(by Rosangela Cesareo, Head of Institutional Relations AIDR) Communicate only when there is something to say: let the facts speak for themselves. The new Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, made it clear during his first Council of Ministers. Since then he has strictly observed this line and the Italians are witnessing great silences.
Without a doubt Draghi has upset communication, someone has even defined his style as “non-communicative”. First of all, the president has no social profiles, neither Twitter, nor Facebook. There is no intervention in the media by Draghi, not even for the G7 or the European Council, which he carried out alone with a ballpoint pen and a sheet of paper in videoconference.
Someone claims that this lack of communication from the prime minister is due to the fact that he is not a politician, who does not want to run and therefore does not need popular consent. I disagree for more than one reason. In fact, communication is not just for propaganda, just as consent is not only for taking votes.
Italy is made up of a people, of people who are moved by feelings. If he fails to arouse the right feelings in the population, thanks to communication, the prime minister will not be followed, but what is even worse will not be understood. An even more marked gap will be created than that existing between citizens and those who govern. That of the leader must by definition be effective and constant communication, even if institutional and rigorous because one does not exclude the other.
This pragmatic and essential institutional communication adopted by Draghi, then, is in absolute contrast with the digital revolution that the country has been experiencing for years, with the logic of social networks that are now among the first communication tools for citizens of every target.
Draghi has all the tools to mark a turning point for Italy, a qualitative leap in this tragic moment that has persisted for more than a year now due to the pandemic. But open yourself to the people, speak to them because you hope so much in him, in him you have placed more than a hope. And you use the means of communication that everyone can access thanks to digital.