Pandemic: The Italian Way

By Wolf Bukowski, July 2020 A t the beginning we were mocked, abroad,’ says Romano Prodi referring to the government’s response to Covid-19, ‘But now we hear people call it the Italian way : we dictated the rule. I believe that we saved Europe.’ Former Italian Prime Minister Prodi’s statements are often banal, but never casual. His point about dictating the rule is, if anything, an understatement: the Italian way has led not just Europe, but the world. Although China is far more influential than Italy, its internal affairs remain those of an opaque and totalitarian country, and do not generate emulation. The Wuhan epidemic alarmed the world, but it has been the Italian reaction, a very strict lockdown at national level, that has demonstrated a method. And it is in the face of the Italian way, not the Chinese measures, that the rulers of democratic countries have feared accusations of letting their citizens die. So, they largely adopted the Italian way, albeit often less rigidly than the original. Analyzing how it developed can therefore also shed light on a new phase of global politics. But, before doing so, it is necessary to illustrate who comprises the Italian political class, as well as its modus operandi in reacting to broader social facts, outside of the viral epidemic. An eternal emergency The Italian parliament has three political alignments. A sovereigntist one with openly racist tones, characterized by theories of ethnic substitution , according to which African migrants challenge the ‘native’ European. Migrations, the sovereigntists ridiculously claim, are financed and pushed by Soros (that in their narrative is not only referring to George Soros, but is somehow a codename for ‘Jewish lobby’ or other expressions that could sound too openly antisemitic). A second parliamentary group is of a hyper-moderate and neoliberal left. During the years in which it ruled, it also approved tough measures against migrants. However, unlike the right, this group did not