The reason why Berlusconi will not and cannot stand on trial is quite obvious: he knows very well that he will be condemned. Because the judges are against him, he says. Because he committed the offenses he is accused for, under the indictment hypothesis of the trials. Many of these crimes relate to classic examples of unfair competition: an entrepreneur who corrupts a judge to take a decision in his favor, falsified financial statements, moved money around, hid his debts.
Things that a lot of entrepreneurs have done, in Italy. But this does not mean that they can be justified. Doing so would mean that honest entrepreneurs have done wrong. If this is the morality of the PDL, Berlusconi's party, then let's have freedom to commit crimes for everyone, and win the most cunning. In the other countries of the world, not only in democracies but also in many authoritarian regimes, no one would dream of actually justify illegality as they do here in Italy. Still less would dream of candidate it for election and vote on it.
Already this is all completely absurd, as if Italian politics were an upside-down world where no rules apply, nor the laws of human society that hold among ordinary citizens, and in all other countries in the world. But unfortunately there is something even worse, the fact that there are people in the PDL under investigation for complicity with the Mafia as Cosentino or Dell'Utri, now on trial, and that the premier has taken in the past as a groom in his villa a notorious mobster and killer such as Mangano, and has even been investigated for the mafia murders in 92-93. Now, even in the world's most corrupt authoritarian regimes politicians and the public would find it difficult to vote and elect people with similar curriculum. But in Italy no. It goes on like this for 15 years and every time that a law made by Berlusconi for personal reasons is rejected or stopped, immediately there comes another, worse. The strategy is deliberate, a sort of revenge and a threat: "If you do not do what I want, I'll destroy everything."
This reversal of reality is possible, we must never forget, because Berlusconi controls most of the Italian media since years thanks to his friends in the old parties before 92 and through the connivance of the opposition in the last 15 years.
Who for so many years watched all this with disbelief and disgust is now the prey of a great weariness. On the one hand a majority with a leader suspected, investigated and charged that a part for cranking out more than ad hoc measures to save the boss and useless laws born from the worst racism and populism did absolutely nothing useful for the country. On the other a flimsy opposition, too often compromised with mafia and corrupted, that when on government tried to keep order in public finances, but nothing more than that.
Only a minority of Italians is aware of this situation and tries to counter it, but maybe we are wrong. Perhaps we should stop opposing it and see what happens, letting Italy implodes as it apparently wants, falls once and for all under the weight of its own sins. But this cannot be done. The systematic corruption and connivance with the mafia is incompatible with civilization. You cannot sit still and watch while a bunch of unscrupulous criminals burn down your house. Continue to oppose that it's still necessary, despite the weariness.
Francesco Defferrari
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Comments