Who is really a spin doctor?
“He is a gentleman who has a particular sensitivity. To which he combines particular expertise. These two particularities lead him to know how to represent the general, the reality, in the best possible way”.
How you do it?
“Communicating, communicating, communicating. Listening to the speaker's heartbeat. He does it, as Archilochus said, “listening to the rhythm that governs men”.
But are you a spin doctor or do you act as a spin doctor?
“I'm a spin doctor, but I'm not. The main thing about a spin doctor… But no, if you think about it, you're right: I am what I do. On the other hand, all my life I've done nothing but try to bring out the best in the people I've met and the things I've done. I am a spin doctor.”
Do you claim to be a boomer?
“Certain. There is a huge difference between my generation and that of those who are 20/30 years old now. The ones she calls disparagingly the boomers, are women and men of a “super-type”. They had to overcome the idea that the world they were born into no longer existed. Almost nothing of the world I was born into exists anymore. The way of understanding interpersonal relationships and sex has changed after the tragedy of AIDS. The way of making love has changed. As kids, we experienced full and absolute sexual freedom…”.
This is why the nuns, when they admitted her, gave her bromide!
“Already. But really everything is different now. Think about communication. Now it seems obvious to be able to reach everyone, everywhere and always. When I was in the military, I walked around with my pockets full of tokens. Politics changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nothing that was, is.”
The world evolves…
“Yes, but not everyone knows how to adapt to change. Well, we, we of my generation, are people suited to mutations. Even if we lack anchors.”
Why did you choose to write a story of your life? Indeed, of her seven lives, plus one.
“First of all, this is not the story of my life, they are episodes placed in chronological order that give a sense of my presence in this world. When I found myself talking to my partner, who is 20 years younger than me, I realized that I wasn't understood. Then I started writing for her, but my personal history is inextricably linked to that of this country. Here, “Spin doctor” is an act of love and knowledge”.
Who is this woman?
“Lucia, the woman for whom there is no certainty about tomorrow. But she is the person who, more than anyone, has been silently by my side in difficult years. I owe her the paradigm shift and the – difficult – rereading of my story. Gratitude is an essential feeling.”
Is his protective instinct his way of loving?
“It's my way of existing. I protect the people I love and the people I love protect me. I am a pack leader and I love my pack. I'm an old lion.”
How much was your fate influenced by the conflicting relationship with your father?
“I thought for a long time, while I was writing, whether it was appropriate to talk about my most private and ancient issues. I didn't want to do that, because this is a political book, not a personal one. But I came to the determination that to understand what I am today, and what I have been, it was necessary to talk about both the difficult and traumatic relationship with my father and the extraordinary figure of my mother. She saved me and my brother Ambrogio. Here, against the light in this book we are: two brothers who always go through an intense and generous life together. Despite it all. Without forgetting those who shared our journey. I think of my ex-wife, Natasha, who remains a trusted friend and colleague. Or Helene, the heroic wife of Ambrose, told extraordinarily in the film “State of Grace”… It was necessary to declare to the reader what my experience was, so that she could understand”.
Understand what?
“The path that led someone who believed in armed revolution to move from affiliation to Autonomia Operaia to becoming Berlusconi's consultant needs a psychoanalytic explanation. It takes a lot of courage to expose yourself, to show your fragility. But it was necessary.”
Among his seven lives, there is one in which he was involved in casting in swimsuits…
“I was young and I was looking for models for a magazine whose name will be familiar to anyone over 40: Vestro. It was a competing sales system to Postal Market. Another of the things that no longer exists. I had to select the models who did the shooting through Assomoda. We were in Capriate. An interesting moment.”
I imagine…
“No no, don't allow yourself this mischievous and suggestive tone. I have always been very serious, I never acted stupid with the people I worked with.”
Does it also check the eroticism?
“But imagine! Certain. The models were attractive, of course. But there is something much more erotic.”
What?
“The comunication. There is an irresistible intellectual excitement in understanding what people think. What do they want. What gives meaning to their days. What changes the nuances of their mood. What convinces them.”
Real.
“True sensuality is found in communicating. There is nothing more erotic. Inside there is your soul, the eros, the pathos. Communication manages to touch people's souls, to improve their lives. We are faced with Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, people who changed the world through their ability to communicate.”
You are known as the poll king. A statistics professor, speaking of lies, said that there are “bullshit, spaceballs and statistics”.
“It's much simpler: everything that isn't confirmed by reality is false. Everything that is confirmed is true.”
Dangerous speech…
“But why on earth? Those who read it may not like a survey. He may not be convinced. Yet, if this poll predicts what will happen on Election Day, then it is true. If it doesn't match, then it is poorly made, false, useless. The truth is what happens. Few games.”
Reality? Isn't it just interpretation?
“No. Facts are facts. She doesn't escape.”
How did you get started with surveys?
“In 1988 I bought Datamedia. I was 26 years old, but I had sensed the great potential of that instrument. I worked for a while with the world of radio and local TV, to which I made a great contribution. But I still wasn't involved in politics.”
Why?
“Politics at the time was a swamp where nothing flashy ever happened. The grand vizier of the polls was Renato Mannheimer. I preferred to deal with Radio Deejay, Radio Montecarlo, Radio 105, Radio Italia only Italian music, together with the great Mario Volanti. And then a great anti-system and anti-auditel positioning with local radio and TV stations, from Videolina and TeleNorba. But that market was starting to dry up in 1992. And right then there was a big change in politics.”
Which?
“Single-member constituencies. We at Datamedia acquired three customers. We followed their electoral campaign professionally. One of the Lombard League, Antonio Marano, who was director of Rete 55, in Varese. One from the PD and one from Forza Italia, who had been Director of Tele Lombardia, Paolo Romani. We invented an innovative communication technique in the colleges: all three were elected. A huge success.”
And then…?
“From then on I had an intelligent and capable interlocutor within Parliament, precisely that Antonio Marano who was appointed as undersecretary of Posts and Telecommunications. It was he who introduced me to one of my sliding doors, Gianfranco Funari. From there my television story was born…”.
Until the phone call from the knight's right-hand man, Niccolò Querci. But did he really send him to hell?
“Yes, yes! But do you know why?”.
Stories.
“One of my research directors had played a (stupid) joke on me, just seven days before. He had organized a fake phone call from Berlusconi who wanted to meet me…”.
And she fell for it?
“Of course, I rushed to Arcore. I had a studio in via Plinio, it was a nice trip. I took a taxi and went to Villa San Martino. My friends should have called me halfway and made me go back. But I was on the phone preparing for the meeting of the century…”.
And then?
“I got to the gate, rang the bell and made a fool of myself. I was so pissed off. An idiotic joke.”
How did he get revenge?
“My executioner at the time became a victim. For months he ate chocolates that I filled with Guttalax. Imagine the consequences. He never knew, but if he reads this interview, he will know. Better late than never”.
We arrive in Querci.
“A week later the phone call came that changed my life. The real one. When Niccolò Querci called, I told him to fuck off. He called back and asked my secretary to call him back to Arcore. So we verified that it wasn't another prank.”
He went to Arcore…
“Yes, with my brother. We looked like the Caponi brothers from Totò, Peppino and the bad girl…”.
Another sliding door?
“Yes, yes. There is no doubt”.
Was Berlusconi as you had imagined him?
“No. I had a mythological idea of it. A two meter tall man, who didn't need to speak, but who read minds directly…”.
And instead?
“I met a short, balding, rotund man. He was wearing tracksuits and tennis shoes. But he had a very cordial manner, a very willing to listen attitude. He immediately proposed that I work with him and I immediately said yes, as long as this thing remained confidential. I didn't want to make a racket. He had another pollster called Gianni Pilo and who then worked for me.”
What has Forza Italia been for this country, 30 years after its foundation? What did you cooperate with her to do?
“Look, I was considered a kind of…”
Of gurus?
“No, that's what she says. No, my function was to motivate, to energize. A kind of template. An empowering supplement.”
Really? Did Berlusconi need it?
“We all need it. When I came to him, I was very positive, very energetic, I brought ideas and thought structures that were not usual for the many yes men he loved to surround himself with.”
Did you get along?
“Yes, but with a very dialectical relationship. My first forecast incredibly quoted Forza Italia at 24.2%. At the elections FI stood at 25%. That little point less cost me a lot.”
Meaning what?
“There was a constant negotiation between him and me. I would arrive with a survey and he would have to retouch it, round it out, exaggerate it, emphasize it. I was – obviously – against it. He bothered me in an impressive way, he treated me like in an Arab souk. It was always like this. Do you think he wanted the polls to start from 33% to motivate people. I told him to call another pollster.”
But was there a feeling between you?
“No. He had a very strong understanding with my brother Ambrogio. He was always affectionate with him, they seemed like two rascals. He had a non-emotional relationship with me. I don't want to be presumptuous, but I think he really wanted to convince me. He wanted an equal relationship with me. He knew that when I criticized him, I did it to make him great and not me.”
After?
“And then there are the other lives. All fascinating. Painful, beautiful, incredible. But I don't tell them everything, otherwise they won't buy the book.”
And the extra life? Aren't seven enough for you?
“That is the life of and with that woman who inspired me, changed me, made me so angry and so happy. I already told you: communication is love, passion, meaning. Life.”
In short, to paraphrase D'Alema: Crespi, is he still around?
“Yes, I'm still here. There are”.
#polls #meeting #Berlusconi #conversation #Luigi #Crespi
