More than content, we talked about the opponents. On the last day of the electoral campaign, the leaders of the major parties made a series of appeals to citizens aimed at marking the distance between sides. The fundamental rhetorical tool was the association of the parties adverse to danger, but frontal attacks were not lacking. Nor the attempts to soothe those who have so far sympathized with the enemy.
BERSANI
“There is uncertainty, many people are fluctuating – said the secretary of the Democratic Party, Pier Luigi Bersani, during the final rally at the Roman theater Ambra Jovinelli -. In this uncertainty, we are one of the two horns of the dilemma: either between protest positions and the Democratic Party, or even between those who voted for the center-right and the Democratic Party. It's a gravitational fact, you can shoot from different directions. There is an electorate in good faith who believed in Berlusconi and are now starting to have some problems. I say to these: we do not disdain this discomfort. We are not talking about billionaires, we are not interested in billionaires. We are talking about the popular class. We are credible, we don't need the enemy, Berlusconi needs the enemy”.
But, for the Democratic secretary, “the first shock must be on the side of public and private morality. If those who govern say the word honesty, people must be able to believe it. Otherwise we're not going anywhere."
Bersani then addressed a message to the grillini: “We understand very well who is angry, we are also angry. That's not the point. The point is: where do we want to take this discomfort and this protest? In the direction of someone who says: 'outside the euro, we don't pay our debts, we don't work?'. It's not good that in Bologna (Grillo, ed) he pays homage to Berlinguer and in Rome he winks at Casa Pound”.
Finally, a small jab at the outgoing Premier: “We kept our word with Monti. If he recognized us, every now and then… I say it like this, en passant”.
BERLUSCONI
As expected, Silvio Berlusconi was much less tender with the number one on the Civic List: "Monti is a professor who has looked at the economy from the keyhole of his classroom - said the leader of the PDL in a video message sent to the Neapolitan demonstration to close the PDL electoral campaign -. He got into politics, and who did he end up with? With two famous innovators, Casini and Fini. We are disappointed in Monti because we had voted for confidence in the government several times, even if not convinced, but we did so in order not to decapitate Italy in a difficult moment. We could not have been a country without a government ”.
As for the Democratic Party, "you know it as I know it - continued Berlusconi -, they are linked to a communist ideology, the cruel and inhuman one of history and they envy those who, with business risk and sacrifice, have built the well-being . They are ready to strike with new taxes such as the property tax that will affect everyone. Either you stay here, with us with freedom or there with statism”.
The Knight also said not to "fear Grillo", but to still judge him "dangerous for the country, because he could take advantage of the disappointment that many moderate voters have experienced. Grillo will not send anyone home, on the contrary he will have Bersani hoisted at Palazzo Chigi". Berlusconi then defined the leader of the 5 Star Movement as “an extraordinary actor, an excellent actor who entertains people. Grillo says buy sight unseen and, in the box, there are the lists and it turns out that – he continued – more than 80% of his candidates belong to the extreme left, No tav, social centers and black block. Grillo's 5 stars are Bersani, Monti, Fini, Vendola and Casini”.
MONTI
"The contest in the elections is populists versus reformists." This is the image used this morning by Mario Monti to close the electoral campaign in Florence. According to the Professor, in Italy's future there can be “neither those who reduced it like 14 months ago, nor destructive populists who want to take advantage of people's anger to destroy everything. Cynicism, resignation, populism and demagoguery are Italy's real enemies”.
Monti did not spare attacks either on the right or on the left: “Berlusconi personifies immoderation: how can you vote for him? – he asked the voters -. A citizen can be enticed by a refund of a tax, but there can be no personal escape route", added the Professor in reference to the Cavaliere's proposal to return the Imu to the Italians on the first house paid in 2012. "The right once again promises a society where everything is allowed, a country under the banner of everyone being free and nobody being liberal, of the many freedoms that mortify Italians”.
The centre-left coalition, however, according to the Premier is "still a prisoner of ideological cages and an ancient idea of the country. We have chosen candidates who, entering politics, have something to lose. I am not a person who wants to remain in politics at all costs. We have the lucidity to see that Italy is still in full economic and social emergency, that the path of sacrifices can veer towards growth, but only if rigorous policies are pursued".
