Tycoon who entered politics late, enemy of the ruling elite, goldsmith of communication and king of television, the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconiwho died on Monday, opened the way for right-wing populists.
“He is the first, he invented everything”summarizes John Foot, professor of history of contemporary Italy at the University of Bristol, in England.
“He has no party, everything revolves around him, his life, his success as a businessman, the simple slogans, the use of television, all the artifices that other populists will later copy”from Donald Trump to Nigel Farage, from Viktor Orban to Jair Bolsonaro, adds the researcher.
Berlusconi, who made his fortune in construction and then in communication companies, ran for the first time in the legislative elections in 1994.
In a video statement, he lists what today constitutes the rhetorical foundations of any rookie populist.
“The country that legitimately distrusts prophets and saviors needs people who have their heads on straight (…), new men” compared to the “orphans of communism”corrupt, outmatched, he says.
He even presents himself as “worker prime minister”which will put an end to “a politics of incomprehensible chatter, of stupid disputes, and of politicians without a real profession.”
It helped him arrive in the middle of the Mani Pulite case, a colossal anti-corruption operation launched in 1992 that decapitated the Italian political class.
And it doesn’t matter if later, once in power, he protected himself from numerous processes against him by modifying the legislation on corruption, the statute of limitations for financial crimes…
“I am one of yours”
For many Italians, Berlusconi is a bit like them. They feel they are paying too much in taxes for a teeming state, while having trouble making ends meet. It is to them that Berlusconi addresses when he justifies the reduction of public funds for research: “Why pay a scientist if we make the best shoes in the world?”
“Berlusconi presents himself as a ‘self-made man’ capable of passing from the State thanks to a ‘liberal revolution’ that will allow all Italians who want to become entrepreneurs”analyzes the philosopher Anna Bonalume, author of the essay “Un mois avec un populiste” (A month with a populist) about Matteo Salvini.
“This promise — I am one of yours, you can become what I am — is the essence of populism”according to this author.
A man alone against the elites to defend the people, a fortune amassed despite the obstacles of the State, a language that is always accessible and often trivial, a special relationship with women and the media at their command: “Trumpism bears the mark” of Berlusconism, the newspaper La Repubblica pointed out on Tuesday, under the title: “the first populist”.
“Trump, 30 years before”
Berlusconi, is “Trump, 30 years before,” insists Daniele Albertazzi, professor of Political Science at the English University of Surrey. “The political elite deceived them, but I am here, I have earned billions thanks to my intelligence, my fervor for work, and I want to do for the country what I did for myself”, says Albertazzi summarizing Berlusconi’s speech.
And like the former US president, Berlusconi presents himself as a victim to justify his political or judicial problems.
“Victim of the judges, of the political system, of the ‘establishment’, of the referees”says John Foot. But there is an important difference between the two rulers: the Italian “He doesn’t want to change politics for ideological reasons, it’s just about him and his business”.
But this has never stopped Berlusconi from making use of religion, a strong feature of right-wing populist ideologies on both sides of the Atlantic.
A surprising position, according to Daniele Albertazzi, seeing “Silvio Berlusconi’s extramarital affairs, including very young people, being he an octogenarian”. Trump and Berlusconi also share the use of offensive language, which for them comes from “town”.
When the first one says that being famous you can “grab them (women) by the cunt”the second promises its footballers a “whore bus” if they win
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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