I can’t understand why most people are so surprised at the Donald Trump’s triumph. We’ve been here before you know. This is not the first time that a womanising, weirdly permatanned man with dodgy hair and more cash than class, seizes the reins of power. It’s only been a couple of years since Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi finally limped off the national stage where he was largely responsible for turning Italian politics into a farcical mess.
The fact that Italy is not a world power may have something to do with the way many people dismissed Berlusconi as an entertaining buffoon while greeting Trump’s election to leader of the free world with horror.
However, the parallels between Berlusconi and Trump are significant and they could help observers understand the appeal of both politicians and others of their ilk.
In the first place, both Berlusconi and Trump are perceived to be wildly successful, self-made billionnaires. Never mind the fact that the origin of the fortunes of Italy’s one-time Prime Minister were extremely suspect, or that his tax fraud, tax evasion and criminal associations have been widely publicised. Never mind that Trump is also facing allegations of fraud in a major class action civil trial and that he has had business dealings with less than savoury characters. Their success (in monetary terms) has eclipsed the way they achieved it. People are attracted to ‘winners’ – or to those who they perceive to be such.
Then there is the larger-than-life personalities of both. Who can forget the ridiculously self-aggrandising Berlusconi saying, “Life is a matter of perspective: Think of all the women in the world who want to sleep with me but don’t know it.” A cruder echo of that was Trump’s boasting about his ability to “get a young and beautiful piece off ass”.
That sort of macho-posturing went down well with legions of men, first in Italy and now in the US, because it comes across as the self-assured declaration of an alpha male, who dream of having that pulling-power. Ironically, it also appeals to considerable cohorts of women – for many years Berlusconi’s popularity ratings among women was higher than that for any Italian politician.
The fact that Italy is not a world power may have something to do with the way many people dismissed Berlusconi as an entertaining buffoon
And who can forget the “Meno male che c’e Silvio” (“Thank goodness there’s Silvio”) brigade? It epitomises the appeal of personalities like Berlusconi and Trump. They are seen as bold, derring-do anti-heroes bucking the traditional politician mould. If they succeeded in making it to the top in their field with their unconventional, brash manner, who’s to say that they can’t replicate this success in governing the nation? What’s so wrong with doing away with the bureaucracy and legalisms of the “Establishment” (clichéd, over-used word that) by doing it their way – and being entertaining in the process?
In societies where the reality show format is overwhelmingly popular, unpopular participants can be voted off the show in the next programme and audiences can zone in and out whenever they please, the extrapolation of that set-up to the governing of the nation may appear to be a good idea. Except that it doesn’t quite work out that way.
After two decades of braggadocio and bunga bunga parties, Berlusconi left Italy with huge structural problems. In 2010 only Zimbabwe and Haiti had lower GDP growth than Italy in the preceding decade. In fact, GDP per head in Italy actually fell. At the same time Italy’s public debt was 120 per cent of GDP, the rich world’s third-biggest.
Unemployment rates for young people soared and the country had the lowest female participation in western Europe. Many left Italy, resulting in a level of brain drain. Italy came 80th in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ index, below Belarus and Mongolia, and 48th in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, behind Indonesia and Barbados. There were interminable delays in the civil justice system, poor universities, a lack of competition in public/private services and a two-tier labour market with protected insiders and exposed outsiders. The worsening economic situation took its toll on the infrastructure which got shabbier while public services suffered.
Berlusconi’s appreciation of the environment was inversely proportional to his appreciation of underage sexual partners and the environment was overlooked completely. Rather than the economic miracle promised by the cheeky populist, the Italians experienced the grim reality of being governed by a personality.
It remains to be seen whether the Trump experience will be any different.
■ The Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Vella, who was environment minister between 1996 and 1998, said that it hurts him even to look at a place like Tigné. “I look away,” he said.
That’s what we all do when we look at the Tigné peninsula. We turn away to avert our eyes from the ugly mish-mash of buildings that have been allowed to crowd it.
Albert Mizzi, the late entrepreneur who headed the consortium, which played a large part in turning Tigné into what it is today, had said something very much on the same lines. When asked about it he had said, “To be honest with you, today I have second thoughts about how it looks from Valletta myself. As an individual I am not totally happy with it.”
That’s not an overwhelming vote of confidence or appreciation for the development he commissioned.
I bring this up because this is just another example in which the resultant reality of finished developments differs totally from the chic and beautiful photomontages accompanying applications for developments. As we see from bitter experience, those glossy pictures translated into eye-wateringly ugly, spirit-sapping blocks.
We are still in time to stop the rot spreading further. There are still pockets of beauty. Let’s not ruin those too. As the Leonard Cohen song Tower of Song goes, “I ache in the places I used to play”. That’s the ache of loss for something which we all held dear – elements of harmony and beauty in our country.
drcbonello@gmail.com