Italian Voters: Realists or Idealists?

Today is yet another post-election, result-awaiting day in Italy. And yet again, I am left wondering: how much influence do real political and social changes have on their vote, and how much of it is influenced by pure idealism?

Well, as in most developed democracies the elections are usually a struggle between two main opponents. In Italy the two main figures are Berlusconi vs. Prodi. Or, right vs. left if you prefer.

For most Italians all of their politicians are simple crooks. But Berlusconi seems to be presented as the biggest one, probably because of his wealth. Berlusconi won elections back in 2001 and managed to sustain his full mandate, something very unusual for the Italian post-WWII political life. Most anti-Berlusconi voters, besides the usual apologetics about him being a crook and Mafioso, state that during his full term his government did not do anything for the people. Yet, taxes were not raised during Berlusconi’s rule!

Then came Prodi again, and the taxes went up again, with the dubious explanation, that by raising the taxes for all, his government would make sure that the rich would also pay their taxes. While in office, last December Italy was basically paralyzed by a huge strike, supermarkets were left without fresh food, no fuel in the gas stations, and basically all were affected, including the businesses, which lost huge profits because of this strike. As a Christmas surprise, Napoli was left buried under its own garbage, which besides endangering the health and life of millions of people, also resulted in 60% drop in tourism in Napoli, which is the main business of this important Italian city. Ironically, Napoli is known to vote left, that is Prodi!

Back in spring 2000, under Prodi, there was again a major strike which resulted in shortages of fuel, and days of forced economic stagnation and loss of money.

Somehow, these facts do not seem to affect the view of the left voters, and this is probably because a lot of them are dependant workers who live on monthly salary, rather than owners who run a private business.

From my experience, most private business owners in Italy vote right, they vote Berlusconi, and there is a logic to that, there is stability and less governmental influence on business under Berlusconi, while the left with its policies seem to only cause disruptions and huge loss of money to these businesses. Ironically the left-voters do not seem to grasp that if the business they are working for, and out of which they get their money is not doing well, their pay won’t rise, and even more, their jobs could be endangered.

It seems that people do not realize that the problems in Italy, are not directly connected to right or to the left, but are inherited. In fact many of them are considered “problems” only because the political forces have publicly identified them as such, without even analyzing them, if they are real problems.

Luckily, most voters in Italy seem to still prefer a relative stability, which allows them to work and prosper, rather than unjustified “reforms” which only result in total economic chaos and loss of money, which are also paid for these same common people, whose taxes were raised.