In last week’s edition of The Economist, the London-based weekly published a cover story drawing parallels between Britain’s recent political upheaval and Italy’s reputation for chaotic and unstable governments.
The cover read “Welcome to Britaly” and showed a caricature of the former British prime minister, Liz Truss — who resigned last week after less than two months in office — dressed as a Roman gladiator, using a pizza with a Union Jack design as a shield and brandishing a fork twirled with spaghetti.
Some Italians and commentators felt the publication went too far. Among the most prominent was the Italian Ambassador to the UK, Inigo Lambertini, whose reaction was swift. He wrote an open letter to the newspaper posted on the official Twitter profile of the Italian Embassy in the UK.
Expressing concern about the imagery, which Lambertini said was inspired by “the oldest of stereotypes”, he urged the paper to do better by accurately representing Italy in the future: “Although spaghetti and pizza are the most sought after food in the world, as the second largest manufacturer in Europe, for the next cover we would suggest you to pick for a change from our aerospace, biotech, automotive or pharmaceutical sectors.”
#Britaly trending
Backlash to the cover quickly gained momentum on social media — raising the question of whether the cover was simply designed to provoke and “go viral.” Just as quickly, the online fire died out.
London-based Italian journalist Barbara Serra was among the initial Twitter commentators who were not amused. Responding to The Economist’s lampooning, she tweeted, “Heaven knows Italy is riddled with problems, but as a Britalian I find this Economist cover offensive.” In an essay that Serra published in her Substack newsletter a few days after the initial controversy, she acknowledged that, “As is often the case, [The Economist] article itself is much more nuanced than the cover would suggest.”
The expectation that Italians would engage in passionate online “hand-wringing” is another stereotype that The Economist may have been trying to feed, Serra later seemed to imply, but she conceded that it was hardly the first publication to cast unflattering comparisons between Italy and the UK, citing recent examples from The Telegraph and the Financial Times.
Some other respondents took the cover with a grain of salt, including Twitter user Paul David Boll (@pdavidboll), who crafted a tongue-in-cheek redesign. His parody of the cover replaces Truss’ twirled spaghetti with a can of Tesco Spaghetti Rings, appearing to poke fun at the UK for its comparatively mediocre cuisine.
After the “Twitterstorm”
As the “hot takes” simmered down and the new prime minister Rishi Sunak took over from Liz Truss, everyday Italians outside the social media- and blogospheres offered more reflective responses to the viral image and the article it accompanied.
Speaking to Italy Magazine, Claudia Geremia, 31, of Agrigento, pointed to how the article began — with a reference to Britannia Unchained, a 2012 book that Truss co-authored and that used Italy and southern Europe as a political and economic cautionary tale. Geremia, who finds that tendency tiresome, commented, "After a tough pandemic and a war going on in Europe, I believe these kinds of discriminatory acts should be avoided, along with the various clichés that are repeatedly perpetrated against Italy, which is doing everything it can to recover — first and foremost, economically."
Federico Poggiali, 35, of Florence, said of his initial reaction to the cover, "It was honestly something like, 'Here we go again, the old pseudo-racist stereotype of unstable Italians who only think about food.'”
Recalling unfavorably the period he spent living in the UK, Poggiali added, “[But now] I think I see the cover for what it is. In my opinion, what the cover really says is, ‘If we are politically unstable and also economically poorer than we thought, what do we have left? At least the Italians have sunshine, beauty and good food.’ So I try to see it as a confirmation of jealousy, or a compliment.”
