During these hot, lazy summer days in late July and early August – filled with sand, sweat and the odd beer – I wearily tackled a number of sporadic reading projects: books I’d started and left half-read, snippets of old texts to savour once more, and a scattering of articles and papers that I skimmed through, my attention wavering between focus and boredom.

I must confess that I have only ever read two books from cover to cover: *America nuda e cruda* by my friend Giorgio Dell’Arti, which we presented together in Udine, and *Governare il linguaggio* by my friend Donatello D’Andrea.

Although they differ greatly in scope and style – Dell’Arti’s historical fiction and D’Andrea’s explanatory specialist essay – I realised that the two books inevitably share the same central theme: power.

I won’t dwell any further on *America nuda e cruda*; it’s already in its third reprint and I really don’t think it needs any further comment from me.

As for *Governare il linguaggio*, however, I do have something to say, though I realise I’ll never be able to describe its contents as effectively as Donatello does in the book – a book you’ve come to know over the past year through *L’Europeista*.

Why does a book on communication become a book on power? 

The answer to this question might in itself be enough to summarise a significant part of the essay’s content.

A key factor lies precisely in the meaning of the concept of power, which can be traced back to the primordial practice of creating meaning.

Who has more power: the person who answers a particular question, or the person who sets the conditions that will determine the value of subsequent answers?

This is where the game lies – or the ‘Meta-game’, as Donatello calls it in the book (I know I’m breaking all the ethical rules for reviewers by mentioning him by name, but I hope you’ll forgive me).

It is in this way that the struggle for power is resolved in the relationship between space, environment and performance. 

Amidst the flood of analysis we read every day about the ‘Trump hurricane’, it has become a common refrain to claim that substance and appearance are, ultimately, separate, and that real executive power is exercised and carefully concealed in the shadow of the peacock-like, puppet President.

In this regard, I believe Donatello hits the nail on the head, turning the logic and sequence of superficial analysis on its head.

In *Governing Language*, it is argued that the act of communication constitutes the strategic move in itself. Gone are the days (if they ever existed) of decisions made behind closed doors, where, once matters were settled, the files were sent to the subordinate ‘communications’ department to be dressed up and made public: today, dominating public discourse means setting the strategic direction, to such an extent that it can even overturn the balance of power.

It is the power of performance, which is spreading through politics as a means of demarcating and shaping the scope and form of what is ‘sayable’ (which implies the existence of the unsayable). What the experts call a ‘frame’, but which I cannot define in any other way than as ‘power’.

Where does power lie today?

Reading Donatello’s book will not provide any answers to this question. It will, however, help us to understand how the language of power constructs and organises events, and by what means and with what stratagems.

In the 20th century, we focused primarily on the question of who owned the means of production, the apparatus of the state or the media. The 21st century adds another question: who has the power to define reality?

“Governing language” hits upon a fundamental point, recognising that today power “is exercised through communication”.

The shift from the practice of ‘government communication’ to ‘the governance of communication’ – which the essay elevates to a model of analysis on which to base studies and dissertations – captures a paradigm shift that has become firmly established over the last ten years, but which is still poorly understood by observers.

Many real-life examples

To argue that language wields power is nothing new – Donatello himself points this out – but identifying specific, recent cases in which to analyse and test the framework of communication governance certainly is.

The book does not discuss figures such as Kissinger, Andreotti and Stalin in the past tense, but instead focuses primarily on more recent and politically significant events, such as the tragic Trump–Zelenskyy conversation on 28 February, the Anchorage summit, the impact of tariffs, the US President’s skirmishes with Giorgia Meloni and Pope Leo XIV and, broadening the scope, the consolidation of the meta-frame in the tensions between China and Taiwan.

All these events are recounted not through the lens of news reporting, but through a systematic analysis of the manoeuvres and techniques that lead the actors involved – whether successfully or not – to shape meaning around the areas of contention, thereby strengthening their political leverage through the language and stance they adopt.

From behind the scenes to the limelight: how is politics changing?

What the ‘frame adoptability’ model consists of, what is meant by ‘meta-game’ when discussing Taiwan (Donatello’s reflections on Chinese diplomatic rhetoric are extremely interesting – he has, after all, set a high standard for us), what has worked in Giorgia Meloni’s institutional communication and what has gone awry in recent times – the book will tell you all about it.

I would rather conclude these reflections of mine with some more political observations, which came to mind spontaneously whilst reading *Governare il linguaggio*.

They are aimed at those who observe power from the outside – the audience to whom Donatello addresses his text – with the ambition of one day exercising that power from within.

Amidst the search for one’s own narrative, one’s own voice, and the trend to spot, one is led to wonder whether there is still room for politics that is close to the people and, likewise, for far-reaching political visions that chart long-term, achievable paths spanning decades rather than the mere tens of seconds of Reels.

The challenge posed by this text to those of us who have the ‘vast programme’ of leaving our children and grandchildren a Europe that is at last federal and fully realised – with the, dare I say, revolutionary ambition of achieving this ‘from the bottom up’ rather than from the top down – is twofold.

On the one hand, to give substance to pro-European rhetoric by breaking free from the polarising dichotomies put forward by others, who emphasise contrasts by reducing the major issues of our time to peripheral, piecemeal battles, light years away from the crux of the challenges we face. ‘Stepping outside the frame set by others’, to put it bluntly.

On the other hand, we mustn’t lose sight of reality and materiality. Because politics subordinated to spectacle has spawned too many monsters, and the solution cannot always be the coolest monster around.

The finest invitation this book offers is to rein in our instincts when faced with the fleeting phenomena born of the vast sea of communication that surrounds politics and public opinion, and to analyse the language of power using the most appropriate tools, without allowing ourselves to be swept away by emotion. This lesson is invaluable for both the governed and contemporary rulers alike.

To govern, rather than be governed – that is the very essence of it. Faced with a Western political class increasingly driven by its own narrative, it is always worth remembering that the proper use of language should lead to leaders who communicate effectively, not communicators who govern poorly.

Ultimately, *Governare il linguaggio* is a book to suit all tastes. It is a tool for a deep analysis of the language of power – but above all of the power of language – suitable for those who wield power, those who aspire to it, and those who want to understand just how this power works.