Giorgio Gaber, "Io non mi sento Italiano" translation: "I do not feel Italian"

Recently I have been listening to a few songs by Giorgio Gaber. Gaber was an Italian songwriter that I had always heard of, but I’ll admit that I knew almost nothing about him. Shame on me.

This song, “Io non mi sento Italiano”, was contained in an album of the same name released in 2003, shortly after Gaber’s death. Despite being written about a decade ago, I think that many people can still relate to it. I decided to translate it because, as an expat, it perfectly applies to me. Hope you will enjoy it. 

"I do not feel Italian" by Giorgio Gaber

I, G. G, was born and live in Milan.

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

I'm sorry, President

It is not my fault

But this country of ours

I do not know what it is.

Maybe I am wrong

Maybe it is a good idea

But I fear it might turn into

A bad poem.

I'm sorry, President

I do not really need

The national anthem

Of which I am a little ashamed

Since our football players

(I do not want to judge)

They either do not know it

Or they have more decency (than other football players)

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

I'm sorry, President

If I am so bold

To say that I do not feel

Any belonging here.

Except Garibaldi

And some other glorious heroes

I see no reason

To be proud.

I'm sorry, President

But I think of the fanaticism

Of the black shirts

In the time of Fascism

From which one day 

This democracy was born

And it takes imagination 

To congratulate her

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

This beautiful country

Full of poetry

Has many demands

But in our western world

Is just the periphery.

I'm sorry, President

But this State of ours

That you represent

It seems a little wrecked.

It's even too clear

In the eyes of the people

That everything is planned

And nothing works.

It might be that Italians

According to old traditions

Are too obsessed

About any discussion.

Even in parliament

The atmosphere is explosive

They fight about everything

And then nothing ever changes.

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

I'm sorry, President

You must agree

That the limits we have

Need to be told.

But beside the defeatism

We are what we are

And we also have a past

That we do not forget.

I'm sorry, President

But maybe we Italians

To other people are only

Spaghetti and mandolins.

So here I get pissed

I am proud and I brag

I tell right to their face

What the Renaissance is.

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

This beautiful country

Might not be too wise

(and) Has confused ideas

But if I were born elsewhere

It could have been worse.

I'm sorry, President

Now I have said many things

There is another consideration 

Which I think is important.

Compared to foreigners

We believe less

But maybe we have understood

That the world is a farce.

I'm sorry, President

I know you do not rejoice

If the cry "Italy, Italy"

Is heard only at football games.

But in part not to die

Or in part as a joke

We have made Europe

Now let’s also make Italy.

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately I am.

I do not feel Italian

But fortunately or unfortunately

Fortunately or unfortunately

Fortunately

Fortunately I am.

Northern League Senator Calderoli compares black Minister Kyenge to an orang-utan

About 6 weeks ago, I wrote how a petition presented to the European Parliament led to the expulsion of Northern League MEP Mario Borghezio. Borghezio sparked outrage for his racist remarks about Italy’s first black Minister, Cecile Kyenge.

On Saturday, Kyenge was insulted by another Northern League leader, vice-president of the Senate Roberto Calderoli (I have already mentioned Calderoli a few times, as he is the author of the “Porcellum”, Italy’s much criticised electoral system).

                                           Roberto Calderoli          Cecile Kyenge

Senator Calderoli, speaking at a political rally in Treviglio, claimed: “I love animals- bears and wolves as it is well-known- but when I see images of Kyenge I cannot help think, even though I’m not saying that she is one, of the resemblance to an orang-utan”.  

He added that she should be a Minister but in her own country (Kyenge is originally from Congo, but has been an Italian citizen for several years), and that she makes many clandestine immigrants coming to Italy dream about “America”.

Reactions from all political parties shortly followed, all condemning Calderoli’s statement. Even President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano said he was “indignant”.

Some members of the Democratic Party, including leader Epifani, called for Calderoli’s resignation.

Calderoli then tried to justify himself by claiming that his remarks were “just a bad joke”, and he apologised to Kyenge over the phone. She accepted his apology, but she also said that the matter remains unsolved on the institutional level.

Just like Borghezio, Calderoli has been known for his racist attitude for a while now. For instance, in 2006 he wore a t-shirt with the infamous Muhammad cartoons, causing some protesters in Lybia to attack the Italian Embassy. In 2007, to show his opposition to the building of a mosque in Bologna, he brought a pig to the designated site.  And many more. Just google his name for plenty of appalling anecdotes.

There is now an on-going petition addressed to the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, asking him to have a vote over Calderoli’s resignation. Here’s the link: http://www.change.org/it/petizioni/presidente-del-senato-pietro-grasso-dimissioni-di-calderoli-iostoconcecilekyenge

Berlusconi's party stops Parliament for 24 hours to discuss his court ruling over tax fraud sentence

Back to Berlusconi’s trials again (I know, it's hard to keep track of them all).

We are now referring to the tax fraud sentence of his company Mediaset. Berlusconi was sentenced to 4 years for inflating the prices of movies the company bought in order to avoid taxes. He turned to the appeal court, and now Italy's highest court (the Court of Cassation) has set 30 July as the date for the hearing, a much earlier date than expected.
The Court explained that they had to choose such an early date because, according to the law, they had to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring on one of the charges.
Following that announce, Berlusconi’s lawyers claimed that this was an attack on the defence’s rights. His party’s The People of Freedom went beyond, claiming that this was a “coup d’état towards the government, Italy and democracy”. In other words, they are acting as if the court were doing this merely to convict Berlusconi.
Yesterday, The People of Freedom asked Parliament for an interruption of work, in order to discuss the case within the party.

It was a real political earthquake. The Democratic Party eventually had to accede, and both the Chambers of Deputies and the Senate stopped working for 24 hours, despite the protests of Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement.
It wasn’t an easy decision for the Democratic Party, which is really divided on the topic (as on any other topic, for what matters). Leader Epifani defined The People of Freedom’s request as “unacceptable and irresponsible”, but then tried to minimize the whole episode.
On the one hand, they had to give in because Berlusconi’s party is in government with them. On the other hand, they are looking worse each day. In any other country, someone like Berlusconi would have been voted out of Parliament a long time ago. In Italy, it is not even sure what will happen if a conviction actually is upheld.
Berlusconi’s party is threatening a government crisis if he is convicted. The Democratic Party is threatening to vote in favour of the conviction if it does take place. Long story short, everyone has something they can use to threaten their opponents. Parliament might not be blocked now, but that changed very little. It is still, only, discussing Berlusconi’s affairs. While the country sinks.

Berlusconi sentenced to 7 years and banned from public office in "Ruby" sex trial

In Italy, we are used to Berlusconi’s trials. Yet, they are still worth discussing.

Just last month, an appeals court confirmed his sentence for tax fraud over deals made by his TV firm Mediaset (http://italianfactsrd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/berlusconi-sentenced-to-jail-for-major.html).

Today, the Milan Court sentenced him to 7 years in jail and banned him from public office for life, after finding him guilty of child prostitution and abuse of power.

 Silvio Berlusconi, Karima El Mahroug ("Ruby")

According to the Court, Berlusconi paid to have sex with a Moroccan girl, Karima El Mahroug (known as Ruby “the heart-stealer”), when she was only 17 (and he was aware of her age). He also allegedly pressured the Milan central police station in order to have her released when she was arrested for theft in May 2010. This episode became particularly famous in Italy, because in order to have her free Berlusconi said one of his most colossal lies: he told the police station to let her go because she was Mubarak’s niece (Mubarak being the former Egyptian president) and they had to avoid a diplomatic incident.

Berlusconi will not spend time in jail unless the sentence is confirmed by the appeals court, and this would take a very long time. Nevertheless, this sentence is historical for Italy because it will certainly have major repercussions on the current government, a grand coalition that cannot survive without the support of Berlusconi’s party.

A few days ago an MP from The People of Freedom claimed that the whole party would resign in case of a conviction. Even if this does not happen, the leftist Democratic Party will be asked to explain how they intend to remain in government with The People of Freedom, now that Berlusconi has been sentenced in (another) trial.

Berlusconi’s sentence is the most attention-grabbing recent event in Italian politics. Letta’s government is doing very little but stalling (see the Financial Times “Letta’s lethargy”).

Now, in a country where government crises happen for much less, this sentence may bring us back to the polls even earlier than we expected. 

Mario Borghezio expelled from European Parliamentary Group for racist comments

If nothing has been posted on this blog over the last weeks, it certainly isn't for lack of things to talk about: it was that time of the year when university students in the UK have no choice but spending all their time studying for their finals. But finals are over now, and I finally have time to write again. 

So many things happened in Italy over this last month that I'm not even going to try to cover everything now. Some of the major pieces of news would only sound out of date, such as the death of Giulio Andreotti, former PM and main protagonist of the (many) year of Christian Democrats hegemony in the postwar period. Then there was the appointment of the new leader of the Democratic Party, Guglielmo Epifani, following Bersani's resignation. Then the new judicial hearings of Berlusconi's trial, in which he is accused of child prostitution. Then the local elections and the impressive turnout decline. 

Voting behaviour and turnout are in fact one of the aspects of political science that I enjoy the most, and I had been expecting a fall in turnout in Italy for a while now. Italy has a record of really high turnout rates, but disengagement from politics and the idea that politicians are "all the same" usually lead to the feeling that your vote does not change anything, and as a consequence many people do not bother to vote. The Italian public has undoubtedly grown alienated about their representatives, and this has indeed really been a dramatic decrease in turnout, which was down by 20% in some cases. Now some cities will have to go back to the polls for the second ballot to choose their mayor, included the capital Rome and my hometown Brescia. 

However, the breaking news I am interested in today is the expulsion of Mario Borghezio from the European Parliament. I'll admit that I myself signed the petition that led to his suspension and then to his expulsion, and I think that this is a very positive sign for democracy. 

Mario Borghezio

Mario Borghezio, 65, is a member of the Northern League, and he had been a MEP since 2001.

Borghezio has been involved in some highly controversial episodes. He has been seen “disinfecting” train seats after immigrants had been sitting on them; in 2005, he was found guilty of arson, for setting fire to the pallets of some migrants sleeping under a bridge in Turin; in 2011, he even seemed to justify Anders Breivik’s massacre by claiming that it was due to Norway’s multi-racial society. He was temporarily suspended by his party for these last remarks, but I bet that in any other country they would be enough to sign the end of a political career.

Lately, he made himself known for insulting the new Minister for Integration, Congolese-born Cecile Kyenge. He claimed that she was “a s**t choice”, that she looked like a “housewife”, that she would impose “tribal traditions” in Italy and that Enrico Letta’s government is a “bonga bonga” government (I wouldn’t even know how to translate that, but I guess that is not necessary). 

A petition started from the Italian think tank Articolo21 asking for Borghezio’s resignation was signed by more than 130.000 people, and in May it was presented to European Parliament President Martin Schulz, who claimed that Borghezio’s words about Kyenge were “unacceptable”. 

Following that, Borghezio was suspended by the Eurosceptic group “Europe of Freedom and Democracy”. Today, it has been officially announced that the group expelled him.

What I find somehow ironic is that the party which was crucial in determining Borghezio’s expulsion is the British UKIP. UKIP in Italy is considered as the British counterpart of the Northern League (a racist, anti-immigration party). Yet, its leader Nigel Farage was the one who made the formal proposal to vote for Borghezio’s expulsion, which was achieved with a majority of over two-thirds. 

A small victory for participatory democracy, which hopefully will both restore (at least some) of people’s faith in politics and stop other politicians from following Borghezio’s steps.

Second term for Giorgio Napolitano and Enrico Letta as new PM for the grand coalition (or “inciucio”?)

Revising for my finals is taking up virtually all my time, but now it is absolutely necessary to write a post.

Let’s take it from the election of the new President of the Republic. Who is he, by the way? Easy to remember: the same as before, Giorgio Napolitano, to turn 88 this June.

The Italian President is elected by Parliament. To be elected during one of the first three votes, the candidate needs to reach a threshold of 2/3 of votes. This is because our Constitution encourages the whole Parliament to elect a President who is vastly approved. However, after the third vote the candidate only needs a majority to win.

During the election of the new President, we witnessed almost a breakup of the Partito Democratico. As an Italian comedian said: “The Democratic Party suggested a candidate (=Franco Marini), then the right voted for him, and the left did not!”.  That is in fact correct: since the vote for a President is free and secret, one does not have to align to the party’s line.  The Democratic Party proposed Franco Marini, who was voted by Berlusconi’s party too, and who should have easily reached the threshold of the 2/3. But he didn’t, because a lot of MPs from the Democratic Party in the end defected and did not vote for him. And so Marini stepped down.

Following that, the Democratic Party suggested Romano Prodi, former PM. Despite the fact that the right did not approve of him, the party was supposed to vote for him in a cohesive way, but again they didn’t. And Prodi stepped down too, after accusing his party of causing him a really poor figure.

Meanwhile, Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement, which had held an online vote to decide their candidate for the presidency, was pressing for Stefano Rodotà. Rodotà has a left-wing background and he is an esteemed jurist, but, for some reasons that they never explained very convincingly, the Democratic Party would not vote for him.

After two days of pointless votes, on 20^th of April the Italian Parliament (still without a government at the time) asked Giorgio Napolitano to stand as a candidate again. He accepted, and he was elected by a very vast majority. Napolitano is the first President in the history of the Italian Republic to serve on a second term. His re-election has been criticised under several points of view; above all, he is really old, and he had always claimed that he did not want to stand again. On the other hand, there were a lot of people praising him for his courageous sacrifice and his commitment to the nation. I am not the most qualified person to address his decision to be re-elected, but I sincerely wish for him to stay in good health. Regardless of what one might think of Napolitano, he has been, and he still is, going through a lot, and even if I am talking about politics, I find it hard not to feel empathy for someone who might not finish his term of presidency alive and yet accepted the job.

When Napolitano gave his acceptance speech, he was really harsh towards the parties which have been unable to deliver reforms, included a new electoral law (ironically, the very same parties cheered and applauded him a lot while he was saying so).

Then Napolitano called Enrico Letta (46-year-old and relatively low-profile) from the Democratic Party, to be the new PM of a grand coalition which will include Berlusconi’s party too, in order to have a majority in both chambers.

Giorgio Napolitano and Enrico Letta

Today Letta announced the members of his Cabinet. It is immediately evident that Berlusconi will play again a fundamental role in the country’s politics, as proved by the assignment of some key portfolios to members of his party. Above all, Angelino Alfano, Berlusconi’s pupil, is the new Home Secretary.

Here you will find the list of all the Ministers and information about Letta: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22323850- Italy PM-designate Enrico Letta agrees new government

To conclude this long post, I have a brief consideration. Studying Politics here in the UK, when I heard the phrase “grand coalition” and when I learned that in some countries it is possible for the left and the right to govern together effectively, I was pleasantly surprised. I found it really democratic, and a great sign of cooperation for the sake of the country. In other words, I saw it in a very positive light. But in Italy, the most common word  used to translate “grand coalition” is “inciucio”, which more or less I would translate with “dirty deal”. There is actually a sort of rebellion towards the Democratic Party, because it was not able to gain the support of the Five Star Movement, and now is forming an alliance with Berlusconi, who should be their archenemy.  

I have no troubles understanding why this is the case: Berlusconi destroyed the Italian right and replaced it with the cult of his own person. And when he was in government, he never failed to take care of his own trials or businesses before anything else. For an honest party, agreeing to cooperate with him is political suicide. And a “grand coalition”, in Italy, becomes a dirty deal. 

Italian electoral system: how the "Porcellum" works

Some of you might still be puzzled by the political stall that resulted in Italy following the general election. This is due to several factors; one of them, as I already wrote, I think is the fact that the Democratic Party 's candidate was not someone like Matteo Renzi, and a lot of people who wanted some new faces ended up voting for Beppe Grillo. Another factor is Berlusconi's return, since he still has a lot of fans who will remain faithful to him, no matter what.

But the main cause for this mess is, according to many, the Italian electoral system.

I already wrote a post about this several months ago, when the media and every political party discussed the possibility of electoral reform. Possibility that, nevertheless, never came true.

So, in the last election, we still voted with our current electoral system. I have never heard a single person claiming that this is a good system. The "ten wise men" appointed by President Napolitano keep repeating that their priority must be an electoral reform. What we all wonder is why they have not done it yet if they really wanted to, since this could easily have been done during the last year of Monti's government.

The current system is generally known as "porcellum", which means "pig" in Latin. It was renamed by political analyst Giovanni Sartori, after being defined "porcata" by Roberto Calderoli, member of the Northern League and Minister who wrote the law during the last Berlusconi’s government. "Porcata" is a noun which more or less could be translated as "something so bad that it could have been made by a pig”. Rubbish, in other words.

Roberto Calderoli

The current electoral system is a variant of proportional representation, usually known as “party-list proportional representation”. In this system, it is up to the parties to make a list of the candidates that might be elected, and seats are allocated to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party gets. However, the Italian system ensures a “plurality bonus" for the party, or coalition, which gets the greatest number of votes. In other words, over 50% of seats are ensured for the first winning party (or coalition), even if that party got, let's say, 30% of votes, and this implies that the system loses much in terms of proportionality.

The system has closed lists: voters cannot express their preferences for candidates, all the choices are made by the parties. Because of this, Parliament is filled with people who would have never been re-elected if the choice were left to voters.

But what caused the chaos we are witnessing now is the fact that the voting system differs for the two chambers of Parliament: in the lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, seats are allocated on a national basis; but in the upper house, the Senate, seats are allocated only on a regional basis, and this turns Lombardy, the most populated region, in a sort of "Italian Ohio". This also means that the system is quite biased in favour of the Northern League, that is very strong in Lombardy. Plus, whereas the threshold in the lower chamber is 4% for single lists and 10% for coalitions, in the Senate it is 8% for single lists and 20% for coalitions.

In other words, it is really difficult for a party to secure a majority in both chambers and, considering the perfectly equal distribution of powers between chambers in Italy, this can be a real issue. This is why Bersani failed to form a government: he had a majority in the lower chamber but, because of the different counting system, he did not have one in the Senate.

Now, we are all waiting to find out whether the "ten wise men" will actually suggest an electoral reform and, if they do, how the new system will look like.