"Of course there is a connection between football, elections and politics: Balotelli will certainly bring votes to Berlusconi." The speaker is not a fan of the sports bar but a very serious historian of economics who teaches at Bocconi, Joseph Bertha. In 2008 he wrote a beautiful essay for Mondadori, "North - From the industrial triangle to the Po Valley megalopolis" in which he argued that the presidency of Milan had been and is fundamental for building the identity and popular and political leadership of Silvio Berlusconi. Just like the Latin populists and Argentine Peronists have always done. Football and politics that a winning mix. Who better than Berta can therefore evaluate the political and electoral effect of the coup by Milan and Berlusconi with the purchase of Balotelli, 20 million in 5 years and 4 to the bomber. Here is his opinion.
FIRST online – Professor Berta, you were among the first scholars to evaluate the political effects of Berlusconi's passion for football. Do you think that the purchase of Balotelli also falls within this category and could have repercussions on the electoral campaign?
BERTHA - Sure. Berlusconi understood from the beginning the enormous potential that his direct involvement in football had on the effectiveness of his communication and his personal appeal. His presidency of Milan was fundamental in building its image and popular and political leadership. As a marketing man that he is, Berlusconi immediately understood that combining sport, television and the mass marketing of consumer products could become an explosive and winning mixture even in politics and he treasured it. Ever since he entered the field in 94, this dimension has been decisive for his popular success because Berlusconi has always addressed an audience not invested by the traditional political message with an approach that is in its own way original.
FIRST online – A communication style that in part resembles that of a comedian who wants to get involved in politics like Grillo?
BERTHA – No, there is a fundamental difference in target: Grillo presents himself as an anti-politician while Berlusconi presents himself as impolitic. Even the disgusting but calculated words that he has used in recent days about Mussolini fit into this cliché. The purchase of Balotelli is not politically casual but tends to exalt the classic stereotypes of the man of the Italian miracle that Berlusconi lived in his youth and to which he continually refers, bearing in mind the archetypes of the collective imagination.
FIRST online – In recent days some polls have quantified the electoral advantage that the possible purchase of Kakà would have brought to Berlusconi as a 2% increase: do you think that the Balotelli effect will be equally consistent?
BERTHA – The polls must be taken with a grain of salt but the purchase of Balotelli will certainly bring votes to Berlusconi. I read in the newspapers this morning that the PDL expects 400 more votes from Balotelli. I don't know if Berlusconi will win many votes with his latest market hit, but they certainly won't be few. Balotelli has an indisputable electoral added value.
FIRST online – Who will be the electorate that will be influenced by the purchase of SuperMario?
BERTHA – The electorate who loves to dream, who have a variable mood and who are sensitive to the twists and turns in a fairly flat electoral campaign like the one we are experiencing. Of course, the problem at the heart of this electoral campaign remains open, namely whether or not the Balotelli effect can scratch even that 30% of uncertain and undecided voters, who are the real enigma of the vote.
FIRST online – Could the fact that Balotelli is a black player even if he grew up in Brescia scare the electorate of the League with which Berlusconi has formed a political and electoral alliance?
BERTHA – I don't think so because Berlusconi's message is essentially aimed at the People of Freedom who don't have strong racist connotations while the Northern League people feel bad about the alliance with Berlusconi regardless of Balotelli and accept it only on the basis of Maroni's success in Lombardy.
FIRST online – But only a few days ago Berlusconi had defined Balotelli as a bad apple: doesn't the sudden reversal in the front that led to the purchase of the Manchester City striker accentuate the unreliability of the former prime minister?
BERTHA – No, with Berlusconi the classic schemes don't work because saying everything and the opposite of everything is part of his style as he addresses a fickle, variable and above all memoryless electorate, an electorate that lives only in the present. Everything is ephemeral: this is Berlusconi's strength and weakness and it is what gives him more leeway than other political leaders.
