A former Italian president, one Francesco Cossiga, strongly believes that terrorist acts of the type commited by Italy’s Red Brigades will once again sully Italy’s streets.
This evening when we tried to watch the RAI news, for some reason each of the three RAI channels were blank. My Italian other half commented ‘There could be a coup d’état, and we won’t know about it’. The funny thing was she was not joking. She really does seem to fear that Italy’s current masters are planning something extreme.
After having read the appeal from one of Italy’s teachers which was based on interviews with Berlusconi and a former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, in which strong arm tactics are being put forward to deal with unruly university students who are revolting against Italian education system reforms, I have to admit that my other half may have a right to her paranoia.
Terrorism is Coming To Italy
This is an excerpt from an interview which Cossiga, a former Italian president, gave to number of Italian newspapers, and its contents may fuel a little paranoia too:
Cossiga: …Have you any idea of the seriousness of what’s happening? There are teachers indoctrinating children and encouraging them to demonstrate – that’s criminal behaviour!
Journalist: But you realise what they would say in Europe after something like you suggest? “Fascism returns to Italy”, they’d say.
Cossiga: Rubbish, it’s the democratic way – put out the flame before the fire spreads.
Journalist: What fire?
Cossiga: I’m not exaggerating when I say I truly believe that terrorism will return to bloody the streets of this country. And I wouldn’t want people to forget that the Red Brigades (BR) were not born in the factories but in the universities. And that the slogans they used were used before them by the Student Movement and the trade union left.
J: So you think it is possible that history will repeat itself?
C: It’s not possible, it’s probable. That’s why I’m saying: let’s not forget that the BR were born because the flame was not put out in time.
J: Veltroni’s PD is on the side of the demonstrators.
C: Look, I can’t in all honesty see Veltroni taking to the streets and risk getting a cracked skull. You’re more likely to see him in some exclusive club in Chicago, applauding Obama.
From the above interview you can see that Cossiga states quite clearly that he thinks terrorism will return to Italy, and it sounds as though he believes that the Berlusconi government is ready for this eventuality. Could this be because Berlusconi is expecting trouble?
This might explain the troops on Italian streets. It almost looks as though the soldiers prescence might have nothing to do with keeping spiralling crime rates under control. Was this merely an excuse?
It could be supposed that the real reason for popping soldiers here, there and everywhere, may be that the Italian government wants to be ready to deal with terrorism, or what it can label as acts of terrorism.
Conspiracy Theory time!
Let’s delve deeply into the realms of conspiracy theory.
Imagine that Berlusconi & Co have been wanting to make a play for absolute power for a while. They even let Beppe Grillo set up what may be interpreted as being forms of ‘terrorist cells’, known to Grillo fans as Meetup groups.
Then a harsh and, on the face of it, poorly thought out reform is introduced in the hope that it provokes discontent. Such discontent is then used as a way to put yet more troops on Italy’s streets.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Moving back to reality for a moment, note that more and more soldiers are appearing at government press conferences in Italy.
OK back to the theory.
After spreading troops liberally around Italy, all that is then needed is a little more provocation, followed by one or two outbreaks of violence and Berlusconi and chums introduce a form of martial law. A few heads are broken, which, incidentally is what Cossiga seems to be implying will happen. Then a full scale crack-down begins. Any television program or newspaper which attempts to condemn the suppression of Italian anti-goverment elements is censored.
Next, Italy’s ageing president Napolitano mysteriously and unexpectedly dies of a supposed heart attack. Within the next few months Berlusconi declares himself president of Italy, and after a few more ad personam laws, the job is done. Berlusconi has achieved his aim of becoming the next king of Italy.
OK, so if the above becomes reality, it will not be so much a coup d’état, as the accession to power of a dictator.
Do remember though that what you have just read is no more than pure speculation. I mean, it will never happen…
This Happened Today in Rome
Violent Encounter Between Police and Students in Rome’s Piazza Navona
With thanks to Ms Segal.
Italy’s almost Coup d’état
Way back in December 1970 a former World War 11 commander, one Junio Valerio Borghese, who was also a hero to post-War Italian fascists, nearly pulled one off.
At the last minute, and after reputedly meticulous planning, Borghese called off his minions and the ‘golpe’, which is Italian for coup d’état, never happened. Indeed, the Italian people themselves were to only find about the attempt some three months later.
To this day the real reasons why the proposed coup d’état never went ahead remain unclear.
