# taz.de -- Spotlight Populism: The Rage
> A deep frustration has identified several enemies: the „casta“, the
> powerful untouchable politicians, the immigrants, Europe, the Euro.
(IMG) Bild: „Out of the Euro!“ 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo during a campaign in 2014
Only four weeks ago I was just in that market, with a glass of mulled wine
in my hands to fight a cold night I’m not used to. Berlin was fantastic and
shining in its Christmas dress under the Kaiser Wilhelm 65Memorial Church,
a warning against violence and war in Europe.
I remember some people singing, others eating ginger biscuits in a very
peaceful atmosphere. I immediately compared this situation to the one of
the year before in the same period when, a few days after the Bataclan
attack, I was in Strasbourg for The Council of Europe and the city was
totally militarized with soldiers walking along the streets while silent
people put little candles, letters and flowers in memory of the Paris
victims under the Christmas tree of the main square.
I was in Berlin for a seminary in the European College with other southern
European journalists to talk about populism and how to empower European
cohesion. I met a lot of people also in the buildings of politics:
Reichstag, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry … but what impressed
me above all was the refugee accommodation in Wilmersdorf’s former town
hall.
The centre was tidy and quiet, only some kids ran around, curious. More
than one thousand people live there after the great immigration wave of the
2015 summer.
Arriving I was surprised by the multitude of bikes, hundreds and hundreds,
leanung against the wall of the building. Someone said to me they were all
given for free from Berliners to refugees. „They have the antibodies…“ I
thought, antibodies against xenophobia and populism. But now all of this
appears so far away and I can guess what will change after the terrorist
attack of December 19th.
Race among pupulists
A race has already started among the European populist leaders to find out
who has the moral responsibility for these killed people. From Frauke
Petry’s AfD to Salvini’s Lega and Marine Le Pen’s Front National, all of
them want to use this attack to inflame the political debate and to push
people to look at the colour of the other's face and be scared of crowded
places.
„We do not want to live paralyzed by the fear of evil“ Frau Merkel said but
it isn't easy to go on with daily life. One of the twelve victims was an
Italian girl, Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a friend of a colleague of mine. In this
little world also feelings are strictly “connected“ and now my friend cries
for a girl who left for Berlin like many other Italians looking for a
better life despite of excellent curricula. In fact not only the
immigration wave feeds this Leviathan who wanders around Europe.
The great economic crisis has contributed in these last years to destroy
the middle class and enlarge the scissors between the poorest and the
richest. In my country, Italy, the wealth is at the same level as in 2005
and southern regions suffer from an increasingly growing unemployment. So
the 4th December Italian referendum for constitutional reform has been
perceived like a referendum against Renzi's Government and the former
Italian premier has left at once after the result of 60 Percent votes for
„No“ came in.
## A real nightmare
For me it has been a real nightmare: one of the few possibilities that my
country has had to change and to reform its endemic paralysis has been
lost. The richest northern towns like the most European one, Milan, voted
Yes but the South and above all young people expressed their rage and their
lack of future and perspective voting No. In this frustration the populism
of the Five Stars Movement won the match helped by an aggressive web
campaign.
Web power: this is the third pillar of modern populism. We saw what
happened with Trumps' campaign. False news was spread but people went on
voting for him because social networks give people what people want in a
sort of interplay of mirrors where everybody founds his own confirmations.
When we met the journalists from taz, during the Berlin seminary I
attended, we talked about the media revolution. In taz newsroom there is a
sign on which reads „Don’t believe the liberal media!“. I think that now it
should be changed in „Don't believe the web!“ This is the real core of the
problem! Also in my radio, [1][Rai Radio3], the left wing oriented cultural
national radio in Italy, we always discuss about the changes in our
profession and our chase of this new world. The listeners have become
„followers“ and over and over they don't accept the mediation of the
“medium“ looking for a more direct and horizontal relationship, often
aggressive, in which their truth becomes „the truth“.
So when the taz colleagues asked us to write an article about how to save
ourselves from populism I tried to imagine if there really is a way out.
I'm not a political scientist, I'm only a witness from a special
observatory, as a national radio where I've been working for 27 years is.
In these years caused by an unfair wealth distribution I saw a growing rage
and a deep frustration that have identified several different enemies: the
„casta“, the powerful untouchable politicians, the immigrants, Europe, the
Euro.
I remember that after the great political Italian crisis of „Tangentopoli“,
the corruption scandal that destroyed the old politics of our 1st Republic
in 1992, the audience was angry but optimistic for a new future, they hoped
for a better political solution and saw in the Second Republic as a great
opportunity. Now, on the contrary, in my country there is only skepticism,
frustration and immobility. So, in this panorama whoever gives simple
solutions to complex problems hits the jackpot.
No, I’m not optimistic, I fear for my kids and for their future in a world
completely changed by globalization. I live in Machiavelli’s country and I
have to be realistic and pragmatic too: I think we face a cultural
revolution and we’ll need plenty of time till we’ll open our eyes and
hearts to the “alterity“ in every moment of our life. Perhaps initiative
like this one wanted by taz, the realization of a pool of international
journalists to exchange their opinions and debate all together about these
essential issues, could help to destroy prejudices giving reciprocally
better tools to understand, in a common effort, this fluid and difficult
reality we are living in.
Cristiana Castellotti, [2][Radio3] (State-owned public-broadcasting channel
of RAI)/Programme director “Tutta la città ne parla“ and “Radio3mondo“
27 Jun 2017
## LINKS
(DIR) [1] http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/Page-a92d14c3-2fa3-4df6-8b7d-f1c15eefdc0d.html#slider-1-1
(DIR) [2] http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/Page-a92d14c3-2fa3-4df6-8b7d-f1c15eefdc0d.html#slider-1-1
## AUTOREN
(DIR) Cristiana Castellotti
## TAGS
(DIR) taz in English
(DIR) taz international
(DIR) Spotlight Populism in Europe
(DIR) Populismus
(DIR) Europa
(DIR) Terrorismus
(DIR) taz in English
(DIR) USA
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