No matter how popular you initially are, no matter that there is wall to wall coverage of your feats and capabilities, no matter how universal your approval, you simply cannot drag an entire population against it’s will in a direction it does not wish to go in. At the very least this cannot be done as an explicit project. People and societies do tend to self-correct, sometimes via guillotine, sometimes via expulsion, but most certainly always via censure and disgrace. Some hope then still remains for our deracinated societies.
A bit of a background to this, before we proceed to learn some lessons from this episode (hopefully).
This entire fiasco went down in Italy. After great political machinations and wrestling, a certain Mario Draghi was nominated as Italy’s prime minister. This was hailed as a salutary development for Italy. The political and economic elites of Europe praised him to the high heavens as someone who could and would brink back Italy from the brink of political and economic collapse. Everyone across the political spectrum supported this Prime Minister, including the so-called fringe parties. Draghi in no uncertain terms was considered a saviour.
Said Mr. Draghi has now resigned. Not only that, this so-called saviour of the economy has left behind an economy in absolute tatters. For example, the latest European Commission macroeconomic forecast predicted that Italy will experience the slowest economic growth in the bloc next year, at just 0.9%, owing to a decline in consumer spending due to rising prices and lower business investment. The inflation rate is also 8.6 %. What this means is that the value of whatever you earn within the Italian economy is fast losing it’s worth. Real wages which refer to the actual purchasing power of the earning members of society is declining rapidly and a record 10% of Italian society is living in poverty.
All this economic disaster though not particularly avoidable, could most certainly have been mitigated. What compounded this economic disaster was the energy supply crisis brought on by the sanctions on Russia. Simply put, Russia was and remains the cheapest source of natural gas for European economies. Once that was cut off, inflation was bound to set in, apart from reducing the rate of growth in general.
Draghi was the driving force behind cutting of the supply of Russian gas, something he proudly boasted about by desiring Italy to be independent of Russian gas. Italians now pay one of the highest electricity prices in the Europe apart from importing coal from Russia (oh the irony). This hits the middle and working classes the hardest who are the largest sections of the population in almost all countries.
The entire situation was rendered even worse by the attempts at top-down liberalization attempted by Draghi at the behest of EU (European Union) elites. This was justified by stating that funds from the EU were absolutely required for the post COVID recovery. Guess who mandated the damned lockdowns, that necessitated this recovery in the first place? Of course, it was the EU. On a side note, said funds are in no way sufficient to kickstart the Italian economy that faces larges issues in terms of economic inefficiency, an ageing population and corrupt moribund state.
Despite the disaster that Draghi was as a Prime Minster, the elites have fired all that they can at those that seek to criticize him. After all, since he is their creature, their own credibility is at stake. So, we have the Financial Times praising him, the Guardian defending him and the evergreen trash rag New York Times calling his tenure a golden period for Italy.
What can we in India cull out from this disaster in Italy? First that elites protect their own and also deploy massive propaganda for people to accept their puppet. This is no mean feat as Draghi was accepted and even praised by the very same parties that ostensibly are opposed to neoliberal elites. One has to be on guard against the massive and sophisticated PR campaigns that the elites can launch. Maybe the Hindutva nationalist you so adore, is simply a puppet of the neoliberal elites that has beguiled you into thinking that.
Secondly that political parties despite all their bluster about serving the people and their respective nations first do seem to be responsive to foreign actors and powers. Draghi here was clearly taking instructions and dragging along his country in the wake of European Union diktats. Not for one second do I believe that the people of Italy would have been ready to bear massive inflation, massive power bills and a slow economy for the sake of European Union being able to combat Russia.
Thirdly and most importantly that no matter how popular you initially are, no matter that there is wall to wall coverage of your feats and capabilities, no matter how universal your approval, you simply cannot drag an entire population against it’s will in a direction it does not wish to go in. At the very least this cannot be done as an explicit project. People and societies do tend to self-correct, sometimes via guillotine, sometimes via expulsion, but most certainly always via censure and disgrace.
Some hope then still remains for our deracinated societies.
