I really hate how Italians are so wrapped up in what happens at home that they ignore the rest of the world. So I’m sorry to write this, but the UK election outcome went practically unnoticed by almost everyone here.
The papers covered it a bit. But I just couldn’t help but yawn as they trotted out the usual stuff: the left wing press hailed Labour’s “historical triumph” while the right wing papers downplayed it. There wasn’t much buzz about the result – no TV or radio debates. There was mostly silence, except for the usual trite comments from politicians of various parties. And hardly anyone seemed to care.
To the ordinary Italian in the street it made no difference at all who won in the UK. And this really should not surprise me: we have a government led by a coalition of far right parties and a prime minister with a background that goes deep into the fascist past who enjoys wide support.
But the sad truth is that only a small minority of Italians follow the international news. Also, it’s summer over here. I’m at the beach just south of Rome and it’s scorching hot. Families are flocking to the coast to enjoy huge pasta lunches and doze off in sun-drenched slumbers – called pennichella. At this time of year people can barely even be bothered to follow the national news.
As I sipped a refreshing coffee granita (slushy) on the sand, I started chatting to a young lady who was devouring a huge pistachio ice-cream cone before it melted. When I asked her opinion of the UK’s general election, she cut me short.
“How could I be interested in what happens way north,” she said, “on an island where it always rains and people hardly ever see the sunshine? Brit politics are dull, but I liked Boris – he was fun, loud, very Mediterranean. Sunak was boring”.
At the bar the other morning an old man was sipping an iced coffee and going through the paper. He commented: “Most of Europe is going right but the Brits are going left. They are a funny lot, always going against the current”.
A lady next to him frowned. “But isn’t Tony Blair in charge?” she asked. “Who is Sunak?” The man told her Sunak was “the first British premier that looked Indian”.
Blair? Really? But then it also shows just how uninformed the majority of Italians are about what’s happening in other countries. When it comes to the UK, most are stuck 20 or even 90 years in the past – the only other prime ministers they remember are Winston Churchill, because of WWII, and Johnson because of his mad blond hair.
I feel embarrassed to write this, but it is true: among Italians who care about foreign politics, Sunak, like Barack Obama, will be remembered for nothing other than the colour of his skin. I hate to say this, but most Italians would not be able to handle having a leader of another race. We are way behind you on that front.
The only time Sunak made any real impression on the Italian consciousness was when he was photographed shaking hands and smiling with Giorgia Meloni at the recent G7 summit in Puglia. They seemed friendly, as they strolled together in the olive groves.
I looked at the other clients sitting in the bar. Nobody else had anything to add about Sunak, Blair or anything British. They were all focused on the football.
Except the bartender, a young lad in his twenties, who shook his head, laughed out loud and then, with an authoritative voice, said: “Who cares about the Brits, anyway? When they voted to leave the European Union they voted against being with us, so good riddance. Addio”.
At the supermarket two ladies who were buying fruit. One said: “Doesn’t Stormer mean something like ‘storm’ in English..? Perhaps the guy will indeed bring about change, or havoc”.
A friend of mine, who’s into politics, told me she wished Italy’s left could be as “resilient” as the British one. She hopes that we can learn from it – that one day the Italian left might “rise once again from its own ashes”.
Silvia Marchetti is a freelance journalist based in Rome
