Italy's Mugabe wins again

Berlusconi’s victory is bad news especially for those who wanted Italy to become a normal country through the advent of a modern liberal and moderate right represented by Gianfranco Fini which no longer poses a danger to basic democratic norms.
It is bad news simply because Berlusconi is morally and politically corrupt as evidenced by the successful attempt to buy off opposition MPs like Scipoliti, a medical doctor who left the Italy of Values Party (the most vociferous anti Berlusconi party) because his colleuges did not take acupuncture seriously.
It is also bad news because this victory undermines Italy’s ties with western democracies shaken by Berlusconi’s ties with Putin and Ghaddafi.
Fundamentally Berlusconi’s victory is another obstacle for Italy in its bid to become a normal democratic country.
Today’s victory clearly reinforces a populist, extremist and xenophobic right wing which is the most backward member of the European People's Party.
Surely a 3 seat majority is no big political victory but it is surely a psychological boost which reinforces Berlusconi's aura of invicibility.
One thing is sure: today’s result excludes an alternative parliamentary majority which could change the rules of the game to ensure a fair contest in the next election.
The result increases the temptation of the clerical centrists led by Casini to supplant the secular liberals of Fini who will now have to re-invent themselves in opposition. Perhaps some of them will discover more common ground with the modern left when it comes to setting the rules regulating democracy and citizenship.
It is also a defeat for the left which till the very end hinged its bet on an alternative government appointed by the present parliament, a prospect which could well have turned Berlusconi from a capricious Nero to a martyr of a palace intrigue.
Obviously this is a catch 22 situation, for without changing the rules of the game there is a big chance that Berlusconi will crown himself President of the Republic.
Much depends on the ability of Bersani and Vendola to embrace modernity while still making fundamental and radical choices in politics. For while Berlusconi defies modernity in his conception of power, the left does not offer a coherent alternative economic policy.
The left still seems to excel in poetry rather than solutions addressing access to the labour market and precarious jobs.
Bersani's track record as an architect of liberalisations (in protected sectors like pharmacies and taxis) in Prodi's government and Vendola's ability to attract investment in solar energy in Puglia provide a glimpse of what a modern left could be like.
Instead of living in the world of fantapolitics the left will now have to win heart and minds for its own project of governance, standing on its own feet to win support of different social groups while reaching out to centrist and liberal forces to change the rules of the game with the ultimate aim of ridding Italy of its Mugabe.

Wikileaks and the end of anti americanism

It is no surprise that the rabid american right wing is calling for the literal decapitation of Wikileaks but most of the leaks simply confirm that the real threat to the world is posed by totalitarian or authoritarian regimes like China, the hypocritical Saudis, Iran, Russia, Libya as well as autocrats like Berlusconi in Europe (who comes across as Putin's client) and various central Asian regimes ... Definitely US diplomacy in the past 50 years has played along with various dictatorship in Europe, Asia and South America to contain communism. In Korea, Indonesia and central america the US was definitely involved in crimes against humanity. And in Italy US interests could have flirted with deviant parts of the state to create a climate of tension.
Under Bush the mistakes committed in the struggle against communism were to some extent replicated by farming out torture in repressive states.
But the growth of the global media has changed the terrain drastically. Even the despicable acts of the Bush era (like the use of torture and the illegal invasion of Iraq) pale in comparison with those of former Presidents between the end of the second world war and the 1980s.
This coupled by major political changes with right wing military dictatorships being replaced by democracies in most of Latin America and south east Asia.
Left wing groups obsessed by Nato and the USA should better refocus their energies on the real despots and autocrats and hold the west to account on its dealings with the various mad dogs. For who backs the Burmese regime and Sudan in Darfur? And who plays blackmail with immigrants crossing the Mediterranean sea?
Surely wikileaks has also exposed the mess in Afghanistan and the corrupt regime installed there. But surely allowing the Taliban to win back power cannot be part of the agenda of anyone cherishing progressive values.
Ironically old leftists who still defer to China, Libya and even North Korea are the real reactionaries. The world has changed and in a multipolar world the US is one of many actors, some of which more brutal and definitely madder.
As regards the US itself the real danger is an internal one...the rabid right wing represented by the tea party whose triumph would make America more like the autocratic regimes which are rightly held in to account by its diplomacy. If most unfortunately the price of this is Clintonian normality rather than the audacity of hope...so be it.