None of the many commentators who since yesterday evening on the radio, TV and newspapers have ventured to discuss the sentence of the Cassation and its consequences on politics, on the Government, and ultimately on Italy, has put in due evidence what the Cav has said in his television message, namely that twenty years ago his "descent into the field" had become necessary in order to radically change this country, carrying out a profound "liberal revolution". Berlusconi himself, goodness of him, has recognized that in reality many things still need to be done, attributing, however, the blame for the lack of changes to the government allies and to the resistance of the bureaucracies.
In reality, if nothing has been seen in the last twenty years of liberalism, the reason lies precisely in the fact that Berlusconi represented all those categories that had dug themselves protected niches in the legislation or directly in the public sector and that had no intention to open the markets to competition, to privatize public companies that appear to be convenient cows to be cashed, and finally, to cut public spending to really reduce taxes, because taxes are only for the fools who pay them anyway. The truth is that Berlusconi's idea of the world is not liberal at all but anarcho-populist, as demonstrated by this petulant insistence by all his praetorians that Berlusconi's conviction would decapitate democracy.
As if to say that if the people voted for him it means that they judged him innocent, and since all power comes from the people, the judiciary should have taken this into account. Isn't this – pace of Vittorio Feltri – the idea of liberal democracy which is based on the separation of powers and where criminal liability is individual and therefore, even by condemning a political leader, an entire party is not hit at all and they demonize several million voters.
After all, it was precisely this cultural deficiency that prevented Berlusconi, even when he had managed to obtain overwhelming parliamentary majorities, from launching any reform even vaguely liberal in flavor. The power of the state in all its articulations has increased dramatically in its twenty years and moreover the various administrations have competing powers for which the disputes have only multiplied. No reform of the judiciary has been made, not even of the administrative one which between the Tar and the Council of State blocks the process of any decision (why was the sponsorship of the restoration of the Colosseum by a private individual blocked for three years?).
The Police have become 5 or maybe 6 if we include the Port Authorities, all autonomous and doing overlapping things. Apart from Brunetta's slogans about slackers, nothing serious has been done regarding the reform of the PA because the process has not started with the redesign of management responsibilities. The result is that public spending has been steadily increasing, especially in the current part, while investments have progressively decreased not only due to bureaucratic difficulties, but also to try to balance the costs of the state.
Berlusconi has never thought of widening the competition, and on the other hand he has never wanted the sale of two Rai networks precisely so as not to undermine the television duopoly (which however is collapsing anyway). The Lega has blocked the sale of companies owned by the local authorities, as well as the abolition of the provinces and the pension reform, and therefore this alliance with the racists of the North has also backfired against Berlusconi's ability to make real politics liberal (if he ever had the idea of doing it).
Berlusconi certainly has enormous strength of character. Maybe not even this sentence will really be able to silence him definitively. In a year he could even rise again as a martyr to the powers that be and the old politics and once again take on the role of the "new". (And this even if like Grillo, he could not introduce himself directly). Only if the reasons for the failure of his policy are clearly clarified, and a profound rethinking of all the forces operating in the centre-right are initiated, will it be possible to avoid many citizens still being enchanted by Berlusconi's sirens at the next elections.
