This year was different. The Italian Democratic Party, which dominates the country's left-of-centre politics, knew that it was in trouble. A flamboyant blogger and former comedian named Beppe Grillo had turned his celebrity into an online political force, Il Movimento 5 Stelle (the Five Star Movement), which promised to do well in the national elections. The new party didn't have any coherent plan beyond sweeping out Old Corruption, but that was enough to bring out the crowds. The Five Star Movement was particularly good at attracting young idealists, the kind of voters who might have been Democrats a decade before.

Worries about this threat spilt over into the summer school. The relationship between communication and democracy suddenly had urgent political implications. The Democratic Party had spent two decades suffering under the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's stranglehold on traditional media. Now it found itself challenged on the left too, by internet-fuelled populists who seemed to be sucking attention and energy away from it.

The keynote speaker at the summer school, the Democratic Party leader and prospective prime minister Pier Luigi Bersani, was in a particularly awkward position. Matteo Renzi, the ‘reformist' mayor of Florence, had recently challenged Bersani's leadership, promising the kind of dynamism that would appeal to younger voters. If Bersani wanted to stay on as party leader, he had to win an open primary. The summer school gave him a chance to speak to the activists in training, and try to show that he was still relevant. Continue reading

Sources

• Henry Farrell in Aeon
• Image: Architizer

Henry Farrell is an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.

Bagnasco, who stopped just short of asking Berlusconi to resign, painted a damning picture of a ruling class that was more concerned with its survival than the good of the people.

The Church, which once saw Berlusconi as a bulwark against the left, was the latest institution to pull the plug on the embattled prime minister.

In recent weeks Berlusconi has faced damning criticism and more or less open calls to resign from pillars of the Italian establishment including employers' group Confindustria, the head of auto giant Fiat and newspapers including Corriere della Sera, Italy's most authoritative daily.

"It's one more nail in the coffin," said James Walston, political science professor at the American University of Rome. "When and if Berlusconi stands for office again, the bishops' message is clear: don't vote for him".

The speech by Bagnasco, president of the country's bishops' conference, was splashed on the front pages of all Italian newspapers on Tuesday with unequivocal headlines such as that in La Stampa: "The bishops stick it to Berlusconi".

Some of Berlusconi's ministers and undersecretaries accused the opposition of exploiting the cardinal's words, saying they could be applied to all politicians.

But while Bagnasco did not mention the prime minister specifically, the prelate left no doubt he was referring to the sex and corruption scandals that continue to dog Berlusconi and his centre-right government.

Source: TrustLaw

A speech by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco to fellow bishops stopped just short of asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is battling scandals over parties with prostitutes and corruption.

While Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, did not specifically name the prime minister, he left little doubt he was referring to scandals that have touched Berlusconi and his centre-right government.

"It is mortifying to witness behaviour that not only goes counter to public decorum but is intrinsically sad and hollow," he said.

He said Italians had been left in a state of "dumbfounded astonishment" because of a ruling political class that was enmeshed in scandal and preoccupied with self-preservation while the rest of the country suffered from a deep economic crisis.

Until now the Vatican and the Italian Catholic Church have been hesitant to be scathing in its criticism of the centre-right, fearing that a leftist government could back measures it opposes, such as gay marriage and embryonic stem-stell research.

"The image is one of a country that is estranged, without impulse, as if everyone is waiting for the inevitable," Bagnasco said.

The political class, Bagnasco said, had a greater responsibility to live a moral life and set a good example because their behaviour had "undeniable effects on culture and education" and influenced the young and impressionable.

Bagnasco said many in the political class were propagating a poisonous culture of seeing success as something that could be reached through connections and short cuts rather than hard work. He called for a radical re-think of the way things work.

"It's not just a question of doing things differently but of thinking differently. There is a need to purify the air so that new generations, as they grow, are not poisoned," he said.

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