Great Old Men. What Amato, Cassese and Draghi say and how they move
Great old men and great brothers. Mattarella, Cassese, Amato and Draghi: ages and positions in Battista Falconi's commentary
You don't see many big brothers around anymore. Now that newspapers and print media have passed away, television being relegated to a medium for the over fifty (at least), the great multimedia cauldron of the internet remains, where algorithms decide the information package for all of us. But even the great leaders of the web are reporting signs of crisis, including tax assessments and requests for a more binding regulatory regime for their influencer activity. And this is how the various social media alternate successes and defeats and that once widely used forms of digital communication, such as blogs, are now obsolete. Indeed, newsletters and WhatsApp groups are gaining ground again which, despite many limitations, ensure the dissemination of content better targeted to the real interest of the recipients.
In this hubbub the great old men make themselves heard. The first of which is obviously Sergio Mattarella, who for some time has been playing his role as " Italian grandfather " with an attitude almost worthy of the unattainable interventionism of his predecessor Francesco Cossiga, imparting alternating reproaches and advice in almost perfect bipartisan style : a nudge to the left and a swing on the right. One of the latest utterances, the head of state made during a meeting with Casagit, the journalistic health fund, one of the bodies that reflect the decline also in age of the sector, such as the Inpgi social security institute, the national and regional Orders, the Fnsi and Usigrai unions (whose acronym has been opposed for some time by a competitor).
Not a mere courtesy meeting, but a platform from which stentorian statements were released on the signatures of the unwanted laws, clarifying that the President "signs their promulgation, which is a very different thing". As if to say, some exegete maligns them: maybe I don't appreciate the government's laws but I have to get them passed. What is of interest here, however, is the setting, that is, having thus given prominence to a meeting with journalists. On the other hand, Mattarella often points out that "freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy", banal as it may be.
For this reason it was curious that yesterday another elderly and authoritative gentleman – and obviously reserve of the Republic – like Sabino Cassese spoke to Matteo Renzi's Leopolda words of such a different tone that they almost seemed like a reply. The ex said many things that it is time to get involved with the anti-mafia prosecutor's office and review the rules on journalists: “The anti-mafia needs a check-up, the judiciary must defend itself from the ambition of the magistrates themselves. The Order stops the journalist-spokesmen with stringent rules, we need independent journalism, not messengers". Which, said in days when there is a lot of talk about espionage, confidential information, combinations between officials and reporters, complaints, the relationship between the judiciary and information, confidentiality and dignity of people, sounds like a targeted response intervention.
On the other hand, Cassese has been moving and promoting himself for a long time, he even ensured a presence in "Un giorno da pecora" where, it is known, the supposedly comical tone of the program must be fully supported and he found himself as sidekick to none other than Enzo Iachetti! Even more so, Bino, as he said he is normally called, has been doing this since his book "The Structures of Power" came out. The Vannacci method, we could say.
Whether in this way the jurist intends to put himself in the spotlight to present his candidacy as Mattarella's successor is not known and one could indeed argue that, in this case, it would be more prudent for him to remain hidden. However, we know well that among the great old men, understatement has to deal with senile vanity and haste, just think of how the unfortunate joke about " grandfather " damaged Mario Draghi's institutional career. Who obviously remains in the running for everything, but it now seems more plausible to see him in a European seat than in Colle's.
The problem of older soloists, in short, is measuring words. Pope Bergoglio knows this well, after the figure he made yesterday with the interview on Swiss radio and television and the failed attempt by his press office to reverse course . Giuliano Amato knows this well and, after a period of utterances bordering on bar chatter, in which he brought up Ustica and the French and the alleged "risks for democracy", he had to resign as president of a government commission on artificial intelligence, given the dismay expressed by President Meloni. Not that that place mattered much but, as Cassese and Draghi confirm, an armchair is an armchair. And the older you get, the more Gertrude Stein's motto is valid.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/grandi-vecchi-cosa-dicono-e-come-si-muovono-amato-cassese-e-draghi/ on Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:23:40 +0000.