Mario Monti "ascends to politics"

It should be official now: Mario Monti is going into politics, and he announced it himself on the Twitter. Indeed, yesterday, Monti wrote: "Together we have saved Italy from disaster. Now we have to renovate politics. Complaints are not needed, efforts are. Let's "ascend to" politics!".

                                              Mario Monti's tweets

 

I should probably explain where the phrase "ascend to politics" is coming from.

You should know that in Italy we are not used to discuss about the heart of matters: that is why, out of habit, we talk for the sake of talking, especially our representatives. Now we are turning the huge news of Monti running in the next election in a matter of pure semantics.

In Italian, the expression "to go into politics" is translated as "scendere in campo", where "scendere" literally means "to descend". But Monti recently said that the right expression should be "salire in campo", where "salire" means "to ascend". So, if I want to translate it in a literal way, Mario Monti is not merely going into politics, but he is "ascending to politics". Well, that really changes everything, doesn't it?

So far, the only effect of the new phrase has been a reaction from Berlusconi, who commented: "Monti is 'ascending' to politics because he comes from a lower rank; when I got into politics, I came from a higher rank, so I 'descended'". The man is getting more and more pleasant.

Apart from pointless debates about what verb to use, Monti's candidacy could have serious implications for the main parties. He might take away a large portion of votes from Berlusconi's party "People of Freedom", but, probably, most of all from the leftwing "Democratic Party". Its leader Pierluigi Bersani (recently reconfirmed with a primary election) stated that they are not worried at all about Monti, but you can bet that they are, and they'd better be.

Now Monti has to decide if he wants to run with a unique list together with the centrist parties, or with a combination of different joint lists; this should be decided by the end of the year.

I am really, really anxious to find out where Monti's "ascent" will lead the country...