What can the UK learn from Italian politics?
Italian comedian and journalist Francesco De Carlo pens our latest Comedians on Ethics column, asking what the UK can learn from Italian politics
This August I will return to the Edinburgh Fringe with my new stand-up show, Comfort Zone. During my first trip, in 2014, I performed as part of the Comedy Sans Frontieres project alongside Eddie Izzard and Dylan Moran. It’s been very interesting to watch how much those "frontieres" have since become a problem, in ways most of us could never have predicted.
In the USA, a man who wants to change borders into walls has become President. In the UK, a fear of immigration was used by politicians to win a referendum that shocked the world. And in Italy, where I come from, our already right wing government is buoyed by anti-immigration rhetoric which is only getting worse as the country sees an influx of migrants.
According to the New York Times, almost 100,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year. And believe me when I say, while it’s depressing to watch the xenophobia and racism that springs from these issues, it’s also undeniable that Italy is not best prepared to deal with such complex organisational problems; in some cities, we are still struggling with traffic lights.
Ironically, since my first Edinburgh show, I actually moved to the UK and so I became a foreigner too. I thought that mine had been a big step, but as soon as I decided to leave Italy, the UK decided to leave Europe. I left a country, you left an entire continent.
In many ways, I'm in a fortunate position, because I’ve found myself cast in the role of one of the most important characters in the play that is modern society: I am 'the immigrant'. Everybody is talking about me and a lot of people like me; and that’s good for my narcissism.
The second positive thing for me is that it’s currently very hard to get homesick – I don't feel any nostalgia for my country. With the good weather in the UK this summer, a bad economy and some laughable politicians, I feel completely at home here.
There are actually many things about British society that remind me of Italy. Everywhere I go I see Italian exports: prosecco, supercars and great fashion – all things you Brits love, and all things that make me proud to be Italian. Even if I don't like prosecco, I've never driven a supercar and my entire wardrobe consists of piles of jeans and black t-shirts.
Of course, there are a few other things that Italy has exported during its history, which aren’t quite as nice... Fascism, the mafia and most recently, a charismatic leader who was also a multimillionaire businessman made famous by a television show, capable of effective slogans but little else, and with no interest in rules or truth. He also promised to make his country great again.
And now, get ready UK, because we’re ready to export another product: this one is called “the Five-Star Movement” and it was created by a very popular Italian comedian, Beppe Grillo. Almost ten years ago he organised an event that saw hundreds of thousands of citizens take to the street to protest against the embarrassing conditions of the Italian political class. I was there. The event was called the 'Vaffanculo Day' (literally 'Fuck Off Day').
The movement bases its principles on what they call 'direct democracy' and this is, they argue, an evolution beyond the standard 'representative democracy'. The overall premise is that citizens should no longer delegate their power to political parties, which are viewed as corrupt and whose main interests lie in benefitting lobby groups and financial powers. The cornerstone of this idea is to create a more informed and 'woke' society, which will be made possible, in part, by the internet. If you are familiar with the TV series Black Mirror this would probably remind you of the episode titled The Waldo Moment.
The movement has since gained some amazing political ground and has become one of the most important political powers in the country, winning the elections for the mayor of Rome and Turin. And it won elections with a campaign based on 'honesty'. You know your country is messed up when the first point on a political manifesto that wins the election is 'honesty'. Maybe the second one should be 'breathing'.
But despite this progress (and much as on a personal level it would do me no harm if all international Italian comedians were given this kind of success and power), we are still finding that year after year the hope of seeing a real change in Italy is beginning to fade, because the Five Star Movement faced its own challenges and we need to look to those issues to understand what we can learn from its failures, as well as its successes. Behind the slogans, the policies were hard to realise; conflicts inside the movement arose, just like in any other political party. And problems the party faced when trying to bring 'normal' people in to parliament were clearly demonstrated by the lack of preparation by the candidates.
I don’t believe that the Five Star Movement in itself is to blame for many of the issues it faced and still faces. I think it's more interesting to meditate on the success of these 'anti-political' politicians who are arising all over the world. If they rally against the status quo and they win the elections, we should start to question the real condition of the status quo. And that is something that the UK seems to be on the precipice of right now.
So, what can the UK learn from Italy’s recent political history? Well first and foremost, we can learn that the value of being informed, and the power of political protest can be very meaningful. I would highly recommend the documentary We Are Many for anyone interested in learning more about the evolution and future of mass demonstration.
Despite its recent problems, democracy in the UK is still much stronger than it is in Italy, but I would not underestimate the power of populism, which is basically the art of either (depending on your political leanings) blaming politicians or blaming immigrants for everything that is wrong with a society.
So, as the faint strains of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!” echo across the UK, many of the 52% are beginning to wake up to the fact that the promises of the Leave campaign made as much sense as the assertion that Berlusconi had never heard of Bunga Bunga parties. Support for a second referendum to prevent Brexit is surging, and yet the people who caused all the problems are still in power (however shaky that position of power may be).
We as a society need to keep pushing as hard as we can, and as vocally as we can, towards a system where traditional parties are held to account and politicians are on the whole reliable; where people are informed and engaged with the social life of their community; and by that I don’t mean that they engage by reviewing Uber drivers, yoga courses or Indian restaurants on Yelp.
Being as informed and aware as possible is the only way we can fight against a dangerous prevailing mood.
The lies that were told during the referendum campaign caused both distrust towards politicians and fear of foreigners: a perfect market for exporting the last Italian specialty, which can make you say irrational things that you don't believe, and this time, it’s not Prosecco.