In 1994 Berlusconi promised the liberal revolution. Today, Mario Monti has a much more complex mission ahead of him: to trigger the anthropological mutation of the country.
Just over a year ago, on November 16, 2011, the presidential apartments in Palazzo Chigi were "liberated" from the last boxes containing the Knight's personal belongings. In the meantime, the Professor went up to the Quirinale to receive the assignment from President Napolitano. In those hours, something more than a mere season marked by reforms and emergency remedies began.
As Michele Brambilla notes in an intelligent editorial published in today's La Stampa, the Premier's "rise in politics" enriches the Italian political culture of a figure who, in addition to embodying the requisites of professional credibility, also interprets the need of many citizens to a more balanced policy in terms of tone and words, free from the personalistic tendencies, vulgarity, mystification of reality and the trivialization of language that have characterized almost twenty years of the Forzaleghista axis.
The "liberal revolution", never completed but always heralded, attracted many Italians. Of humble origins but also personalities from finance, the bourgeoisie and the "good living rooms", many voters have bet on Arcore's horse while agreeing to compromise with the public image and political aesthetics sponsored by the man and his empire television.
Monti himself admitted that he fell into that trap. Nonetheless, he launched his challenge to right-wing populism starting precisely from that barbaric North that two decades of bad governance have plunged into the spider's web.
Small business in the Po Valley, the vast world of the self-employed and a part of that petit bourgeois class "hypnotized" by Berlusconi's spell, Monti now wants to put them back at the center of the scene to give the productive world of the North the chance to free themselves, to convert to a just patriotism, to join and support the reforming plan of the European "civil servant". By "raping himself," Monti made "rise in politics" a group of professionals and exponents of civil society who embody the anthropological alter ego of Berlusconi's ideal type. Far from the Bergamo of the "dreaming barbarians", close to the Europe of the social market economy, reforms and seriousness.
No more single men in command, no exploitation of institutional reforms to subdivide politics and distribute benefits. No false federalism: "We are not like the League, we want a united Italy". No false promises, given that the expected drop in the tax burden is already included in those sacrifices made by the Italians, which could allow, as early as 2013, to "detach the dividend" of austerity. No confrontation with Europe, nothing in common with those who "envy Germany" but then accuse it of a neo-colonialist economic policy, based on economic dominance, on the bargaining power guaranteed by having done your homework.
Yet the Professor annoys, and a lot. To a part of the left, to a large part of the conservative, autarchic and populist right, to the rising tide of anti-politics. Not even the Financial Times differs too much: today it was Wofgang Munchau, the famous London commentator, who wrote fiery words against the man who – together with Mario Draghi – saved Europe. Almost strident, Munchau in a Berlusconian-like set-up who launches anathemas against that "technocrat" who just over a year ago replaced the most mocked and despised Premier on the continent. A Premier who the same newspaper implored with contemptuous words: "for the love of God, go away". According to the columnist of the City, "Monti is not the right man to lead Italy", since all he has been able to do is "raise taxes".
It's a sin to think badly but it's often right, said Andreotti. But perhaps it's not a sin to imagine that a strong and competitive Italy could create quite a few headaches for some.
