Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation as Italy’s prime minister may have sent shockwaves across Europe, but it has barely sent a ripple through Brooklyn’s Italian neighborhoods.
“I’m more concerned about my life here,” said Joe Ricci, 43, of Bay Ridge. Ricci moved to Brooklyn from Sicily in 2003. “I’m sure my cousins are very happy but I’m happy that Obama is my president here.”
Bushwick resident Vic Lombardi, 33, who moved from Naples two years ago, echoed Ricci’s sentiments. “I’m trying to start my life here, to provide for my family, and I can’t worry about those things now,” he said. “I’m an American now.”
But the news that Berlusconi’s 17 years of dominating Italian politics had come to an apparent end has resonated with Bensonhurst resident Leonardo Campanile, the founder and chief editor of L’Idea, a quarterly magazine for the Italian-American community.
“A change was needed in Italy, definitely,” says Campanile, 57. “When you have somebody in power for so long, it’s not good.” He added that Berlusconi will remain in the background, and will still be a prominent voice in Italian politics. But Campanile believes that “we will see young blood, and maybe, some new ideas.”
Campanile, who arrived in the United States in 1972 at the age of 18, explained that because immigration from Italy slowed in the 1970s, few who now live in Bensonhurst feel a connection to their homeland.
He recalled meeting Berlusconi in 2000, at a gathering of global Italian representatives in Rome.“It was only for a couple of minutes,” he said. “Someone introduced me to him as the editor of L’Idea. He shook my hand, smiled at me, said I was doing a good thing. That’s it.”
He believes Berlusconi was, in many ways, a positive force for Italy. “I like the guy. I compare him to Rudy Giuliani,” he said. “I think New York was a little better when he (Giuliani) was around, because he was not really a political guy.” Similarly, Campanile feels that because Berlusconi ascended to power not from a career in politics, but from his position as the nation’s most powerful media baron, he was able to make things happen. “This guy was a businessman first,” he said. “He had lots of money. He was in charge.”
Allegations of corruption and multiple sex scandals were hallmarks of Berlusconi’s career. “Of course, Berlusconi was a well-known man. Perhaps the best known man in Italy,” Campanile said. He believes that though Berlusconi’s activities were rightfully questioned, he was attacked beyond reason in his private life. “They describe him as the Devil. What are they going to think of him in France, and outside,” Campanile said, referring to countries in Europe and beyond.
He added that it is necessary to understand Italian political culture to appreciate how things work there. “Twenty five percent of Italians are with Berlusconi’s PdL (the center-right , Il Popolo della Libertà) and 25 percent are with PD (the social-democratic Partito Democratico),” he said, adding that unlike in the United States, Italians will never speak out against the leaders of the party they support. “The right will always be with what the right-sider does, and always against what the left-sider does. I got in a few arguments.”
As for the new prime minister Mario Monti, an economist and former European commissioner, he added, “He has no experience, he will probably be in power for a few months until they hold elections.”
-with additional reporting by Joey Maestas
Leave a Reply