From Albania to the horns of Turin. And then the fires, the heat and the opposition-government duels. Here is a brief summary for the reader, strictly in alphabetical order, of images, facts, suggestions that will mark the course of this summer 2023. months where maybe it wasn’t just the weather that was crazy.
ALBANIA It conquers the Italian collective imagination as a holiday paradise at a good price. Prime Minister Edi Rama tries to make him an enemy compared to the history of the 90’s which saw hundreds of thousands of Albanians emigrate to our country. Careless operation: one thing is receptivity, another thing is hospitality.
BERLUSCONI The first summer without. Villa Certosa, electric golf carts, president’s bandana, volcano and ice cream. Music and parties. Snapshots of politics never before disguised in a pop face.
CNEL Phase of revenge for the body that was among the hot spots of the 2016 referendum, the one lost by Matteo Renzi who wanted to abolish it. CNEL, for many years a metaphor for the movement, is now back in a new lease of life, with Renato Brunetta at the helm, who revitalized (and overthrew) its publications. Now, the body is tasked with crafting a bill on wages. And it will be central to the debate in the coming months. On the positive, however.
DUEL Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg want to do this in Italy? Yes, no, maybe yes, maybe no. And the mayors immediately rushed to offer their own city to host the important event. It is the dispute between two child geniuses that becomes a very serious matter, foreshadowing millionaire donations, global media attention, induced activities of various kinds. It’s the economy when it comes to social media.
ECOANSY Byproduct, in the words of Robert Hughes, of crybaby culture.
When our age replaces the feeling of guilt with responsibility, only then, perhaps, will we be able to face problems more effectively again.
FIRE Arsonists marked the news of this hot summer of 2023. The Calabria region, identifying some with drones, revealed the most despicable cut of the phenomenon, marked by a grandfather who instigates his 10-year-old grandson to start a fire.
GOSSIP Turin becomes its capital due to the well-known story of horns denounced by him, in front of her, during his lively pre-wedding party. All recorded by a video that becomes clicked. The sober Savoy lifestyle dominated by social virality.
HOTELS Good but not great. Hotel structures mark large bookings without reaching full houses. It’s the summer of expensive vacations, due to inflation and higher utility bills. And tourism in Italy largely depends on foreign arrivals.
IMMIGRATION Critical factors are multiplying in Africa and, consequently, so are the arrivals of illegal immigrants. Europe, as always, does not give much to talk about.
MOON It is the summer that Russia launched its mission to reach the natural satellite, since the days of the Soviet Union. A confrontation during the crisis with the free world. Proof that space will increasingly become the playing field for the geopolitical challenge.
FARM HOUSE The structure in Ceglie Messapica where Giorgia Meloni spends her holidays. Puglia is the symbolic land of the first conservative summer.
NATIONAL The departure of coach Roberto Mancini from the blue team, as it all indicates, to lead Saudi Arabia disturbed the Italian holiday in mid-August. Treasures of the East.
OPPOSITION The perilous navigation of Elly Schlein’s Pd leadership. Tell in proposal crisis. The Third Pole on the brink of divorce. Before the elections, it was predicted that the center-right would dissolve with the arrival of the government. Struggling to find a common path, however, is the minority.
PAPETTE The plant, which has become a symbol of Salvini’s political turmoil, was a “responsible” stop this year on the tour that the leader of the League takes between party parties. In that governmental style of “doing” that brings its results.
FOURTEEN August day four years ago when the Morandi Bridge in Genoa collapsed. The 43 victims speak of the present, in a country where the culture of prevention and maintenance of infrastructure needs to be reinforced.
POMEGRANATE Waste, rats, degradation and heat to increase the perception of discomfort. It’s another summer of passion in the capital. Not exactly a happy premise in view of the 2025 Jubilee.
RECEIPT 1 euro 50 to have an extra teaspoon at the table, 70 cents for an ice cube in the coffee, in addition to the perennial disproportionate bills. Photographing bites on purchase documents is mandatory this summer. They are certainly distortions. Be careful, however, not to generalize to the detriment of an entire category.
TEMPERATURES He faints, runs to the emergency room, union-company tables to redirect the work shifts. And then catastrophists against climate change deniers. This year the evolution of time has shaped lives, schedules, political confrontations.
UKRAINE Second summer of war, of death, of suffering. Sometimes, unfortunately, it sounds like background noise.
VERTEX The Palazzo Chigi debate on the minimum wage, which brought the government and the opposition together around a table, was the “closing” point of the political year before the summer break. A “goodbye” in the name of dialogue. No illusions, when returning the dialogue between the poles will return rough and muscular.
ZANZA Corriere della Sera reports on the debate to name a street in Rimini after the legendary playboy Maurizio Zanfanti, who died a few years ago. A gesture to the memory of the glorious times, before the invention of toxic masculinity, when conquering was a virtue.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
