Anna Buj is a young journalist who is building a solid professional career. For the past six and a half years, she has been the correspondent in Italy for La Vanguardia and RAC1, and now publishes Laboratori Italia, which is subtitled “Histórios del camp proves d’Europe”, and which includes a foreword by Enric Juliana, the ‘assistant to the director who was also a correspondent in Rome. Between interviews and press conferences, we find a hole to connect and talk about it.
Did you want to open a parenthesis in the daily chronicle and give a more personal vision of Italy?
What I thought would be interesting was not to do a historical exercise or anything like that, but the Italy that I have come to know, through glimpses: at immigration, at Venice, at the Meloni phenomenon, etcetera. And to do it with a freedom that perhaps we don’t have in the newspaper due to a matter of space and style. Daring to put someone in the first person from time to time are things that we don’t do in the newspaper. And getting out of the day-to-day news allows you to have a more global focus.
How did you choose the looks?
Proposing the theory that gives meaning to the title, that Italy is a laboratory, a place where many times things happen that then happen in Catalonia and other European countries. Let’s talk about populism, the conversion of the left, the effects of mass tourism, the differences between territories, the phenomenon of population aging… These are topics that I think can explain Italy from the point of view that we are interested
Give an example.
We have seen it with Berlusconi, who more than 20 years ago was the first great populist, before Donald Trump and many others. We have also seen it now with Meloni. Many of the symptoms that have since spread throughout Europe have first spread to Italy.
Also on a social scale?
During the pandemic, the anti-vaccines gained a lot of strength. As for the battle for cultural dominance, since Meloni has been in the Government it has been very clear that it is a key tool to control the country, which has always been on the left; these days, we are seeing it with the media law; RAI workers have gone on strike to denounce the government’s tight control of public television.
Why has Italy become a testing ground?
Because of its geopolitical situation, it has always been a bridge between the West and the East. Italy was the first major European country to join the Chinese New Silk Road. China was very clear that it was a key point for doing business there. Giuseppe Conte opened the door and Meloni has cooled this pact, which has been widely applauded by the United States. There is also the Russian influence; with the war, there are parties, such as Salvini’s League, who look at it with great sympathy. It should also be remembered that, during the cold war, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was the strongest outside the Soviet bloc.
And always with a very fragmented Parliament.
And with a lot of transfugism.
Another phenomenon you analyze is immigration, with Lampedusa as its proper name.
Both Italy and Spain have found that it has been necessary to manage the migratory phenomenon. There are many contradictions in the political sphere because it was the left that made a pact with Libya, both Libyan coast guards, so that they would manage immigration. The challenge of immigration is one of the big background issues in Italy.
And Lampedusa is very close to the African coast.
This island is a paradox. When you go there, you notice it: while tourists drink mojitos and lie on the beach, boats keep arriving one after the other.
As a correspondent for Italy, you are also from the smallest country in the world. How do you combine the two correspondences?
It’s a big challenge. I think that the influence that the Vatican has in Italy today is still very high, in matters such as abortion or that homosexual marriage does not yet exist.
How many popes have you met?
One, Pope Francis, and Pope Benedict as emeritus.
If you continue in Rome, sooner or later you will have to report a new holy father.
We hope not yet, because, although Francesc has lived many years, given his character I would be very surprised if he resigned. But yes, as correspondents, we must be prepared.
Has writing the book changed some of your impressions of Italy?
Yes. It’s been six years of writing every day about a country that I’m passionate about and that I love and that surprises me every day, because every day you discover new aspects of it. Writing the book has been an exercise in freeing myself from certain thoughts and leaving them written. And there are also things about which my perspective has changed. For example, the Meloni phenomenon. Despite the ideological distance, when you get closer to the character, you understand better the way they think and act. I have done the exercise of trying to understand her, which perhaps I had never stopped to do with the pieces of the newspaper. In other words, look for the human face behind the prime minister.
Is Meloni there for a while?
I think so. This succession of governments, which changed every 14 or 15 months, is over. Meloni will be there for a while.
And will Anna Buj continue to tell our readers?
For me yes You never fully understand Italy, and that is a challenge, because it is a complicated country. And after these six and a half years, I think I still have many phenomena left to explain. Next, the consequences of the European elections.