[Dagens Nyheter - Sweden]
has control of five TV channels, construction companies, newspapers, the soccer team AC Milan plus is the head of the Italian Government. Accusations of corruption and escort girls, scandals come and go but Silvio Berlusconi appears to remain, and governs his country also and above all through the TV.
When I lived in Italy for the first time in 1982, I remember the shock I felt seeing that there were hundreds of TV channels. The public broadcaster RAI had already had three, while only two Silvio Berlusconi - Italy Canale 5 and 1 - we had to wait until 1984 before they grab Rete 4. A huge media dazes malnourished for a young schoolboy like myself, accustomed to the replicas of the SVT, repeated ad nauseum, and the absence of advertising. I was a wild
zapping with the remote and watch a movie after another. On a channel that were found Lord truccatissime horoscope and tarot cards to viewers who phoned, and I came across the following in middle-aged housewives in mid-afternoon did the striptease.
When my parents came to visit once, the landlord gave the remote to my father, explaining that as the guest of honor could choose the channel we watched as we ate. An act of great kindness and hospitality to the maximum Vincent Casagrande, a 60 year old upholsterer whose television, as well as that of the majority of Italians were always on.
In Italy, in nine out of ten homes the television is positioned so that it can be seen from the dining table. Finally, if you do not have the good sense to turn it off, the total becomes indoctrination. The many spot prizes and games to follow one after another. And if the drivers are getting older and balding, the ladies of the programs have less and less clothes on. Jump, wiggle, dance, and above all have a duty not to entice the viewer to change channels when such arrives advertising. They are called "tissue" - difficult to translate, but at the last Venice Film Festival I and other colleagues we agreed that the only Swedish word is correct kuttersmycke (ndt girl "to be shown").
During my years in Italy, Berlusconi's political scene has changed so much since the world of television. He is first and foremost a salesman. On its sales channels in the same way he has sold homes, diapers and olive oil, now selling policy with success. The word success is based on its current record parliamentary majority, even if in fact, has heavily manipulated electoral laws that have given awards disproportionate majority. The man who built his television empire is the same man who built his party, Forza Italy, now called the Freedom Party (as if Italy was not a free country?). His name is Marcello Dell'Utri, 68 years old and was re-elected senator in 2008, although it has already been sentenced to nine years in prison for colluding with the Sicilian Mafia. An insignificant detail that weighs as much as a feather in the Italian election campaign.
For 15 years, television and politics have the same language the same autocratic and often outdated conception of woman, girls buxom pin-ups that recall the '60s, including the current Minister equal opportunities, Mara Carfagna, 34 years and a past as a model, is one of the most sober.
writer and former professor of Slavic languages \u200b\u200bat the University of Rome Predrag Matvejevic, who now lives in Zagreb, has written several times in the debates and called today's Italy "democratura. It is not difficult to see how Italian democracy is emptied of its sap. The parliament now has the sole task of passing ordinances that come into force immediately. Important issues, such as the financial plan of the government are decided by a hasty vote of confidence. The parliamentary debate has been truncated or minimized to make room for decisions rapids. A fact that has prompted even Gianfranco Fini, the fraternities and president of the Chamber, to stigmatize the behavior of the prime minister called "attitude by Caesar."
One of the newcomers to the parliament is dominated by Berlusconi Gianrico Carofiglio. Behind it, a long career as a judge and also several books, including yellow, which often take place in its Bari in southern Italy. For a year and a half in the Senate with the opposition Democrats.
- A stimulating experience, even if the democratic point of view the feeling is rather gloomy - he says when I meet him in his office behind the Senate.
- Today, the parliament is an institution greatly weakened. On site there is the distinct feeling that decision making has been transferred elsewhere.
not just of the many decrees of the government. Most of the bills come from the government and not by individual legislators. Carofiglio gives without hesitation to blame for what Berlusconi and his allies, the anti-immigrant Northern League.
- Two populist parties that are strongly in parliamentary rules do not affect much. Their reasoning, in other words, is "whether the rules we are fine respect, otherwise we do not care or we change with every tool available."
Carofiglio is the 80 senators who signed a motion in defense of constitution of the country. Explain that threatened to consider, not least because of all the laws on which the government has so far presented. The most important of them, one that would give Berlusconi immunity, was rejected by the Constitutional Court this fall. The fact that Mr Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini is also present in both plus and Parliamentary Committee of Justice is the second Carofiglio a senseless situation. "One day in court and defend his client, and then found the next day in parliament to draft laws that can stop the process." Ghedini The latest proposal to put a limit of six years for each process (from first instance to the High Court) is like changing the rules in the middle of the game. For Carofiglio is like being ahead 1 to 0 at half-time whistle and immediately order not to risk losing in the second half.
- The fact that Berlusconi is the first to break the rules at all levels is something very dangerous that poisons public life of our country. When people have the right to correct it (eg the constitutional court) does, the prime minister that institution floods of hatred and contempt.
- Democracy is ill and may even worsen. It will take a long time to heal the wounds.
few months ago, Carofiglio wrote in La Repubblica about the capacity of shame. Or, rather, the inability of Italians to shame.
- If you feel pain, I understand that there is something wrong and try to cure him. If I'm ashamed, I realize that I have done something wrong and maybe you have contravened any of the social arrangements of society. But if I lose the ability to feel shame, then, my shame turns to pride and conceit.
- This could be the beginning of serious diseases that will be discovered too late, says Carofiglio referring to Berlusconi in recent years has attended both underage prostitutes.
At the time of interview, the fourth novel Carofiglio sull'avvocato Guido Guerrieri had not yet been published. "The perfect interim" was released only last Thursday. Carofiglio but denies that his new life as a parliamentarian to have inspired this thriller. Not the Bo Balderson of the Italian Parliament, in fact.
- The story I had ready at the beginning of 2009, but while the complete and rewrote the summer here that breaks a complicated case of drugs and prostitution. One of the protagonists of the book is Nadia, a former prostitute from Bari, a fact which was already present in one of my earlier books.
for safety Carofiglio has chosen to provide a clarification of the book where he explains that everything is fiction, as history seems to have several things in common with the investigation last summer on drug and prostitution involving Berlusconi also because of his contacts with Gianpaolo Tarantini. This is the man who brought the prostitute to Berlusconi Patrick D'Addario, who has not only spent the night at the residence of the institutional government, but Berlusconi has also recorded saying: "Wait for the Latvian Putin - and obviously di Bari!
The conflict of interests between the entrepreneur and politician Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is the main problem today. One problem, however, is never discussed. The conflict was never resolved, and several leftist governments have left the question aside, for fear of losing votes and being forever branded by Mr Berlusconi of being communists.
for safety Carofiglio has chosen to provide a clarification of the book where he explains that everything is fiction, as history seems to have several things in common with the investigation last summer on drug and prostitution, also involving Berlusconi because of his contacts with Gianpaolo Tarantini. This is the man who brought the prostitute to Berlusconi Patrick D'Addario, who has not only spent the night at the residence of the institutional government, but Berlusconi has also recorded saying: "Wait for the Latvian Putin - and obviously Bari!
The conflict of interests between the entrepreneur and politician Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is the main problem today. One problem, however, is never discussed. The conflict was never resolved, and several leftist governments have left the issue aside, for fear of losing votes and for always being accused Berlusconi of being communists.
Berlusconi looks to his constituents as if they had a television audience, and indeed they are to a large extent. In the 16 years of active policy of Berlusconi, is a new generation now has the right to vote.
- have not the faintest idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the division of power and conflict of interest. I still get angry every day, but now I was almost just me, "says television journalist Santo Della Volpe, who worked 28 years at TG 3 of the third public channel RAI. One of the few news programs that have not been turned into mouthpieces of the government.
- I defend the public service. We at RAI 3 we have always been an independent voice and try to remain so.
Berlusconi controls five national TV channels, mainly its three: Rete 4, Canale 5, Italy 1. Its large parliamentary majority is small enough to exert a strong influence on the leadership of both direct and RAI on the appointment of heads of networks and news programs. Have been changed several in 2009. One of choices discussed was that of Augustus Minzolini as the new director of TG 1, the most important news. Berlusconi has in fact placed another of his journalistic lackeys. Minzolini appears on the screen only to exhibit their own comments. In one of them, Minzolini said that the statements on the attendance of Berlusconi and prostitutes were "just gossip", which is why the TG 1 would not have spoken in his services.
The purges of Berlusconi also rose by RAI 3. Change of Director-General and that of TG. After a long battle, the leader of the drafting Bianca Berlinguer was appointed director. Is determined and independent, and for several decades shows which is in the RAI's own merits and that is not only the eldest daughter of the historian of the Italian Communist Party leader, Enrico Berlinguer.
The choice was certainly not a fix to the right, but a way for Berlusconi to demonstrate his power and his influence on a channel which he considers a political opponent.
All appearances are carefully tailored to Berlusconi's broadcasting needs. After the attack in December, its popularity has grown. On December 13 a man's face has launched a model of Milan's cathedral, causing the rupture of the nose and some teeth. The images of a bloody prime minister have also been around the world.
- Something must be went wrong. Berlusconi seems to have chosen to play the part of the martyr. The police are left with the prime minister just after he came back from the car and had shown the world his face bleeding, Santo Della Volpe says.
The director Marco Tullio Giordana has a simple relationship with the TV and uncontested. Do not look at it. In his country home, where he writes his scripts, the TV is not there. Yet he has enriched the Italian television, with its magnificent fresco of "The Best of Youth", which represent a large family through 40 years of postwar Italian.
Before we talk about his new mammoth project, "Piazza Fontana". A film about what was the beginning of the years of Italian terrorism, that the outbreak in 1969, a bomb at the bank of agriculture in central Milan. We now know that that action was manipulated by neo-fascist groups with the likely involvement of the Italian secret services. After seven processes nobody has yet been convicted. The material collected is so large that, in addition to the film, Jordan plans to do a series of television programs that critically analyze the material itself.
A little 'unwillingly, Jordan agrees to go to the current political situation.
- It's embarrassing. First of all I am a patriot. There is only one film festival which goes without receiving questions about Berlusconi. Normally I avoid talking about him. I have a feeling that he gets royalties every time you mention his name and I do not want to contribute as well.
The question most often asked is how can you have so many to vote for Berlusconi.
- The votes in a democracy are always the result of a sort of enchantment and seduction. It is not that votes for a person because he has a program that you have studied and studied. Marco Tullio Giordana
tells of the profound impression came when Berlusconi, at the time of entering politics, he printed and distributed for free this lovely and lively book, "An Italian story", showing his life and his success.
- Put on display in front of voters. The message was clear: "Look what I did, as I created my own company and a lot of jobs. Look how cute they are. My success has not made me become a snob as the Agnelli family. I'd like to play cards with you. I like beautiful women, just like you. I am one of you. "
In 16 years, the opposition has never been able to represent a credible alternative to Berlusconi. Romano Prodi has faced twice the winner coming out on both occasions. But on both occasions, Mr Prodi's allies have not left to govern, which is strongly continuous Giordana disillusioned by politics.
- nowadays it is very difficult to sympathize with the left.
Jordan was never joined a political party and is among those who think that artists should stay out of politics.
- It was easier when the left was "sentenced" to an eternal opposition, and without fear could turn his criticism also against their ideological conception, as did Pasolini. To me, he remains an example of how the artist should be: free and independent.
last question, if democracy is threatened in Italy, Jordan replied without hesitation, yes. It is a process that goes on for a long time.
- Long before that democracy began to show signs of deep subsidence, good taste and good opinion of this country have been lost. The welfare and happiness of the Italians have always been based on a modest standard of living. They were never frustrated, even after the war with all that poverty. Because they knew of living in a beautiful country, surrounded by incredible beauty and that their church was a painting by Caravaggio, Giorgione or Duccio di Boninsegna. Then, when they were poor, they had an inferiority complex. We have them yet today, rich and frustrated.
- My answer must be: for a people who now is so unfortunate that the role and significance of democracy? None!
- remember that in Italy only a minority fighting for democracy. It is clear that we do not live in a dictatorship, but few now see the value of democracy.
has control of five TV channels, construction companies, newspapers, the soccer team AC Milan plus is the head of the Italian Government. Accusations of corruption and escort girls, scandals come and go but Silvio Berlusconi appears to remain, and governs his country also and above all through the TV.
When I lived in Italy for the first time in 1982, I remember the shock I felt seeing that there were hundreds of TV channels. The public broadcaster RAI had already had three, while only two Silvio Berlusconi - Italy Canale 5 and 1 - we had to wait until 1984 before they grab Rete 4. A huge media dazes malnourished for a young schoolboy like myself, accustomed to the replicas of the SVT, repeated ad nauseum, and the absence of advertising. I was a wild
zapping with the remote and watch a movie after another. On a channel that were found Lord truccatissime horoscope and tarot cards to viewers who phoned, and I came across the following in middle-aged housewives in mid-afternoon did the striptease.
When my parents came to visit once, the landlord gave the remote to my father, explaining that as the guest of honor could choose the channel we watched as we ate. An act of great kindness and hospitality to the maximum Vincent Casagrande, a 60 year old upholsterer whose television, as well as that of the majority of Italians were always on.
In Italy, in nine out of ten homes the television is positioned so that it can be seen from the dining table. Finally, if you do not have the good sense to turn it off, the total becomes indoctrination. The many spot prizes and games to follow one after another. And if the drivers are getting older and balding, the ladies of the programs have less and less clothes on. Jump, wiggle, dance, and above all have a duty not to entice the viewer to change channels when such arrives advertising. They are called "tissue" - difficult to translate, but at the last Venice Film Festival I and other colleagues we agreed that the only Swedish word is correct kuttersmycke (ndt girl "to be shown").
During my years in Italy, Berlusconi's political scene has changed so much since the world of television. He is first and foremost a salesman. On its sales channels in the same way he has sold homes, diapers and olive oil, now selling policy with success. The word success is based on its current record parliamentary majority, even if in fact, has heavily manipulated electoral laws that have given awards disproportionate majority. The man who built his television empire is the same man who built his party, Forza Italy, now called the Freedom Party (as if Italy was not a free country?). His name is Marcello Dell'Utri, 68 years old and was re-elected senator in 2008, although it has already been sentenced to nine years in prison for colluding with the Sicilian Mafia. An insignificant detail that weighs as much as a feather in the Italian election campaign.
For 15 years, television and politics have the same language the same autocratic and often outdated conception of woman, girls buxom pin-ups that recall the '60s, including the current Minister equal opportunities, Mara Carfagna, 34 years and a past as a model, is one of the most sober.
writer and former professor of Slavic languages \u200b\u200bat the University of Rome Predrag Matvejevic, who now lives in Zagreb, has written several times in the debates and called today's Italy "democratura. It is not difficult to see how Italian democracy is emptied of its sap. The parliament now has the sole task of passing ordinances that come into force immediately. Important issues, such as the financial plan of the government are decided by a hasty vote of confidence. The parliamentary debate has been truncated or minimized to make room for decisions rapids. A fact that has prompted even Gianfranco Fini, the fraternities and president of the Chamber, to stigmatize the behavior of the prime minister called "attitude by Caesar."
One of the newcomers to the parliament is dominated by Berlusconi Gianrico Carofiglio. Behind it, a long career as a judge and also several books, including yellow, which often take place in its Bari in southern Italy. For a year and a half in the Senate with the opposition Democrats.
- A stimulating experience, even if the democratic point of view the feeling is rather gloomy - he says when I meet him in his office behind the Senate.
- Today, the parliament is an institution greatly weakened. On site there is the distinct feeling that decision making has been transferred elsewhere.
not just of the many decrees of the government. Most of the bills come from the government and not by individual legislators. Carofiglio gives without hesitation to blame for what Berlusconi and his allies, the anti-immigrant Northern League.
- Two populist parties that are strongly in parliamentary rules do not affect much. Their reasoning, in other words, is "whether the rules we are fine respect, otherwise we do not care or we change with every tool available."
Carofiglio is the 80 senators who signed a motion in defense of constitution of the country. Explain that threatened to consider, not least because of all the laws on which the government has so far presented. The most important of them, one that would give Berlusconi immunity, was rejected by the Constitutional Court this fall. The fact that Mr Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini is also present in both plus and Parliamentary Committee of Justice is the second Carofiglio a senseless situation. "One day in court and defend his client, and then found the next day in parliament to draft laws that can stop the process." Ghedini The latest proposal to put a limit of six years for each process (from first instance to the High Court) is like changing the rules in the middle of the game. For Carofiglio is like being ahead 1 to 0 at half-time whistle and immediately order not to risk losing in the second half.
- The fact that Berlusconi is the first to break the rules at all levels is something very dangerous that poisons public life of our country. When people have the right to correct it (eg the constitutional court) does, the prime minister that institution floods of hatred and contempt.
- Democracy is ill and may even worsen. It will take a long time to heal the wounds.
few months ago, Carofiglio wrote in La Repubblica about the capacity of shame. Or, rather, the inability of Italians to shame.
- If you feel pain, I understand that there is something wrong and try to cure him. If I'm ashamed, I realize that I have done something wrong and maybe you have contravened any of the social arrangements of society. But if I lose the ability to feel shame, then, my shame turns to pride and conceit.
- This could be the beginning of serious diseases that will be discovered too late, says Carofiglio referring to Berlusconi in recent years has attended both underage prostitutes.
At the time of interview, the fourth novel Carofiglio sull'avvocato Guido Guerrieri had not yet been published. "The perfect interim" was released only last Thursday. Carofiglio but denies that his new life as a parliamentarian to have inspired this thriller. Not the Bo Balderson of the Italian Parliament, in fact.
- The story I had ready at the beginning of 2009, but while the complete and rewrote the summer here that breaks a complicated case of drugs and prostitution. One of the protagonists of the book is Nadia, a former prostitute from Bari, a fact which was already present in one of my earlier books.
for safety Carofiglio has chosen to provide a clarification of the book where he explains that everything is fiction, as history seems to have several things in common with the investigation last summer on drug and prostitution involving Berlusconi also because of his contacts with Gianpaolo Tarantini. This is the man who brought the prostitute to Berlusconi Patrick D'Addario, who has not only spent the night at the residence of the institutional government, but Berlusconi has also recorded saying: "Wait for the Latvian Putin - and obviously di Bari!
The conflict of interests between the entrepreneur and politician Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is the main problem today. One problem, however, is never discussed. The conflict was never resolved, and several leftist governments have left the question aside, for fear of losing votes and being forever branded by Mr Berlusconi of being communists.
for safety Carofiglio has chosen to provide a clarification of the book where he explains that everything is fiction, as history seems to have several things in common with the investigation last summer on drug and prostitution, also involving Berlusconi because of his contacts with Gianpaolo Tarantini. This is the man who brought the prostitute to Berlusconi Patrick D'Addario, who has not only spent the night at the residence of the institutional government, but Berlusconi has also recorded saying: "Wait for the Latvian Putin - and obviously Bari!
The conflict of interests between the entrepreneur and politician Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is the main problem today. One problem, however, is never discussed. The conflict was never resolved, and several leftist governments have left the issue aside, for fear of losing votes and for always being accused Berlusconi of being communists.
Berlusconi looks to his constituents as if they had a television audience, and indeed they are to a large extent. In the 16 years of active policy of Berlusconi, is a new generation now has the right to vote.
- have not the faintest idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the division of power and conflict of interest. I still get angry every day, but now I was almost just me, "says television journalist Santo Della Volpe, who worked 28 years at TG 3 of the third public channel RAI. One of the few news programs that have not been turned into mouthpieces of the government.
- I defend the public service. We at RAI 3 we have always been an independent voice and try to remain so.
Berlusconi controls five national TV channels, mainly its three: Rete 4, Canale 5, Italy 1. Its large parliamentary majority is small enough to exert a strong influence on the leadership of both direct and RAI on the appointment of heads of networks and news programs. Have been changed several in 2009. One of choices discussed was that of Augustus Minzolini as the new director of TG 1, the most important news. Berlusconi has in fact placed another of his journalistic lackeys. Minzolini appears on the screen only to exhibit their own comments. In one of them, Minzolini said that the statements on the attendance of Berlusconi and prostitutes were "just gossip", which is why the TG 1 would not have spoken in his services.
The purges of Berlusconi also rose by RAI 3. Change of Director-General and that of TG. After a long battle, the leader of the drafting Bianca Berlinguer was appointed director. Is determined and independent, and for several decades shows which is in the RAI's own merits and that is not only the eldest daughter of the historian of the Italian Communist Party leader, Enrico Berlinguer.
The choice was certainly not a fix to the right, but a way for Berlusconi to demonstrate his power and his influence on a channel which he considers a political opponent.
All appearances are carefully tailored to Berlusconi's broadcasting needs. After the attack in December, its popularity has grown. On December 13 a man's face has launched a model of Milan's cathedral, causing the rupture of the nose and some teeth. The images of a bloody prime minister have also been around the world.
- Something must be went wrong. Berlusconi seems to have chosen to play the part of the martyr. The police are left with the prime minister just after he came back from the car and had shown the world his face bleeding, Santo Della Volpe says.
The director Marco Tullio Giordana has a simple relationship with the TV and uncontested. Do not look at it. In his country home, where he writes his scripts, the TV is not there. Yet he has enriched the Italian television, with its magnificent fresco of "The Best of Youth", which represent a large family through 40 years of postwar Italian.
Before we talk about his new mammoth project, "Piazza Fontana". A film about what was the beginning of the years of Italian terrorism, that the outbreak in 1969, a bomb at the bank of agriculture in central Milan. We now know that that action was manipulated by neo-fascist groups with the likely involvement of the Italian secret services. After seven processes nobody has yet been convicted. The material collected is so large that, in addition to the film, Jordan plans to do a series of television programs that critically analyze the material itself.
A little 'unwillingly, Jordan agrees to go to the current political situation.
- It's embarrassing. First of all I am a patriot. There is only one film festival which goes without receiving questions about Berlusconi. Normally I avoid talking about him. I have a feeling that he gets royalties every time you mention his name and I do not want to contribute as well.
The question most often asked is how can you have so many to vote for Berlusconi.
- The votes in a democracy are always the result of a sort of enchantment and seduction. It is not that votes for a person because he has a program that you have studied and studied. Marco Tullio Giordana
tells of the profound impression came when Berlusconi, at the time of entering politics, he printed and distributed for free this lovely and lively book, "An Italian story", showing his life and his success.
- Put on display in front of voters. The message was clear: "Look what I did, as I created my own company and a lot of jobs. Look how cute they are. My success has not made me become a snob as the Agnelli family. I'd like to play cards with you. I like beautiful women, just like you. I am one of you. "
In 16 years, the opposition has never been able to represent a credible alternative to Berlusconi. Romano Prodi has faced twice the winner coming out on both occasions. But on both occasions, Mr Prodi's allies have not left to govern, which is strongly continuous Giordana disillusioned by politics.
- nowadays it is very difficult to sympathize with the left.
Jordan was never joined a political party and is among those who think that artists should stay out of politics.
- It was easier when the left was "sentenced" to an eternal opposition, and without fear could turn his criticism also against their ideological conception, as did Pasolini. To me, he remains an example of how the artist should be: free and independent.
last question, if democracy is threatened in Italy, Jordan replied without hesitation, yes. It is a process that goes on for a long time.
- Long before that democracy began to show signs of deep subsidence, good taste and good opinion of this country have been lost. The welfare and happiness of the Italians have always been based on a modest standard of living. They were never frustrated, even after the war with all that poverty. Because they knew of living in a beautiful country, surrounded by incredible beauty and that their church was a painting by Caravaggio, Giorgione or Duccio di Boninsegna. Then, when they were poor, they had an inferiority complex. We have them yet today, rich and frustrated.
- My answer must be: for a people who now is so unfortunate that the role and significance of democracy? None!
- remember that in Italy only a minority fighting for democracy. It is clear that we do not live in a dictatorship, but few now see the value of democracy.
