Inequality under the law in Italy will become a reality if its controversial leader has his way, warns Andrea Mammone
There was a time when ordinary people’s lives were dependent on the forces of both nature and knights, when religious beliefs led to witch-hunts and animal sacrifices and when space and time had different meanings from those they do now. Three candles, each lasting between three and four hours, were used to measure the passing of night-time.
In those days, societies were divided into some imagined strict and natural orders. Authority stemmed from divinity and the monarch was its closest human manifestation. The king’s power could not be challenged and so life proceeded as it did because this was regarded as the “natural order of things”.
The Age of Enlightenment and a series of revolutions showed that “reason” and consequently human freedom, equality and democracy could be the source of legitimacy for ruling authorities. This also led to the “primacy of the law” over possible corruption and self-interests. In sum, parliaments turned out to be the key in organising communities towards the imposition of general and abstract rules.
Despite the horrors of modern world wars, these concepts have informed our lives. Yet they seem to have been forgotten in some nation-states. And while this may be explicable although not acceptable in some authoritarian regimes, it is far more paradoxical at the heart of modern Europe.
Italy under its controversial leader, Silvio Berlusconi, has become notorious. Berlusconi is known for various scandals, his sprawling, amoral media and financial empire, domination of Italian football and relationships with girls much younger than he is. The joker of European politics is often considered to be a strange and even a funny character – a bizarre, Latin absurdity. Some see all this as history repeating itself – another “eternal return”, to use the term coined by Czech writer Milan Kundera. Once Italy had Benito Mussolini. Now it has Silvio Berlusconi
Mussolini was defeated. What is worrying now is that Italy’s current political leadership is attempting to place itself above the rules of law. In such a context, elected leaders would be able to escape the judgement and even the scrutiny of the judicial system.
Berlusconi has been under investigation for corruption for years. His latest efforts to put a stop to this involve trying to nullify all trials that have lasted more than a certain number of years. However, rules still need to be abstract and general. In other words, they cannot be written for a specific case. So there could be major criminals, including Mafia bosses, who could avoid conviction and escape justice if the Prime Minister’s bill is approved.
Berlusconi’s self-preservation strategy does not stop here. The old magician has pulled other rabbits out of his hat. One is the planned return of parliamentary immunity for the Italian political class. This was scrapped following a popular rebellion in the early 1990s, just after the political corruption and financial scandals of the so-called First Republic.
There used to be some reasons in history for this immunity, but it stands now for another state of exception from the standard legal system. It makes it very hard to prosecute politicians who are accused of corruption.
Unsurprisingly, though, Berlusconi’s proposal has been welcomed by sections of the parliamentary opposition. It could save some of them from costly trials or condemnation in the media. The latter happens often. The Italian media are generally politicised and frequently condemnatory.
Now the Prime Minister’s plans threaten to undermine an essential legal and human principle. The message is clear: not all citizens are equal and, in particular, everyone is not equal under law. There are exceptions. While someone in authority facing charges of financial malpractice might avoid punishment, an immigrant, say, would still be strongly persecuted under Italian law.
There is unlikely to be any softening of the legislation. Why would there be, when members of Berlusconi’s current government include former neo-fascists of the National Alliance? (However, ex-leader Gianfranco Fini now seems to be in some disagreement with Berlusconi.) The Prime Minister has also given jobs to the neo-fascist Alessandra Mussolini and members of the anti-immigrant Northern League. It may be that Berlusconi’s anti-immigration legislation is the only part of his programme which is driven purely by ideology – no matter how poisonous – and free of personal interests.
Many will be the losers if the proposed new legislation actually becomes law, but not the entire population. The exception will be the new breed in Italy: “homo politicus” and especially its most famous incarnation, Silvio Berlusconi.
In a sort of counter-Enlightenment rebellion, the Prime Minister and his minions try to present themselves as aggrieved innocents persecuted by communist judges and left-wing sections of the national and international press. That’s why they want to be placed above the law. As a sort of modern monarch, Berlusconi seems to think he should not be questioned while he rules the country. In the Middle Ages, the aristocracy had great privileges enforced by the judiciary. Since these privileges were supposedly God-given, they could not be subverted. It appears that Berlusconi would like to see something similar in the 21st century.
Will Italy wake up to the plan to exempt the country from some basic Western liberal democratic rules? Will it soon recover from the damage inflicted by Berlusconi? That would seem unlikely. This beautiful but also shameless country faces a political, cultural and economic crisis, and a moral decline, as well as a tarnishing of international image.
One day Berlusconi will presumably disappear into a golden retirement. But he did not come out of the blue, and the media and public will probably overlook the conditions that allowed him to gain and exert power. The suspicion is that this is a nation with a long-term tradition of weak civic engagement. Sadly, almost anything seems to be acceptable in modern Italy, perhaps because too many people still think it is the natural order of things for power and privilege to be concentrated in the hands of an elite few.
Andrea Mammone lectures in modern history at Kingston University in London. With GA Veltri, he is the editor of Italy Today: The Sick Man of Europe, to be published by Routledge on February 15
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