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It is disconcerting that having strong evidence in hand in Italy nobody, a part from a couple of journalists who mostly writes books and have blogs, talks or writes about who really is Silvio Berlusconi, the head of the Italian Government.
It is disconcerting that people voted and still vote for him, blind or preferring being blind to who he is and how he is using political power for himself.
It is even more disconcerting that the opposition don’t talk about it everyday. Are they afraid that they might win elections if they do? Mr Veltroni and fellows “shadow-statesmen” what were you thinking about during the electoral campaign? And what are you thinking about now?
Here is a very good report (dated 2003) by Wide Angle (WNET New York network) about Berlusconi. What has it changed now, after five years? Nothing.
I don’t know about you, but this Shadow Government thing perplexes me a lot. I do not know why but every time I think about it, it reminds me of Star Wars, yes the movie!
You know that music that comes out every time there is Dart Vader on the scene? Well it is the same that comes out every time I think about the Italian Shadow Government. Maybe the “Governo Ombra” should have a warning subtitle: “PD electors, may the Force be with you”.
Just taking a look at the titles of foreign newspapers it’s easy to understand that in the rest of the world, of the globe and maybe of the universe nobody understood why the Italian politician in love with plastic surgery has been elected Prime Minister again.
Actually there are also some Italians who are still trying to understand it.
But maybe what has been even more shocking than the re-election of Mr Berlusconi it has been the strength and the power that a small party from north Italy, Lega Nord, got in the last elections. 
The Partito del Popolo della Libertà (Party of People of Freedom), that gathers Forza Italia (Berlusconi’) and Alleanza Nazionale, must thank Lega for its victory.
The bewilderment hasn’t been that a small party has become stronger, this wouldn’t be weird in a democracy, the bewilderment has been in knowing that THAT party has grown.
Lega Nord was born in 1991 and its declared aims have always been: secession of north Italy from the rest of the Country, transformation of Italy into a federal State, fiscal federalism and regional autonomy for the north regions. Many times Lega has been accused of being a racist and homophobic party because of its leaders’ statements, interviews and speeches: Giancarlo Gentilini, former mayor of Treviso, said “We should dress them [immigrants] up like hares and bang-bang-bang”, Umberto Bossi (in the photo) proposed to open fire on the boats of immigrants who would disembark in Italy and Erminio Boso suggested to segregate immigrants in different train cars from native Italians. Yes, maybe tolerance isn’t their strong point.
“We will analyse the results of the election in Roma” is the never-ending phrase all the leaders of PD
(Democratic Party) are keeping on repeating in these hours.
After 15 years of centre-left, the “Campidoglio” has been handed over to the neo-fascist Gianni Alemanno.
But what is there to analyse? Actually nothing.
Francesco Rutelli (PD) lost the elections (46,3% against 53,6% of PDL coalition), while the PD candidate to the province of Roma, Nicola Zingaretti, won. Disjoined vote. Electors chose the centre-left candidate to the province but did not vote the centre-left mayor. It is really hard to understand what the leaders of Partito Democratico have to think over.
Millions of petrified Italians looked at the results of the elections on Monday and Tuesday.
The only three words running into their shocked minds were: “why”, “how” and “what”. Why did they vote him? How can this be possible? What’s wrong with this Country?
Good questions.
It is really hard to explain why the PDL coalition (Silvio Berlusconi’s) has been voted again, apart from the new name this coalition has nothing new to offer to the Country.
It has been already tested in the past years, not once but twice. Italy got a Prime Minister who proudly makes rude gestures, who gently calls “kapo” a European deputy, who says that not paying taxes is fine or affirms that the dictator Benito Mussolini has never killed anybody, he has just sent people on vacation. Vacation? Surely most historians have taken note of that, as when he found out that babies were boiled to fertilise fields in Mao’s China. No doubt, he seems to be very fond of scoops about history.
Being their owner, he can control important newspapers, magazines and tv (as the owner of one of the two main networks, Mediaset, and as chief of the Government that controls the other main network, RAI); during his past government he destroyed and rebuilt laws just to solve his own and his friends’ justice problems and he lately called a Mafioso a hero. And let’s just mention that this man keeps on comparing himself to Jesus Christ (“I’m the Jesus Christ of politics, I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone”) or Napoleon (“Only Napoleon did more than I have done. But I am definitely taller”). His problem is definitely not the lack of self-esteem.
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