In Western democracies today, political communication is increasingly adopting a new brand. ‘Cakeism’ is the belief that it is possible to enjoy or take advantage of both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives at once.
It usually characterises the discourse of populist parties that exploited the electorate’s anger about their politicians’ inability to improve their lives. However, mainstream parties are also more likely to promise the electorate that they can indeed have their cake and eat it. Big servings of cakeism have dominated the recent UK leadership election and the current Italian general election campaign.
The Italian private TV news station SkyTG24 conducted an interesting analysis of what the Italian parties are promising the electorate and how they intend to finance these promises.
The centre-right coalition, expected to win the election on Sunday, has made 40 promises on public expenditure but only three commitments on how to fund them. The centre-left grouping led by the Partito Democratico made 66 public expenditure promises, with only four indications of how these will be financed.
As predictable as heatwaves in August, all parties have a blanket response on how they can deliver on their promises without imposing new taxes or increasing the already frightening Italy’s public debt. They all want to tackle ‘tax evasion’, a term used frequently in all parties’ election programmes. Of course, despite this newfound zeal to tackle tax evaders, there is little indication of how this will be done.
The Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore states that the political parties’ promises in this election campaign have exceeded those of any other election. This has to be seen in the context of an almost unprecedented economic crisis characterised by an imminent recession and spiralling inflation, especially for energy products.
Italian election campaigns will never be the same when the octogenarian tycoon Silvio Berlusconi decides or is forced by the inflexible rules of nature to call it a day. All three parties in the centre-right coalition want to reduce income tax by introducing a flat tax. However, there is broad disagreement on the rate to be applied as La Lega wants a 15 per cent charge, while Forza Italia a more ‘prudent’ 23 per cent. No wonder high earners are robbing their hands.
Treating the electorate as immature children is what is behind cakeism
Another cake that Italian parties are promising to an increasingly tired and cynical electorate is one that will eliminate fuel taxes. This was the battle cry of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in 2014 when, in the TV programme Porta a Porta, directed by the veteran journalist Bruno Vespa, he promised to “eliminate” all taxes on fuel products. Renzi has now shifted political allegiance from the centre-left to the centre-right. He sees a better chance of leaving the wilderness that ostracised former politicians’ dread.
Centre-left political leaders never miss an opportunity to declare war on poverty. This is particularly relevant as in the last two decades, those at risk of poverty in most EU countries have increased as the gap between the haves and the have-nots in societies keeps increasing.
Luigi Di Maio is a past leader of Movimento 5 Stelle, an anti-establishment party founded by Beppe Grillo. In June, Di Maio formed the new centrist party Insieme per il Futuro. In 2018 when in government, he promised he would “abolish poverty”.
In 2021, according to the Italian statistics office Istat, there were almost two million families and more than five million individuals living below the absolute poverty threshold in Italy. To his merit, Di Maio worked hard to introduce the “reddito di cittadinanza”, a citizenship income for those unemployed seeking work. This public-funded social benefit might not last much longer if the populist right parties win the next election.
But the cherry on the cake that Italian politicians promise the electorate is the building of a bridge linking Sicily to the mainland.
Matteo Salvini, leader of the Eurosceptic populist La Lega, told a journalist on Radio24: “The bridge over the Straits of Messina? Yes, I want it.” Not to be left out of the cakeism frenzy, Berlusconi, Giuseppe Conte and even Renzi have ridden the bandwagon and are all in favour of building the bridge.
The Romans were the first to consider building a bridge on the straits centuries ago. But then, their panem et circenses (bread and circuses) political strategy may not have been all that different from today’s fiscal cakeism.
Sadly, treating the electorate as immature children is what is behind cakeism.