“A normal country”. Heterophilia is the all-Italian tendency, typical of a certain radical chic left, to see the neighbour’s grass as always greener than one’s own and Italy as a ‘strange’ or ‘abnormal’ country that does not reflect the typical rules of the ‘West’. And indeed in some respects in a ‘normal country’ a regional president like Giovanni Toti would not have been under house arrest for more than two months.

Judges abroad are not politicized

Of course, politicians abroad resign immediately and for much less. At least, this is the most popular thesis of those who do not take into account that in a “normal country” the judiciary is not as politicized as ours. Or maybe yes? If it is true that prosecutors are elected by the citizens in the United States, in Italy there is a very widespread tradition that prosecutors first investigate the political class and then enter politics. And this seems much less normal than the record ratings of Temptation Island, which led to the postponement of Alberto Angela’s program. In a “normal country” institutions would be reformed without the opposition having to shout (almost) every day about the danger of the government’s alleged authoritarian tendencies. It is equally serious to imply that the majority forces are somehow jointly responsible for the attack on a journalist or that the government wants to restrict freedom of the press.

Would a “normal country” dismantle Casa Pound? Maybe yes, maybe no. If we consider Greece “normal” because it dismantled Golden Dawn in 2020, we should consider Germany “strange” because it keeps a party that many consider neo-Nazi, such as the Afd. Let’s go one by one and see what and which are the so-called “normal” countries that we often take as a reference point. Let’s start with the United States. The world’s leading country saw its incumbent president leave three months after the vote. The challenger to Donald Trump will be Vice President Kamala Harris, who is praised in Italy for her multi-ethnicity but is famous in America for her speech against illegal immigration. A few years ago, she told Mexicans, “Don’t go.” The United States, the homeland of Ius Soli, protects its borders with a wall that even Democrat Biden could not break down. Although the death of George Floyd remains an open wound, the US is an example when it comes to civil rights.

Contradictions of others

The United States is a “normal country” when it allows abortion, but not when it uses the death penalty, and never vice versa. Germany, where it took months for the parties to form a coalition government and where the AfD won 16 percent of the vote, would be a “normal country.” Spain, where Pedro Sanchez remains in power in 2023 thanks to a deal with the Spanish version of the “separatist Bossi” who did not fall under the amnesty granted by the government, is considered a “normal country.” And finally, there is France, where President Emmanuel Macron (yes, the one who rejected the immigrants in Ventimiglia) required a voter renunciation pact with the left to defeat Marine Le Pen, but now does not want to entrust them with the leadership of the government, despite the electoral victory. But according to Brussels bureaucrats, the premiership envisioned by the Meloni government will not be good because it will prevent the emergence of technical governments, that is, executives led by personalities not elected by the people. The truth is that there is no “normal country,” but each has its own characteristics, and the license for “normality” is always alternative currents.