outubro 13, 2009

Berlusconi


Um artigo na Slate tenta explicar como Berlusconi continua a vencer eleições:

"he has been the dominant force in Italian politics since he first became prime minister in 1994. But why?"
i) In the early 1990s, Italy's political system unraveled, following a series of judicial investigations that revealed profound corruption, permeating the entire Italian political class. As a result, all the major political parties and all the leading political figures vanished overnight

ii) Berlusconi stepped into the vacuum and promised to talk about issues no one else had dared touch—notably mass immigration from North Africa

iii) He had made his career under the old system—as did many other people—and, once in power, he brought an end to the judicial purge. Italians, journalist Beppe Severgnini told me, "were afraid of their own bravery."

iv) They were also afraid of chaos (...), the Italian left is disorganized, the center-right is paralyzed, and a lot of people prefer the devil they know

v) Of course, Berlusconi also has at least one tool that none of the others have: popular television. He controls three mainstream channels and various digital channels because he owns them. He also effectively controls state television because he is the prime minister. (...) Much like his friend Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, he doesn't try to exert influence over all the media, just the media that reaches most of the voters.

vi) There has to be something appealing about Berlusconi himself. Severgnini has called him a "mirror" of modern Italy (...) with Berlusconi as your prime minister, you don't have to take yourself too seriously. You don't have to trouble yourself with geopolitics, or the state of the planet, or poverty and failed states.