Comment on Forza Berlusconi! by Boris Johnson and Nicholas Farrell (06/09/2003)
As a Swiss citizen interested in political history, and as an observer of recent political developments in Europe, I must question the approach of the media to the phenomenon Berlusconi and the effects it may produce in the long term. After 1989, a new class of politicians has appeared the members of which are not in the least interested in maintaining the conventional texture of the nation-state and it’s traditional principles, e.g. separation of powers, constitutional law, independence of the judiciary, but mainly in the pursuit of personal power play.
If these politicians have started their career on the left, such as Britain’s Blair or Germany’s Schroeder, they can be seen desperately trying to free themselves of the obligations social democratic traditions impose on them and to make friends with modernist, secular liberals. However, they are steadily loosing their grip on their traditional comrades in arms and at the same time their attractiveness for their new friends is eroded because of the slowness of their action.
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