Is Italy slowly sliding towards a new dictatorship?

In a modern and outwardly democratic European country, it may seem a slightly absurd question to ask. But if you start to examine Silvio Berlusconi's increasing hold on power, and the political changes that are taking place in Italy right now, you really do begin to wonder where it's all going to lead. Unlike in Germany following the horrors of fascism in Europe, the extreme right in Italy has never been utterly disowned by mainstream politics. They've had an enduring presence for decades, and are now able to produce enough support to have their own man become the mayor of Rome:

Quite scary. It's not inaccurate to say that Berlusconi is viewed by much of Europe as a gaffe-prone, perma-tanned clown. Unfortunately, all his jolly clowning seems to draw attention away from the fact that he is becoming very powerful indeed. Perhaps dangerously powerful.

What you have here, is a man in possession of a huge media empire which will happily spin any story to his benefit, and a degree of political clout rarely seen in the country, because he has managed to unite both the centre-right and the more extreme elements under his banner. Couple that with the virtual collapse of leftwing opposition, and things start to look decidedly unhealthy. Italy's economic problems and increasing crime rate have allowed Berlusconi and his allies to scapegoat immigrants, asylum-seekers and the sizeable Roma community as the main causes of disruption - happily swiping techniques that would make earlier fascists grin widely in approval.

"Vigilante patrols". How nice. All of this is quite worrying - but does it genuinely represent the beginnings of a slide into a future dictatorship? Perhaps not. But in a country where people generally view one man's bizarre monopoly on TV and other media (it's a lovely way to get people to think and believe, what you want them to think and believe), as fine and dandy - maybe anything is possible.

Western Europe has been undergoing an anti-immigrant debate that threatens to end up putting into power nutcases like this guy. There are many who wish to preserve some kind of purity of their own people and natives, but as the world and the region is growing increasingly more multicultural, it's too late to be this particular and restrictive.

I'm inherently skeptical that Italy would fall into fascism again, but I'll keep monitoring this lunatic's behavior all the same.

I'm skeptical myself about a total descent into fascist ideology. But the article makes a good point about Italy's transformation into what might be called an "illiberal democracy". I suppose from that point, it's all a matter of degree...

Why are Italians such fucking assholes?

yes

Two words: Propaganda Due.

I might be wrong, but to me a dictatorship is when a single man or party can get away with murder.
Italy has already reached that point, since we have a man that no matter what he does always manages to come out on top and turning the bad deed against those who pointed it out and the population, numbed down by his trashy propaganda machine, believes the stories of "a communist agenda to overthrow him" and that any opposer is just an angry dangerous commie (an accusation he even pointed against a magazine like "The Economist" about a critical article years ago). Also the downgrading to Partly Free on the Freedom House Report, seems like a joke to me. Journalists, even esteemed ones, are removed or forced out from both state tv and historicaly "neutral" newspapers if they don't follow his propaganda since his controls the tv as a prime minister and in the past he acquired the publishing of those newspapers. The only media that are free to report his "bad deeds" are left wing newspapers and blogs, which in a way fell into his trap since they allow him to say he didn't block freedom of speech but are also harmless since they can easily be dismissed as biased or are just preaching to the remaining converted.
Berlusconi is here to stay and not just because the opposition is always crippled by internal power struggles, but also because italians are now depending on the idols his media creates and that quickly become from z-list celebrities to local or national politicians and transforming their fans in voters for his cause.

Berlusconi? Not my president.

And to magpieboy, we're not at all fucking assholes. Only the 45.5%(this is the addition of the voters for the PDL of Berlusconi and Lega Nord of Umberto Bossi). And I'm not one of them...

On another note, probably "Illiberal democracy" isn't the right term, but fits quite well. Because, and I'm sad to say this, we don't have anymore a thing like democracy in Italy.

Ahah...
Well, the comment of magpieboy wasn't a problem at all, but thanks for the infos!

Italy has had over 60 changes in government since it became a democratic republic in 1946. If you don't like the current government, wait a year.

It's not a big surprise, if you look at several other countries in Europe, for example Austria, many are leaning more to the right. This usually falls hand-in-hand during economic droughts where scapegoats are easily found amongst illegal immigrants and the likes. This happens in every country, it's surprising that America actually went completely to the left, I guess we got lucky due to the fact that there was a Republican controlled congress and executive branch that was already a nicely laid out sacrifice....

Problem with that is, it's likely to be Berlusconi again... at least if recent years are anything to go by.

jdub, our current government in the U.S. is fascist-centrist, not leftist. Fascist because we're essentially run by corporations, as witness the fact that no corporation is ever allowed to die when it's become too bloated to survive - government just props them up. Centrist, because the idea of a public health care risk pool is considered left-wing here. The closest to that that our government can come is a public health care "option," which will probably get taken out of the final bill anyway. That's not a left-wing government by any definition I've ever heard.

Funny, I heard "emperor" and thought of Julius Caesar. This should be interesting to watch.