# taz.de -- Spotlight Populism: The Rage | |
> A deep frustration has identified several enemies: the „casta“, the | |
> powerful untouchable politicians, the immigrants, Europe, the Euro. | |
Bild: „Out of the Euro!“ 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo during a campa… | |
Only four weeks ago I was just in that market, with a glass of mulled wine | |
in my hands to fight a cold night I’m not used to. Berlin was fantastic and | |
shining in its Christmas dress under the Kaiser Wilhelm 65Memorial Church, | |
a warning against violence and war in Europe. | |
I remember some people singing, others eating ginger biscuits in a very | |
peaceful atmosphere. I immediately compared this situation to the one of | |
the year before in the same period when, a few days after the Bataclan | |
attack, I was in Strasbourg for The Council of Europe and the city was | |
totally militarized with soldiers walking along the streets while silent | |
people put little candles, letters and flowers in memory of the Paris | |
victims under the Christmas tree of the main square. | |
I was in Berlin for a seminary in the European College with other southern | |
European journalists to talk about populism and how to empower European | |
cohesion. I met a lot of people also in the buildings of politics: | |
Reichstag, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry … but what impressed | |
me above all was the refugee accommodation in Wilmersdorf’s former town | |
hall. | |
The centre was tidy and quiet, only some kids ran around, curious. More | |
than one thousand people live there after the great immigration wave of the | |
2015 summer. | |
Arriving I was surprised by the multitude of bikes, hundreds and hundreds, | |
leanung against the wall of the building. Someone said to me they were all | |
given for free from Berliners to refugees. „They have the antibodies…“ I | |
thought, antibodies against xenophobia and populism. But now all of this | |
appears so far away and I can guess what will change after the terrorist | |
attack of December 19th. | |
Race among pupulists | |
A race has already started among the European populist leaders to find out | |
who has the moral responsibility for these killed people. From Frauke | |
Petry’s AfD to Salvini’s Lega and Marine Le Pen’s Front National, all of | |
them want to use this attack to inflame the political debate and to push | |
people to look at the colour of the other's face and be scared of crowded | |
places. | |
„We do not want to live paralyzed by the fear of evil“ Frau Merkel said but | |
it isn't easy to go on with daily life. One of the twelve victims was an | |
Italian girl, Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a friend of a colleague of mine. In this | |
little world also feelings are strictly “connected“ and now my friend cries | |
for a girl who left for Berlin like many other Italians looking for a | |
better life despite of excellent curricula. In fact not only the | |
immigration wave feeds this Leviathan who wanders around Europe. | |
The great economic crisis has contributed in these last years to destroy | |
the middle class and enlarge the scissors between the poorest and the | |
richest. In my country, Italy, the wealth is at the same level as in 2005 | |
and southern regions suffer from an increasingly growing unemployment. So | |
the 4th December Italian referendum for constitutional reform has been | |
perceived like a referendum against Renzi's Government and the former | |
Italian premier has left at once after the result of 60 Percent votes for | |
„No“ came in. | |
## A real nightmare | |
For me it has been a real nightmare: one of the few possibilities that my | |
country has had to change and to reform its endemic paralysis has been | |
lost. The richest northern towns like the most European one, Milan, voted | |
Yes but the South and above all young people expressed their rage and their | |
lack of future and perspective voting No. In this frustration the populism | |
of the Five Stars Movement won the match helped by an aggressive web | |
campaign. | |
Web power: this is the third pillar of modern populism. We saw what | |
happened with Trumps' campaign. False news was spread but people went on | |
voting for him because social networks give people what people want in a | |
sort of interplay of mirrors where everybody founds his own confirmations. | |
When we met the journalists from taz, during the Berlin seminary I | |
attended, we talked about the media revolution. In taz newsroom there is a | |
sign on which reads „Don’t believe the liberal media!“. I think that now … | |
should be changed in „Don't believe the web!“ This is the real core of the | |
problem! Also in my radio, [1][Rai Radio3], the left wing oriented cultural | |
national radio in Italy, we always discuss about the changes in our | |
profession and our chase of this new world. The listeners have become | |
„followers“ and over and over they don't accept the mediation of the | |
“medium“ looking for a more direct and horizontal relationship, often | |
aggressive, in which their truth becomes „the truth“. | |
So when the taz colleagues asked us to write an article about how to save | |
ourselves from populism I tried to imagine if there really is a way out. | |
I'm not a political scientist, I'm only a witness from a special | |
observatory, as a national radio where I've been working for 27 years is. | |
In these years caused by an unfair wealth distribution I saw a growing rage | |
and a deep frustration that have identified several different enemies: the | |
„casta“, the powerful untouchable politicians, the immigrants, Europe, the | |
Euro. | |
I remember that after the great political Italian crisis of „Tangentopoli“, | |
the corruption scandal that destroyed the old politics of our 1st Republic | |
in 1992, the audience was angry but optimistic for a new future, they hoped | |
for a better political solution and saw in the Second Republic as a great | |
opportunity. Now, on the contrary, in my country there is only skepticism, | |
frustration and immobility. So, in this panorama whoever gives simple | |
solutions to complex problems hits the jackpot. | |
No, I’m not optimistic, I fear for my kids and for their future in a world | |
completely changed by globalization. I live in Machiavelli’s country and I | |
have to be realistic and pragmatic too: I think we face a cultural | |
revolution and we’ll need plenty of time till we’ll open our eyes and | |
hearts to the “alterity“ in every moment of our life. Perhaps initiative | |
like this one wanted by taz, the realization of a pool of international | |
journalists to exchange their opinions and debate all together about these | |
essential issues, could help to destroy prejudices giving reciprocally | |
better tools to understand, in a common effort, this fluid and difficult | |
reality we are living in. | |
Cristiana Castellotti, [2][Radio3] (State-owned public-broadcasting channel | |
of RAI)/Programme director “Tutta la città ne parla“ and “Radio3mondo“ | |
27 Jun 2017 | |
## LINKS | |
[1] http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/Page-a92d14c3-2fa3-4df6-8b7d-f1c15… | |
[2] http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/Page-a92d14c3-2fa3-4df6-8b7d-f1c15… | |
## AUTOREN | |
Cristiana Castellotti | |
## TAGS | |
taz in English | |
taz international | |
Spotlight Populism in Europe | |
Populismus | |
Europa | |
Terrorismus | |
taz in English | |
USA | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Alleged visa-faking ring in Ghana: The fake fake US embassy | |
According to the US government a crime ring issued fake US visas out of an | |
inconspicuous building in Ghana. The people living there are mystified. | |
A student exchange to provincial USA: Do you believe in evolution? | |
At age 17 our author – a left-liberal, big-city Berlin girl – wants to go | |
to New York, and lands up in rural America amongst nothing but Trump fans. | |
What now? |