his dominance of the Italian press and media already make him as potent a leader as Mussolini, without the high-risk international power posturing that destroyed his predecessor. Even if that is an overstatement, there does appear to be a similarity in the way ordinary Italians have responded to each politician.
Italians seem to want a highly individual leader about whom they can have strong feelings, good or bad, rather than the colorless political old guard whose venality and incompetence inspired only deep cynicism. Since 1945 there have been over 60 governments, almost one for every year. That unfortunately speaks of an unstable democratic process that serves all voters badly and, as recent days have shown, also stores up violent anger. As Berlusconi recovers from his injuries, all Italians, whatever their political affiliations, should perhaps be drawing back and asking themselves where their politics is going.
