Who was Arthur Finkelstein, the populist genius that led Nixon, Reagan, Orban and Netanyahu to power?

The political consultant who “made the negative campaigns in an art form ”was one of the greatest spin doctors of all time. The world ran from the US to Europe and even to the Middle East, where he forced Netanyahu to dye gray hair to look more respectable.

“He never felt comfortable with the ribaltte.” “He said he didn’t bother him, but bothered. I would rather be a consultant who was well loved, well considered by so many people in politics. ”

This is how the also consultant Larry Weitzner described Arthur Finkelstein (1945-2017), the man who was “responsible for the election of more people to the Senate of the United States than any other political consultant,” as one of his clients described him, Alfonse M. D’Amato.

Al d’Amato, as he was known, was actually one of the successful career of Finkelstein.

When applying for the position of Senator in New York, Al D’Amato was “a man without charisma,” completely ignored by the electorate. Thus describes the Empoli’s Giulian essayist in his book Chaos engineers.

Finkelstein therefore tried to hide him. As he confessed to an interview, “I didn’t have much material to work with” with this unquestionable candidate. “That’s why, I decided to show it as little as possible. I never sent him to the television scenario, not once, ”explained the consultant. “He was completely irrelevant to the campaigns.”

And the fact that the New Yorks had no contact with al d’Amato not preventing them from leading him to victory, under the premise that the Senate was “too liberal for too long.”

How was this possible?

Through calls negative campaigns, that Finkelstein was a master. This “art form”, as the book’s author designates, is to play the attack, exposing the opponent’s defects. Sometimes by less orthodox means.

Quickly became one of the spin doctors Most influential of all time, very respected by Republicans. He then worked with great success in the campaigns of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in 1976.

Nowadays, with the media factor-chuck in countries with freedom of the press, it is more difficult to be a spin doctor. But in the 70s, Finkelstein was a genius in the art of Distort facts, throwing them in favor of your customers.

The American consultant, who was already militating in the Republican Party and has always been a “Prodigy Boy”, had as its main merit to Transformation of the word “liberal” naked bad thing.

Its success quickly ran the world, and it reached Europe, more itself to Hungary, where it orchestrated one of the largest campaigns ever against immigrationbefore this is even an agenda theme (and in a country where only 1.4% of the inhabitants were migrants and 3% of voters were interested in the theme).

With the help of a conjuncture of economic crisis in 2009, the scapegoat becomes the immigrant, “We want Hungary to be from the Hungarians again.” And so, with these words, he becomes one of the first European far-right leaders to bring up the campaign table one of the topics that are currently prioritized by his political family.

How does migrant hatred out of nowhere? Well, there must always be a focus, an attackable minority, or “problem”. At a time when the number of Islamic attacks increased, the target was easy to obtain.

“In politics, it is what is perceived as true that it is“Summed the consultant himself in an interview.

Finkelstein also had as method the microtargetingthat is, the realization of detailed demographic analyzes that identify the interests of each segment of the electorate and allow you to send personalized messages to each demographic group, with different political interests.

In 2010, Orban wins the elections with a solid 57.2% of the votes, which add up to another 17% in the far-right party Jobbik, a majority never before (three quarters of the parliament) view of ultra-conservatives in power.

The consultant then settled in Europe, where helped the rise of far-right leaders a little throughout the continent: It was throughout the east countries, still in the late 1990s and early 2000s, trying to prove (successfully) to the newly formed democracy of the former Soviet Union that what they needed was that.

But years earlier, in 1996, he still made a brief visit to the Middle East. It was in Israel that it consecrated victorious policies today: Benjamin Netanyahu, mias known as “Bibi”. In this country, he got one of the greatest possible achievements for a political consultant: make an inexperienced and inexperienced extremist win (According to public opinion) Faced with a Nobel PeaceShimon Peres (who signed an unprecedented peace agreement with Palestine), to whom everyone guessed the victory.

His first measure was to dye the hair from gray Netanyahu. “The physical look is important,” said the consultant later. “The fuller candidate earns the elections in 75% of cases“He added.

The slogan was simple and effective: Netanyahu is good for the Jews. ” The idea was, therefore, the following: Who does not support Netanyahu, is not a true Jew. Result? A very close but lasting victory. Even today leads the country.

For these and many other political episodes, Finkelstein is today acclaimed as one of the main masterminds of populist politics around the world.

As a university audience in Prague in 2011, Their campaigns were “cruel and bad”. “Negative, negative, negative – because it is not possible to earn otherwise.”