When the extremely successful but dodgy construction and media entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi plopped like a deus ex machina onto the Italian political stage in 1994, he was already 57 years old. But he gave himself the youthful image of a man who can conquer what and who he wants. This immediately fascinated so many Italians in TV-addicted Italy that he became Prime Minister of the country a short time later. Finally someone didn’t come from the “Palazzo”, as the closed world of the political class is called in Italy.
Berlusconi was different. He promised the moon and was even more windy with the truth than his predecessors. But that didn’t bother half of society, because they thought: Such a gifted entrepreneur would probably be able to lead the state company out of its misery.
At the same time, Berlusconi divided the country like no other politician before him, apart from Giulio Andreotti. His obsession with defeating Communism in Italy made him the left’s favorite enemy. He stood for Italy’s sinking into the swamp of interests, bribery and fraud. The left attributed to him almost magical powers of destruction. Books churned out demonizing him as Public Enemy #1.
In fact, he was neither the savior nor the destroyer of Italy. Above all, he was a hallodri – sometimes skilfully juggling. He brought, if you will, a cheerful lack of seriousness into politics. In doing so, of course, he continued what had been the case for a long time: he completed the series of politicians who did not do what they promised. And who were usually not accused of it either. Because the citizens did not expect politicians to serve the common good. You wouldn’t do it yourself.
So now Berlusconi, who now looks almost like a mummy, is standing again in the parliamentary elections, at the age of 85. His party has since shrunk from being the strongest to the weakest force on the right-wing spectrum. After he recently failed to become president, he wants to end his political life at least as a senator. It is paradoxical: he wanted to renew Italy and rejuvenate it politically. But now he stands like a monument of yesterday in the political landscape. And embodies something alien to him: continuity.
