Lettera del sen. Fantetti all’editore dell’Economist

Sir,

with reference to the article “A party animal” published last week ending with the words “Poor Italy”, let me sincerely tell you “Poor Economist” and poor readers of The Economist! I have been a subscriber and a fervent reader of your magazine for the last 20 years but have increasingly felt that my country was not receiving a fair treatment. After realising that The Economist’ correspondents in Rome have then traditionally moved on to enter the Italian political scene as representative of leftist parties, I started to understand why. It is their choiche, of course. Problem is, though, that the messagge and journalistic product that You keep presenting to the world public when reporting about Italy is consistently false. You keep painting the 5th world industrial power and a modern society of 60 million people which elects its democratic institutions in a free a regular mode as a population whose majority is stupid enough to keep voting for a certain Prime Minister and Government coalition. This is not accepatable from a professional point of view. It is obvious that You are missing more than a point. The Italian people (including those living abroad) who keep supporting the political programme proposed by the centre-right government coalition know more about their country than You. As an example, they know the very peculiar organisation and political role of the Italian magistrates (a point that The Economist’s correspondents from Rome always seem not to know); they know the difference between the way Italian Trade Unions are financed and operate and the German ones. They know how the Media system operates. They know about the “internal cold war”, the role of the Communist Party and the one of the Holy State. In brief, they know better and, for the sake of Your reputation in the world, You should really try to provide Your readers with a better product about Italian affairs and cut this ideological non-sense short.

Raffaele Fantetti

(in risposta ad un articolo apparso il 22 gennaio 2011)

25 Gennaio 2011