Giuseppe Conte’s stand against pseudo-autocracies

Giuseppe Conte yesterday declared war on autocracies. To avoid diplomatic incidents, he began with the imaginary ones. Yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies, speaking against electoral reform, he evoked the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, denounced the ‘obsession with one-man rule’ and promised to fight against any man or woman in sole command. ‘We will always fight autocracies.’ That’s good news. We look forward to seeing it translated into Russian. The electoral law can be criticised, dismantled and challenged. But nominating a candidate for Prime Minister does not mean abolishing Parliament, and losing a vote is not the same as being deported. There is a difference between a majority that tailors the rules to suit itself and a dictatorship – a difference that a former Prime Minister should recognise without consulting Rousseau.

The man in sole command, however, does exist. His name is Vladimir Putin and he rules a country where dissent can land you in prison. He has no need to disguise his autocracy: he suppresses his opponents and invades Ukraine. Yet, when we move from imaginary autocracy to the real thing, our resistance fighter’s fury turns into cautious negotiation. Conte has recognised Putin as an aggressor: that is not the point. The point is that the solemn promise to combat all autocracies is accompanied by the intention to halt arms shipments to Ukraine.

The autocrat invades, those under attack resist, and the champion of anti-autocracy proposes to withdraw our military support from the latter. In Rome, there is no leniency when it comes to electoral gains. In Kyiv, please, take your seat at the table without disturbing those who are firing too much. It would be enough to devote a tenth of the energy reserved for Meloni to Putin to have a little less demagoguery and a little more defence of freedom.

Imaginary dictatorships usually have one unbeatable advantage: they allow one to play the hero without upsetting the real dictators. However, having denounced Meloni’s ‘Ventennio’ model, will Conte have no trouble embracing the partisans who are fighting every day in Ukraine against Putin-style fascism?