MESSINA – Nei seven days of ordinary madness, Matteo Salvini’s visit to Messina deserves a central place. Thanks to a divisive issue such as the bridge over the Strait, security measures have been strengthened for the arrival of the Vice President of the Council and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. Hence the controversy over the inconveniences that some citizens of Messina had to suffer on Friday 31 May. But that’s not what we want to focus on. But rather on the “message” that, perhaps despite himself, who knows, the Northern League leader himself sent to the people of Messina: the politician far away on the ship “Dattilo” and the citizens suffering the inconveniences.
We are in an era of 50 percent abstention, almost 40% at the latest elections (source “Openpolis”). And any behavior by the ruler or politician on duty that fuels the distance from the Palace risks having disastrous consequences. Salvini was in Messina to talk about bridges and infrastructures in Sicily, therefore important topics, and to support the League and Senator Germanà during the European elections. But what is it arrivedin terms of communication, or to use an overused word, on the level of storytelling, to the citizen? Only the image of an armored city and a minister on a ship in a place “other” than everyday life.
Political parties and the cake version of the bridge at Capo Peloro were also discussed. And “real” life remained in a world apart. The life and the thought of the inconveniences that, both favorable and contrary to the great work, will be suffered if the construction sites of the great work begin, have remained in reality. Away from the ship.
An attitude of detachment that a technician could allow but not a politician, which feeds on consensus and which, moreover, in this specific case, rides on populism.
Europeans weak and without ideas
Furthermore, this episode occurs in the context of a dramatically sluggish European election campaign. Even if the stakes are high, and the risk of a Europe in the hands of sovereignist right-wingers and visions of walls and barriers in a Europe at war is great, the response in Italy is disappointing. Beyond the catwalks of some leaders, there is truly nothing in Messina and beyond.
There is no more time to waste: the parties must reform and cultivate ideas and new ruling classes. There are no alternatives: so it is really difficult to convince abstentionists to go and vote.
