A Quantum Diaries Survivor

Last Tuesday evening I, together with 16 million other viewers, assisted to the first match between Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left coalition “Unione” and candidate premier, and Silvio Berlusconi, current italian premier and leader of the center-right coalition called “casa delle liberta’”.

I allowed some dust to settle before venturing to speak about the match. There indeed was a conspicuous aftermath of opinions, polemic declarations, comments from journalists and politicians within and outside of Italy, which demanded as much attention as the match itself.
First, it must be said that for the first time in many long years, the italian television RAI appeared (just appeared, alas) a neutral entity, not attempting to favor the political side that provided most of its journalists with a fine job.

Was it an optical illusion ? No, it was the result of  long and painful negotiations.
Prodi  agreed to participate to the match after certain conditions were fulfilled:  equal time allotted to each candidate (strictly enforced), no interruptions, interviewers agreed beforehand, same questions asked to both candidates, and most of all, attention to avoid filming Berlusconi while Prodi was speaking (something that the RAI cameramen like to do all the time to say thanks to their benefactors, with a devastating effect: when a center-left politician is speaking, his counterpart is shown as he makes all sorts of faces).

So how did it go ?

Prodi won. Strangely, Berlusconi framed himself into trying to convince his listeners that all the problems his government faced during the last five years were due to the evil communist administration that governed before him (it was, of course, a democratic coalition that had little to do with any communist movement, but Silvio likes to paint things in two colors only). Prodi did better, being propositive, trying to explain what he will do as a prime minister, and how he will defend salaries and make jobs less temporary - two things that are indeed of paramount importance today in Italy.

The above view is shared by most commentators, and even Pierferdinando Casini and Gianfranco Fini, heads of the two other large parties governing with Berlusconi (respectively the CCD, christian democratic center, and AN, national alliance), criticized bitterly Berlusconi’s performance. The latter took that with no sense of humor, threatening them to marginalize their parties in case of defeat.

The match, however, is believed to have moved little votes from one side to the other. Let’s just hope it is just a first step towards a more democratic handling of political talk shows, after the more than 50 hours of prime time Berlusconi allotted himself between January and February through his participation to custom-made talk shows in his own private networks and his appearance in remote-controlled RAI, when he was able to speak freely in favor of his government and criticize the opposition without anybody to counter him.