Newsgroup: it.politica.polo
Titolo: da un'altro giornale straniero

Philip Willan
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Italy prepares for election war
As Italy prepares to elect a new government, the two main presidential
contenders, the former mayor of Rome and Italy's biggest media magnate, wage
a war of personalities, not policies, writes Philip Willan
Wednesday March 7, 2001
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is expected to dissolve the Italian
parliament on Friday, formally opening an election campaign that has already
developed a powerful head of vitriolic steam.
The clash between Francesco Rutelli, the photogenic former mayor of Rome,
and Silvio Berlusconi, the media magnate who has long had a keen
professional interest in finding the most effective route to housewives'
hearts, will be a battle over personalities rather than policies.
The Americanisation of Italian politics proceeds apace: two skilled
communicators will seek to woo the voters of the middle ground with
carefully crafted slogans and minimal programmes. For weeks, each candidate
has been seeking to demonise his opponent, warning the electorate that a
victory for the other man would be a disaster for Italy.
Mr Berlusconi has described the moderate Mr Rutelli as a reassuring mask
concealing the sinister Stalinesque features of the unreconstructed
communists who dominate the centre-left Olive Tree coalition. For Mr
Rutelli, it is the media baron, a man of Napoleonic ego and blunted
democratic sensibilities, who would lead the country to ruin if he were
elected.
Both men may be getting their message across. According to the results of an
opinion poll published on Monday, Italians are becoming increasingly
disenchanted with their political leaders and the largest party to emerge
from the elections, expected in May, could be that of the non-voters. More
than 23 percent of those questioned said they had still not decided whom to
vote for, with a concentration of perplexity among the young.
"Many young people don't know whether and what to vote," pollster Renato
Mannheimer wrote in the Corriere della Sera. "The debate between the parties
seems distant from them, indecipherable and uninteresting. Their indecision
is the fruit of their disenchantment with politics."
In a country that used to be obsessed by politics and where it is still a
legal obligation for citizens to vote, this indifference is another symptom
of the creeping Americanisation of Italian politics.
For Mr Mannheimer, a significant share of the undecided are today to be
found among those who cast their protest vote for the federalist Northern
League in 1996. A strong showing by the League is essential if Mr
Berlusconi's House of Liberties is to secure its widely anticipated election
victory.
Too strong a showing, however, could leave a Berlusconi government hostage
to the whims of Umberto Bossi, the Northern League's mercurial leader, whose
defection brought down a Berlusconi government once before.
One of the last acts of the current parliament is expected to be a
federalist reform of the Italian state, due to be voted on in the senate on
Thursday. The law, which appears to satisfy some of the demands made by the
league, has actually caused bitter dissension between government and
opposition.
Centre-right leaders have warned that the government is setting a dangerous
precedent by pushing through a reform of the constitution that does not
enjoy wide bipartisan support. Mr Bossi dismissed the new law as
"pseudo-federalist" and part of a plan to impose communist government on
Italy via the European Union.
His verbal intemperance may not be out of place in the rough and tumble of a
robust election campaign. But his bluntly expressed hostility to immigrants
has drawn parallels with Austria's Jörg Haider and the possibility that
Italy might be cold shouldered in Europe if the league has a significant
presence in a future Berlusconi government.
It is ironic that the first elections of the new millennium should be so
dominated by the phantoms of the past. Few Italians are seriously worried by
the communist component of the centre-left coalition that has governed them
for the last four years. But if one were to believe the rhetoric of Messrs
Bossi and Berlusconi, the country is teetering on the brink of a savage
Stalinist dictatorship.
For all the rattling of 20th-century skeletons, victory will go to the
candidate who promises greater prosperity and lower taxes in the future with
the most convincing smile. When it comes to turning on the televisual charm,
the amiable Mr Rutelli looks perfectly capable of giving Mr Berlusconi a run
for his money


(Mega cut)
Premesso che "un altro" si scrive senza apostrofo, perchè non torni ad
occuparti dell'Arsenal, di cui mi pare che tu ti intenda molto di più che di
politica ?

 giovane che ti nascondi sotto diverso nome?
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Non ho detto di essere contro l'Arsenal, che anzi mi piace parecchio, anche
se devo ammettere una certa simpatia per i Chelsea, ma solo perchč vengo
spesso ospitato da una persona che ha una casa a Royal Hospital Road.
Comunque mi sembri simpatico, anche se non sei del Polo. Mi permetti di
scriverti in mail, cosě ti spiego ?
Ciao.