For several years now I have lived with the sensation of being, one among many, a “boiled frog”: yes, that of the famous apologue in which the water, from cold to lukewarm and then from hot to boiling, kills the frog in the pot, which at the beginning had found that pleasant warmth enveloping. I am referring to the progressive “fascistization” of the world and of Italy in particular. Many, while they see themselves as “happy frogs”, continue to maintain that certain political phenomena have been eradicated and that History, cloaked in a capital S, will not allow certain returns. I say I am “one among many” and not “all” because, as always happens, there are those who see things from the side of the pot. Now this feeling is confirmed in a book which, speaking of “authoritarian grip”, adds that it is “a phenomenon that falls drop by drop, generating addiction”. Words that are another way to express the same concept of the boiled frog, especially since the same book recalls an enlightening thought by Sigmund Freud: “Modern man willingly renounces the possibility of being happy if this is the price of feeling more secure.” An objective for which – this is the emerging reflection – democracy is not necessary, indeed it can be a hindrance. The book, absolutely necessary in this period that remains before the definitive “boiling”, is “White Fascism”. Published by Garzantiwas written by Michele Ainis, an essayist, writer and editorialist from Messina who is also, if not above all, one of the most illustrious Italian constitutionalists.
Strengthened by clear concepts and always supported by facts and numbers, therefore far from the fumes of ideology, Ainis reveals worrying data capable of giving a wake-up call to the “lukewarm” (until you are “boiled” there is hope) invoking a new Resistance. As? «With non-violent demonstrations, with the practice of conscientious objection, with denunciation, certainly not by going into the mountains armed with rifles. But first of all we need to recognize evil.”
Of course, it may even seem like the optimism of reason when the rapid political rise of a general in Italy, the expansion of far-right parties, especially in Germany but also in Spain, France and other countries, has accelerated the phenomenon. For a good part of the book, Ainis has chosen the impersonality of the narration of the phenomenon, both the length of certain lists (of despotic politicians in command and of freedoms abolished, I would say almost nonchalantly) and the grip on the heart and brain (and, I hope, also on the stomach) caused by certain figures, with the enrichment of learned but persuasive quotations, already give the right emotions. Indeed, they give a decisive wake-up call that is difficult not to hear, unless you are complicit in what is happening or – despite evidence to the contrary – unless you think that these are biased positions. Italy, fortunately for us, has a Constitution that places obstacles and constraints on those who consider democracy more of a word to be cloaked in and good for fools. Of course, it is impressive to read the powerful series of reforms approved in the Seventies (the Regions, the Workers’ Statute, referendums, divorce, tax and family law reform, the establishment of the National Health Service, equality of men and women at work and more) in application of the dictates of the Constitution. It is even more impressive now in the face of a spate of “security decrees” or the reform of the Court of Auditors (“a state pardon to the detriment of the state”). But, writes Ainis, in the world «reality records an unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of the government, nourishes the cult of the strong and solitary man (or woman) in command, is interwoven with a nationalistic and protectionist rhetoric, suffocates every dissenting voice with regime propaganda. Without coups d’état or military coups, without using stadiums to lock up opponents, as Pinochet did. Rather by emptying the authority of parliaments, undermining the independence of the judiciary, occupying the constitutional courts and other guarantee bodies with trusted men, controlling the media, reducing local autonomies”.
They are “illiberal democracies”. While the United Nations and the International Criminal Court are emptied of powers and capacity for action, Ainis explains how alarming the institutional landscape that is being created is: «A plutocracy, a government held by the richest. The double election of Donald Trump (a real estate magnate with assets estimated in billions of dollars), as well as the attribution of a central role in his second executive to Elon Musk (the richest man on the planet), offer the most eloquent example. On the other hand, on the new political scene, personal wealth is no longer hidden.” In fact, Trump himself has launched his own cryptocurrency and, according to some media, his second term will bring him profits of 3.4 billion dollars. At the same time, it bars some journalists from entering the White House. And it equips itself with its own media and social networks.
To understand better, the numbers help us: «71 percent of the world population – 5.7 billion people – live under the heel of an autocracy. Without free elections or legal guarantees that defend their freedoms. The old liberal democracies survive in a residual area, although the world is equally divided between 88 autocracies and 91 democracies. But the latter offer a roof to a minority of the world’s population, 3 billion people. And that roof is now shaking.”
In closing, remembering that the book talks about Russia, China, England, France, Turkey and others, we return to Italy, warning that Ainis does not make concessions even to the governments that preceded the current one, presided over by Giorgia Meloni. The abuse of decree laws is all too evident today, even if many are “left to rot because the implementation rules are missing”. And their approval? «It mostly happens under dictation» because in most cases the question of trust is posed, even in the budget law: «Hence an exchange of roles: the executive power legislates, the legislative power executes», leading to the distortion of “alternating single chambers”: «It means that one Chamber discusses, approves amendments, decides on the text, while the other simply ratifies it». As the title of the book says, “white fascism”.
