Public financing of political parties is perhaps among the most disliked topics, next to the pineapple slices on Margherita pizza and the cappuccino that restaurants in art cities serve to foreign tourists at lunch; but these are objectively crimes against humanity.

It is a story with ancient roots, tracing the growing alienation between people and institutions, an alienation resulting from the end of great ideologies, and whose roots reach back to the arid lands left by the judicial investigations that turned Italian politics upside down in the nineties. to put an end to the great mass parties and with them the First Republic.

Pannella to Grillo

There will be those who remember that Marco Pannella, who distributed 50 thousand lira banknotes in Piazza del Campidoglio in August 1997, talked about “giving back the spoils”: The Berlusconi era had just begun, the era of the great entrepreneur “going out on the field” to deal the final blow. to the “partitocracy”, the man of action, who, in the opinion of ordinary people, will send into retirement the so-called “professional politicians” who do nothing from morning to night and live on the backs of honest citizens. This is an honesty that still needs to be shown, given that the same people who belittled and continue to belittle politicians are the same people who lead Europe in the humiliating ranking of tax evasion.

The answer to this “doing populism” came a few years later with comedian Beppe Grillo’s “making people laugh” populism: The 5 Star Movement brought so-called ordinary citizens to the Palace, but the results were not exciting. Looking at Luigi Di Maio, Paola Taverna and Danilo Toninelli, one begins to suspect that perhaps such ugly and evil “professional politicians” are of some use; but there is little that can be done now: thoroughbred politicians are almost extinct.

Harm of populism

The so-called “anti-politics”, which included almost all parties, led to the gradual elimination of public funding for parties, that is, the money spent by the State to maintain the structures that serve precisely to educate the ruling classes and sustain these subjects. Persons who have the sensitive duty of representing citizens’ demands at all decision-making stages, as defined in Article 49 of the Constitution. The two main actions that marked the end of economic support for parties were the 1993 referendum, promoted by the Radicals, which eliminated funding for parliamentary groups, and the decree on the suspension of election refunds, approved by the Letta government. To stop the oppressive rise of Grillini, who based much of his consensus on the fight against so-called “caste”. Since then, the only funding the parties have received is two per thousand, or barely a few cents, which citizens can choose to declare on their tax returns. The impoverishment of political parties over the years has had two effects: a dramatic decline in the level of politicians and the subdivision of parties by small, medium and large financiers.

“Customized” parties

These two phenomena are very interconnected, because financiers soon became sponsors of individuals and groups, leading to a kind of “privatization” of parties. And if Forza Italia and the 5 Star Movement were already two corporate parties from birth, the first “son” of the second largest Italian industrial group, the second offshoot of Casaleggio Associati, other political forces had to find new ways to pay for it. headquarters, invoices and a few surviving employees. Associations and wealthy foundations such as Open, which financed Matteo Renzi’s Leopolda until 2020, were born around them. During the years when Renzi was secretary of the Democratic Party, many people noted the paradox of a party on the verge of bankruptcy. dozens of employees receiving severance pay and a secretary with huge financial resources.

The “privatized” parties began to elect almost all of their candidates no longer according to the internal training path such as apprenticeship, which until the nineties accompanied the growth of young managers such as Giorgia Meloni, but on the ” “. the liquidity and endowment of sponsors that candidates and their flows can guarantee. The results are there for all to see: two branches of Parliament are filled by people who would not even be tasked with running an apartment building, and elected officials who can discharge their functions with dignity are now a minority. And it is no coincidence that someone timidly proposes a return to public financing of parties.

The person who did this a few months ago was Stefano Patuanelli, a representative of the 5 Star Movement, the leader of the group in the Senate. The former minister in the Conte and Draghi governments put forward the hypothesis of “different ways to finance parties” that would prevent “distortion of the past”. Then came the “excommunication” of Guiseppe Conte, which Conte regarded as “personal views”. In reality, a return to economic support of the parties should be a priority, apart from the “distortion of the past” that can be avoided by writing good law. For policy to be done correctly, it must be as independent as possible from economic interests. Contrary to what those who understand nothing about politics think, politics is not something done outside of a mission or a religious duty: It is a difficult job that requires years of training. The fact that poor parties are taken over by economic lobbies means that the country’s system is handed over to the market and a handful of rich people; It means accepting a political offer that is increasingly impoverished and increasingly inadequate; This means submitting to phenomena such as corruption and vote-switching, which in many cases have now become a tool for the “selection” of candidates; this actually means having a weaker democracy.

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