He was the first of the great populists. A media tycoon who used his television network to take on the establishment and become Prime Minister, paving the way for Trumpism. When Silvio Berlusconi came to power, he turned to the same people who had built his media empire to help him run Italy. Now, three decades on, these men reflect on how they married television, entertainment and populism to create one of the most powerful political discourses of our time. And how they profoundly regret opening that pandora’s box.
Enzo Ghigo, Giancarlo Galan, Carlo Freccero and Carlo Momigliano. They were all dynamic young executives, aged between 25 and 30, when they found themselves at the heart of the Berlusconi machine. They would become his closest associates – the men who brought ‘Baywatch’ and ’The Simpsons’ to Italian TV. They were the first to apply tv marketing strategies to politics and, in doing so, they created a new brand of populism.
Now Silvio is dead and the promise of wealth and prosperity for all was not fulfilled. Instead, their ideas poisoned popular debate and polarised societies all over the world. Today, Berlusconi’s closest allies are allelderly men who are asking themselves questions. “Our impact on the world has been catastrophic…our generation has to be brave enough to acknowledge the evil that came from our ideology.”
We went to meet them to find out where it all went wrong.