Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Chi conosce l'inglese? :-)

Elections pose stiff test for Berlusconi
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces a stiff mid-term test
in next week's European elections, which are being combined in Italy
with tricky local polls that will set the political agenda for the
duration of his mandate. 
At the heart of the campaign is a phoney war with European Commission
President Romano Prodi, the leader in waiting of Italy's opposition
left and Berlusconi's 'bete noire'. 
According to a recent poll, 68 percent of Italians predict victory for
the centre left. 
The prime minister has been locked in a proxy battle with Prodi in the
campaign for the June 12 and 13 polls. 
The Commission president, a former left-wing prime minister of Italy
who is the inspiration behind the centre-left opposition campaign, is
seen as his only serious challenger in Italy's next general election,
due in 2006. 
Berlusconi heads the list for his Forza Italia party for the European
vote, but he leads his fellow candidates in spirit only. Should he win
a seat, he would not be able to take up his new post without
relinquishing his role as prime minister. 
"Berlusconi's candidature is purely virtual because he is ineligible.
No other prime minister in Europe is contesting the European
elections," said Massimo D'Alema, former prime minister and president
of Italy's biggest opposition party, the Democrats of the Left. 
Prodi is not a candidate either, but he has unabashedly lent his name
to the opposition effort and has engaged in an exhaustive round of
speeches at political gatherings around the country. 
Such has his endeavour been, that his office has been forced to make a
statement insisting that he will see out his mandate in Brussels. 
The stakes are high because it is clear that the result of these
elections could have a major bearing on the Italian political
landscape over the remaining years of Berlusconi's mandate, and could
seriously hamper his re-election efforts. 
The prime minister does not have to contend just with Prodi and the
left. 
He also faces a fight inside his own cabinet, where Forza Italia and
its allies are seriously split. 
Coalition partners like Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini's
National Alliance and Reform Minister Umberto Bossi's Northern League
see the dual elections as a chance to strengthen their role in
government. 
"After the European elections, and whatever the result, we must have a
new government, we have to make that a priority," said Bruno Tabacci,
one of the leaders of the Christian Democrat UDC party, the fourth
member of Berlusconi's coalition. 
"If the UDC takes more votes (than the previous election) then we will
have the strength to no longer suggest, but to demand," explained
Tabacci. 
The right suffered a series of electoral setbacks in 2003, losing out
in the Friuli-Venetia region and the province of Rome. 
The defeats led to bickering and finger-pointing in the coalition with
each side blaming the other for defeat. 
The ebullient Berlusconi, a media magnate before he became prime
minister with a landslide victory in May 2001, is confident. 
"We will get a great result. I am certain that we'll get 25 percent of
the vote," he said in a speech to his party faithful late last month. 
Forza Italia took nearly 30 percent of the votes in the last general
election and just over 25 percent in the last European elections in
1999. 
Some 36 million voters, more than 70 percent of the electorate, are
due to take part in a local government vote in 63 provinces and more
than 4,000 communes. 
Opinion polls show the centre-right could lose the island of Sardinia,
where Berlusconi maintains a seaside mansion, and also in Bologna,
where they took power for the first time only in 1999. 
If those polls are correct, Berlusconi and his allies are facing a
heavy defeat which will have consequences further down the line. 
---
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--
Leftorium, Il blog Riformista - 
http://clik.to/leftorium
Sinistra liberal - 
http://sinistraliberal.too.it

 Elections pose stiff test for Berlusconi
Mi sembra che non sia molto tenero ne' con Berlusconi ne' con Prodi. Anzi,
con la storia che l'ufficio di Prodi si e' sentito in dovere addirittura
di precisare che si', Prodi ha ancora un lavoro a Bruxelles, mi sembra che
il giudizio morale non sia esattamente positivo. Almeno, di Berlusconi
dice solo che ha rogne con gli alleati di governo...
Eugenio
P.S. Ma hai letto il copyright?

P.S. Ma hai letto il copyright?
E' tratto da un altro forum...
