From “socialists with champagne” to “communists with rolexes” up to the “left restricted traffic zone”. In political and artistic language, the expression “caviar left” used by Giorgia Meloni to attack the opposition, it is by no means unique. Indeed, the history of ironic epithets used in different parts of the world to define the progressive elite, with a very high standard of living, who allegedly betrayed the workers’ movement has a long history, more than a hundred years. In Great Britain the first uses of the expression “champagne socialist” can be found already at the end of the 19th century, more recently the movement new labour which he brought Tony Blair in power. A variation on the theme, in Australia and New Zealand, is “socialist chardonnay” since in Oceania, in the past, Chardonnay was considered a wine only for the upper class.
Tony Blair of British New Labor was defined, ironically, as a representative of the caviar left (@web)
They are more immediately understandable Americans “limousine liberal” and “Hollywood liberal”. In Spain “izquierda caviar” it is used colloquially to refer to that political class which, although proclaiming itself to be left-wing, lives in luxury and is not committed to the people. In French the same concept is contained in the expression “gauche caviar” (or “bobos”, short for “bourgeois bohemian”), in Germany in the “salonsozialist” one. In Italy, however, the use of the English expression has exploded in recent decades “radical chic”, often used by centre-right politicians or voters to attack centre-left intellectuals. Since the early 2000s the term “caviar left” has also been in use (revived by the prime minister): the translation of the French “gauche caviar”. For a historic Italian exponent of the left, Fausto Bertinottibelonging to what was defined was instead coined by the press the left in cashmere. O Massimo D’Alema, exponent of the PCI-PDS-DS who was often joked about for having a boat, an asset that seemed unsuitable for belonging to a left-wing party
Fausto Bertinotti (@web)
The next formula, ‘the party of the ZTL’, was apparently coined in 2018 by a Tuscan regional councilor of the Democratic Party: “we have now become the party of restricted traffic zones”. The reference is to those few who can still afford to live in the historic city centres, or in the “limited traffic zones”.
But Italian politics is also full of metaphors or agreements that bear the name of gastronomic dishes. From the pact of the tart expression coined in September 1997 by Francesco Cossiga to indicate the informal agreement on constitutional reforms signed between D’Alema, Franco Marini, Silvio Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini during a dinner held on the night between 17 and 18 June in the house of Gianni Letta.
Massimo D’Alema (@web)
OR Totò Cuffaro’s cannoli. The day after receiving a five-year sentence for aiding and abetting in 2008, he was showered with congratulations from admirers and celebrated in his studio at the Palazzo d’Orleans. The governor held in his hand, handing it to the guests with a mischievous look, a tray covered with good-looking cannoli.
To stay in Sicily too the arancino pact at the Trattoria del Cavaliere, Belillo district, historic center of Catania in November 2017 which brought together the three leaders of the centre-right Berlusconi, Salvini and Meloni.
The arancino pact (@web)
