One should perhaps feel grateful after the state broadcaster RAI 1 finally decided to cover Beppe Grillo’s massive V-day protest, two days late. If there’s one thing worse than being talked about…
The station’s increasingly confused idea of what ‘news reporting’ is meant that the coverage consisted entirely of two main stream political figures giving their opinion on the event – that would be balanced reporting, one imagines. Had one not attended the event, or read the newspapers after, one wouldn’t have a clue what the report was about as no mention was made of the actual initiative.
Particularly interesting was UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Cassini’s response to Grillo’s anti-political initiative:
“Only a political class without ideals and lacking any serious motivation could wag its tail behind Grillo […] The thing that makes me sad is not just the comic’s show, but the scary reaction of those who should have more dignity”
We note that there’s no criticism directly of the serious proposal behind the initiative – proposals which it’s worth repeating again:
1) No deputies should be able to stand for election if they have prior convictions
2) No deputies should be able to serve more than two terms in parliament (Casini has been there for 7)
3) Deputies should be elected on the basis of direct representation, rather than the current list system in which Party secretaries decide who gets a seat, based on votes, and who doesn’t.
Cassini was described as being indignant at the presumably vulgar ‘vaffanculo day’. He has been less than indignant though about various members of his own party who have been convicted in the past for a range of sins. One prominent case, according to Marco Travaglio – one of Italy’s leading investigative journalists – has been that of Cosimo Mele, a relatively insignificant member of the UDC parliamentary body. Mele was chosen by Cassini and his bunch notwithstanding the fact that he was – and is – under investigation for recieving substantial bribes in return for planning decisions whilst deputy mayor of Carovigno.
Being seriously implicated in a corruption scandal was not enough for the UDC party to decide that Mele was unfit to be in their parliamentary party. This summer, though, Mele was discovered to be the mysterious politician at the center of a sex, drugs (and possibly rock n’ roll) scandal. The married politican, and member of the ‘family values’ UDC, was finally forced to leave the UDC when it was revealed that he partied with two call-girls in his hotel room, and left abruptly when one girl started overdosing on cocaine. He stepped down from the UDC, but not his parliamentary seat or salary.
That would be Cassini’s political class with ideals and serious motivation, one would imagine.
If vaffanculo isn’t the term, I don’t know what is.