ROME-ADISTA. A profound authoritarian dynamic runs through Italy, Europe and the world and weakens democracies. Forty years of neoliberalism, producing poverty and precariousness and legitimizing high inequalities between people and between territories, have generated insecurity, demand for protection and identity positions. With the aim of examining the topic in depth both from a social and from an institutional and political point of view, scholars, men and women activists, active civic movements and organisations, political forces met yesterday in Rome, at the Spazio Sette bookshop, on the occasion of the meeting “Towards an authoritarian turn? Italy and Europe between neoliberalism and restriction of democracy”, organized by the Inequalities and Diversity Forum and the Volere La Luna association.
“Forty years of neoliberalism have not only produced a scenario that cannot promise just futures but have favored the governance of this scenario using authoritarian tools and the reduction of democratic mechanisms”, he declared Andrea Morniroli, co-coordinator of the Inequality and Diversity Forum, who introduced the meeting. «In Italy the effects are evident: from the refusal of social dialogue to the construction of an increasingly normalized and punitive school, from the blaming of social hardship to the repression of street demonstrations up to the attack on people’s rights, first and foremost those of women and LGBTQIA+ people. Today it seems clear that we can emerge from the crisis of democracy in two ways: with a system that makes “decision from above” and the defense of the neoliberal status quo a response to an increasingly complex world that generates fears or with a surplus of participation and with policies capable of guaranteeing a greater distribution of resources and a greater balance of powers. Unfortunately we have few doubts about the path taken by the current Italian government. Today’s meeting is the first stage of a possible joint work of analysis, research and proposals to stem the systematic reduction of democratic spaces taking place in the country”.
Livio Pepino, president of Volere La Luna added: «The authoritarian turn has distant roots – and the left has many soul-searching to do – but today it is increasingly clear. The welfare state gives way to the penal state, photographed by the cancellation of citizenship income and, at the same time, by the continuous increase in the number of prisoners. The category of “enemies” (barbarians, marginals, rebels) becomes one of the main references for repressive interventions, on a legislative, administrative and judicial level. Information, increasingly centralized and standardized, is a leading tool in the governance of society. Intermediate bodies are continually marginalized and delegitimized. The detachment and distrust of citizens is inevitable, a source of abstention from voting which is transforming democracy from “government of the most” into “government of the few”, which we would also like to formally sanction with the introduction of the elective prime ministership, potentially capable of handing over the government of the country to a minority, without counterbalances and controls. Woe to minimizing. As 180 constitutionalists write in an appeal: we need to react. Right away. While we still have time.”
During the first part of the meeting, interventions by entities active on the national territory alternated – from middle school students to the popular opposition against the TAV in Val Susa, passing through the world of schools, social movements and subjects in defense of migrants’ rights – who, starting from their respective experiences, have told how those realities that most embody the constitutional values that aim at equality, balance between powers, social and environmental justice are suffering a progressive closure of spaces for expression, repression of dissent, criminalization and marginalization or normalization, as in the case of public schools.
There second session explored the different pieces of the authoritarian dynamic, both from a social and political profile and from an institutional one. The authoritarian dynamic understood as the concentration of decision-making power to face the complexity which, to be rejected, must not only be countered in its illiberal effects but must be undermined at the roots, offering people the vision and evidence of a more advanced democracy that resolves that complexity. The authoritarian dynamic as an ideology of governability in which citizens, rather than being active subjects who bring their voice to the State, are the object of its decisions, while democracy remains the best government of complexity. The authoritarian dynamic as a repression of dissent, which is exercised through various instruments from the criminal one to that of civil and administrative law, from the closure of physical spaces in which to exercise rights to the criminalization of solidarity. The authoritarian dynamic as an attack on the Constitution, which overturns the republican model with Parliament at the center and looks towards the path of illiberal democracies.
The meeting closed with a “Dialogue with Politics” which saw parliamentarians and party secretaries who responded to the invitation of the Inequalities and Diversity Forum and Volere La Luna discuss, together with exponents of the world of culture, trade unions and of civic activism. They were asked what they intend to do to respond to illiberal degeneration, to the exploitation of people’s fears by the right and so that democracies today become capable of dealing with complexity. From the various interventions it emerged that there are all the elements to affirm that Italy is facing a leap in quality in the authoritarian process which was not born today but is today experiencing a strong acceleration. Faced with it, a united response is needed – stubborn, broad and intransigent – from the country’s political and social opposition to dynamics and drifts which are radical in their negative impact and which therefore cannot be faced fearfully. Every manifestation of restriction of democracy must therefore be unitedly opposed with every instrument, from forms of passive resistance to referendum initiatives aimed at the people, but at the same time a thought must be built capable of responding to the ideology put in place by the right to attack at the root inequalities, poverty, precariousness. In this regard, a strong desire has emerged to build forms of alliance that combine positioning and practices.
The first part of the meeting was attended by: Roberta LeoniObservatory against the militarization of schools and universities; Paolo NotarnicolaMiddle School Students Network; Annamaria PalmieriSchool manager and public school activist; Livio PepinoValsusa counterobservatory – Volere La Luna; Enrica RigoClinic of Immigration and Citizenship Law – University of Roma Tre; Elisa SermariniEven Number Network.
The second one was attended by: Alessandra AlgostinoUniversity of Turin; Fabrizio BarcaInequality and Diversity Forum; Franco IppolitoBasso Foundation; Nadia UrbinatiColumbia University.
The following participated in the dialogue with the political forces: Maurizio Acerbo (Communist Refoundation), Marta Bonafoni (Democratic party), Chiara Capretti (Power to the People/Ex Opg), Vittorio Cogliati Dezza(Inequalities and Diversity Forum); Marco De Ponte (Action Aid Italy), Christian Ferrari (Cgil national secretariat), Roberto Fico (5 Star Movement), Nicola Fratoianni (Greens and Left Alliance), Riccardo Magi (+ Europe).
(the complete recording of the meeting at the link: )
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