The law is equal for everyone, but not its application. With this sad summary of Italian democracy, Berlusconi's lawyer tried to persuade the Constitutional Court to let him have immunity. He failed, and unwittingly recalled Animal Farm, Orwell's book, which ridiculed the authoritarian degeneration of the Soviet revolution. "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others." The others are less equal than those who can bend law and justice to their will, and act above it.
The others are the vast majority of us. But others are not all equal. In Orwell's book there are the sheep who accept the dictatorship of pigs, and the dogs, who are their guards. And there are many other gray characters, that for convenience, indifference or fear do not stand up against injustice. Democracy is an idea to realize that is never fully realized. Our Constitution, in particular, was a political project of freedom, justice and equality that so many dark forces have always tried to stop. But pigs are very few and the only reason why they are able to retain power and use it as they want are sheep and dogs. People who does not demand justice and democracy and accept things as they are. And men willing to defend power with violence in exchange for any morsel that falls from the table of pigs.
Less equal are the people beaten during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Less equal than the policemen who received mild sentences, much less equal than the heads of italian police and politicians who come out without any consequence. As if all that happened was not incredible and abnormal, the most serious violation of human rights in a democratic country after the Second World War, according to Amnesty International.
Ordinary citizens are less equal in a country where rule mafias, corrupt and conniving politicians, illegal building. People die for all these things, but never rebel. Less equal today are the citizens who must see a leader who monopolizes information in a shameful conspiracy to destroy democracy but has the audacity to declare itself the victim of a conspiracy. Less equal are all Italian citizens of any political party, which suffer the decisions of our governments on their skin. Nuclear, High Speed rail, incinerators, companies that have polluted and killed for years, banks and financial groups who never pay for their crimes . Decisions for the benefit of a political and economic caste that does what it does for its own interests and not for the benefit of all. The premier in office, with his attempts to make himself immune from justice and centralize all the powers of the state, has gone far beyond the normal manipulation which often has been seen in all democratic countries for not applying democracy. But unfortunately in this country the problem is not just the pig Napoleon in Orwell, however powerful and unpunished he is, but all the other pigs ready to take his place and plenty of dogs and sheep eager to serve and to believe in their propaganda.
Francesco Defferrari
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