The will-o’-the-wisps of the election campaign
The electoral campaign as seen by Francesco Damato
There is absolutely everything, even against the uneven electoral campaign felt in the last days of his very long life, in that definition of Italy as a "difficult country" in the so proud and touching farewell message left by Piero Angela before the "good trip" wished him. with tears in his eyes from his son Alberto. A journey that could not have been better represented in Mauro Biani's cartoon on Repubblica , in which Piero with a backpack on his shoulders crosses the bridge of infinity.
A really difficult country where the work of an emergency government such as the one led by the most authoritative Italian in the world is interrupted – with all the respect deserved by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who on the other hand appointed him prime minister surprising the party even more represented in Parliament – to venture everyone, absolutely everyone, into an electoral campaign that could not have been more confused and disappointing. And which fortunately – the only consolation – was shortened to the maximum by both Mattarella and Draghi to limit the foreseeable damage.
It is an electoral campaign so full of disproportionate promises – on the right but also on the left, and hopefully not even in the center, given that the homonymous pole has just been born – that the pragmatic Prime Minister dismissed them as "dreams" sarcastically wishing the parties of the ministers of his government to realize them. None of them naturally had the courage or the irony – as you prefer – to thank him. Yes, because the parties also lack irony, even though their protagonists and actors produce jokes wasting them even in their symbols.
This is the case of that 2050 printed in red – the last favorite color of its president Giuseppe Conte, and probably also of the “guarantor” Beppe Grillo – in the insignia of the 5 Star Movement. Or of their dust, also given the conditions of political isolation in which it finds itself after a legislature lived entirely in government, with any type of majority, in the presumption of a "centrality" not really appreciated by the voters. Which on all the occasions that have had to vote from 2018 onwards or have swelled and fattened abstention, making it the first, true party of Italy, or have contributed to the growth of the opponents or competitors of the grillini. And I, at 80 years of age and older, and with me many other elderly or old people, as you prefer, should wait for the 2050 dreamed or promised by Conte and friends, who knows how much destined to arrive themselves. And even more patience and trust should have young people contenting themselves with the so-called citizenship income – woe to those who touch it! – no longer preparatory to a job but simply and destructively substitute.
As if those already predictable, I would say obvious, were added to this unfortunate electoral campaign the improvised inconveniences, such as the gaffe of Silvio Berlusconi – with that presidentialism opposed, willingly or willingly, to a president of the Republic that his party also has contributed to re-elect, while initially attempting to climb the Quirinale – and the abuse they are making of it – this was also said – the opponents by demonizing the presidential reform with Cavaliere. Of which Marco Travaglio, for example, in the Fatto Quotidiano attributed the paternity to "maestro Gelli", even before "compares Craxi" and his "pochette Amato", now president of the Constitutional Court, forgetting the presidentialism supported by the Assembly Constituent by the anti-fascist Piero Calamandrei.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/i-fuochi-fatui-della-campagna-elettorale/ on Sun, 14 Aug 2022 05:32:28 +0000.