At first glance, Italy is a box of surprises, even for Italians. But perhaps it is not so, nor is its current political situation so exceptional, both before and after the recent elections that gave victory to the extreme right led by Gorgina Meloni. It is easy to say it in the past, but the truth is that it was seen coming. What is really striking, however, is that it took so long for this turn to the right to take place, which bears so many reminiscences of Mussolini's fascism.
A decade ago now, at the beginning of 2012, the English novelist, professor and translator Tim Parks wondered if Italy could one day change, and after 30 years of residence in a country with a truly exceptional capacity when it comes to to elude their understanding even in the most daily activities. It was, there was no doubt about it for the Englishman, a nation of complete madmen, although perhaps not completely without remedy, that is, not yet totally lacking in a collective will to change, in wanting to leave behind those elements atavistic that guarantee the ungovernability of the country.
However, when Parks arrived in Italy in the 1980s, the immanent imposition of changes aimed at turning a chaotic Mediterranean republic into a kind of prosperous, modern and efficient southern Scandinavian kingdom was already a topic of conversation among Italians. Then, writing his article in 2012, it wasn't just that everything was the same, but,
after the crash of 2007-8 and the collapse of the Greek economy, the Italians, accustomed as they were to years of sweet decline camouflaged under the foam of a chilling debt always on the rise, because suddenly they saw the ears of the wolf in the form of a merciless suffocating risk premium.
The Italy that Parks describes bears not a few similarities with the Spain of Larra's “come back tomorrow” or the current Catalan ineffectiveness. Only the initiated and connected know how to navigate its always agitated waters; to the others, let lightning strike them. Telling the truth is something for deluded people to whom nobody pays the slightest attention. excessive bureaucracy; low productivity. Always sweep home. Regional affinities take precedence over national or European ones. The family -whether corrupt or not- is everything. The Church confirms Only fools and those who have no other choice pay their taxes. Millions of well-paid drones are leaving young people with nothing.
In addition to Tabucchi, Calvino or Pavese, Parks has translated Machiavelli, from whom he learned that Italy only exists as a united nation when faced with external danger. Monti, Letta and Draghi have tried to remedy some of the endemic national and regional ills, but it has only served to make Italy fall into the hands of a spectacular trio of Meloni, Berlusconi and Salvini. They appeal to national unity, but the situation, although serious, does not yet pose a threat to the collective. So business as usual, although, yes, always with an eye on Brussels, which is where the funds that will keep a comatose economy in debt up to the eyebrows come from.
But where Parks says Italy, he could have said Spain, let alone Catalonia, where there are some medieval tics that are nothing more than a slab in the middle of an accelerated world in permanent flux and in which the president's business card in which says that he is the 132nd president of La Generalitat sounds like a Monty Python joke. Because Mrs. Meloni is not, far from it, alone. A rightist wave is sweeping Europe (and half the world).
From now on, both Italy and Spain are no longer the exception, as are Hungary and Poland. Is it a change designed so that nothing changes? We will have the answer no later than this winter. And not only in Italy.
