If the M5S and the Lega embody two different faces of Italian populism, their choice of Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, the self-dubbed People’s Advocate, represents their common denominator: the apotheosis of the common man.
Grillo’s movement articulated Italy’s widespread disenchantment with the traditional parties of left and right, seen as self-serving oligarchies. If they were swept away and ‘the people’ could express their ‘will’ online all would be well. For the past two years the patent absurdity of this ingenuous belief has been conclusively demonstrated by the ever-increasing mounds of refuse, potholed streets and self-combusting buses presided over by Rome’s inept M5S administration. Like Trump’s electoral base, though, the Five Star Movement’s supporters remain unmoved by their idol’s incompetence. Their commitment is based on faith not reason.
While the M5S reflects a naive optimism- if only the corrupt politicians are swept way, all will be well, no need for experience, expertise or competence - Salvini’s Lega represents the darker face of populism: the belief that ordinary Italians have two concrete enemies seeking to destroy their identity: the European Union undermining their ability to decide their own destiny, and non-Caucasians polluting their ethnic identity. Although a moment’s reflection reveals the inherent absurdity of believing an ordinary Italian’s economic woes will trouble an Italian billionaire simply because they share a passport and skin colour, the misconception serves to deflect people’s attention from the real cause of their distress: the increasing weakness of Europe’s individual national governments in relation to global companies. The European Union, on the other hand, has had some success in calling them to heel. It also attempted to mitigate Italy’s immigration crisis by seeking to distribute the newcomers across the Union rather than leaving Italy to fend for itself. It was the other member states who opposed the move. A cynic might wonder whether, rather than the product of naivety, Salvini’s policies are actually aimed at promoting the interests of the one percent by targeting the institution capable of championing the common man against international finance and globalised companies, and reducing the profitable pool of immigrant workers available for gangmasters to exploit in southern Italy. The far right’s love affair with Putin - a strong EU would limit Russia’s political influence in the continent, used to promote the European financial operations of Russian oligarchs - gives the theory additional weight.
And then there’s Conte. Unlike Mario Monti, for example, he’s clearly been plucked from the second division of technical experts, and as such we common folk recognise one of our own. A Monti or a Prodi has no need to primp his cv - we do. When I was applying to university in the early sixties I numbered my membership of the school athletics team amongst my achievements. I didn’t feel it necessary to add that I owed my place to a flu epidemic which laid low all the school’s decent athletes, that it had happened five years previously, and that my place lasted for just one match. If I were suddenly plucked from obscurity to be offered the post of Prime Minister I would probably refer to my experience teaching undergraduates - and feel it unnecessary to mention I did so at an FE college, rather than at Oxford or Harvard. I might allude to my managerial role as Head of Humanities and Course Director of the BA degree, without revealing that the Humanities section consisted of fewer than a dozen staff, and the undergraduate degree had only twenty students. However, I hope I would have the good sense to reject the offer and suggest they seek someone with outstanding achievements and proven competence.
I’m not suggesting that I’m in the same league as Conte: if he’s in the Championship, I belong in the second division of the Southern League. He may prove to have exceptional political skills but someone from the Premiership would be a safer bet. But, if his role is merely to provide a mask for Salvini and Di Maio, who better than someone whose very mediocrity embodies populism’s rejection of ‘elites’ and ‘experts’?
