Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Prodi wins debate with Berlusconi

Prodi wins debate with Berlusconi
By Tony Barber in Rome
Updated: 3:41 p.m. ET March 15, 2006
A confident Romano Prodi on Wednesday declared himself on course for  
victory in next month's Italian election and said he had exposed the  
campaign rhetoric of Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, as hollow  
propaganda.
Mr Prodi, the centre-left opposition's candidate for premier, was speaking  
after four snap opinion polls and a majority of political analysts  
concluded that he outscored Mr Berlusconi on Tuesday night in the first of  
two televised debates.
Mr Berlusconi and his centre-right allies are seeking re-election on April  
9-10 to govern Italy for another five years. After drawing closer to the  
opposition since early January, they appear to be struggling to close a  
gap of 3 to 5 percentage points identified in many opinion polls.
In the debate, watched by 17m Italians, or about a third of all registered  
voters, Mr Berlusconi accused the centrist Mr Prodi of being a front man  
for communists and other leftists in his coalition. He cited streams of  
statistics to support his argument that he had the winning formula for  
Italy's economy.
But Mr Prodi, discussing the clash on Wednesday, said: "Finally, we  
highlighted the incongruity of these avalanches of figures. And another  
thing that's finished is the chorus of 'communists, communists, communists  
and yet again communists'. It's a piece of music that's gone on for a  
while, and now it's stopped."
He cheekily invited Mr Berlusconi and Gianni Letta, the premier's closest  
aide, to join him in ensuring a trouble-free transition from centre-right  
to centre-left rule after the election. "This is a civilised way of  
managing a country. I hope Berlusconi and Letta will co-operate," he said.
Some analysts cautioned that Mr Prodi might be jumping the gun in assuming  
victory so early, because polls indicate that almost a quarter of Italians  
remain undecided about how or whether to vote.
Moreover, the use of a new proportional representation voting system next  
month makes the election result more difficult to predict than in 2001,  
when Mr Berlusconi's success was foreseen long in advance.
"The debate may not have changed significantly the chances of victory of  
the two coalitions," said Lorenzo Codogno, economist at Bank of America.
Mr Berlusconi's camp vehemently rejected Mr Prodi's claim to have won the  
TV debate. Sandro Bondi, national co-ordinator of the premier's Forza  
Italia party, said: "Berlusconi was more convincing because Prodi seemed  
false and demagogic, whereas the prime minister seemed serious, concrete,  
reassuring - in short, a reliable man of government."
However, political analysts said Mr Berlusconi, viewed before the debate  
as a better TV performer than Mr Prodi, had looked unusually flustered,  
sometimes correcting himself and exceeding his time limit for answering  
questions.
The debate allowed Mr Prodi to explain how he would fight tax evasion,  
gradually raise taxes for the self-employed, and impose higher capital  
gains tax on certain classes of financial assets as a means of slashing  
employers' labour costs - a step to improving Italian business  
competitiveness.
Mr Berlusconi derided his opponent's proposal as unrealistic and said he  
favoured direct cuts in income tax.
Stefano Folli, a prominent political commentator, welcomed the debate's  
generally serious tone, but found fault with both candidates.
"Certainly, it was a boring and restricted debate, but it had the modest  
merit of touching on some concrete issues after weeks of sterile  
polemics," he wrote in Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. "Neither Prodi nor  
Berlusconi succeeded in giving an idea of the future - that is, what kind  
of Italy they want to build."
Mr Prodi chided those who termed the debate boring. "It wasn't a show. We  
aren't ballerinas. We went there to speak about the country's problems,"  
he said.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11836958/#storyContinued
-- 
Ralph Barker
L.A.P. Legionario Azzurro Pagante
L.I.P.C.S. Lega Italiana Protezione Carciofo Silvio
"Io al Pil non ci ho mai creduto, non l'ho mai incontrato per strada"
silvio berlusconi 10.09.2005

 Tony Barber
del Financial Times.
Clas 

 Clas
Minchia, quanti... 
-- 
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
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ab...@newsland.it

 Minchia, quanti...
Tipico della sinistra è di disporre di un formidabile apparato 
massmediatico e di
usarlo per lamentare il monopolio dei media.
Clas

 wrote:

Povero Clas che fa finta di non capire un cas ma stavolta ha capito
benissimo: il berlusconismo, incubo italiano, è finito.
FI fondata dall'immondo pregiudicato DELLUTRI nell'interesse di COSA
NOSTRA è già nell'immondezzaio della Storia, per fortuna!
e.
Leggete "L'amico degli amici" - tutte le prove che Dellutri è mafioso e fece da tramite per 30 anni tra Cosa Nostra e Berlusconi.

Eh già: mi sa che hai proprio ragione...
Interventi in voce nei TG RAI:
periodo:11/02/2006 - 12/03/2006
Centro d'Ascolto dell'Informazione Radiotelevisiva
1 Forza Italia                              220 1.28.25 27,49%
2 Alleanza Nazionale                  154 0.45.07 14,03%
3 L'Unione                                   82 0.33.53 10,54%
4 UDC                                        109 0.31.35 9,82%
5 Democratici di Sinistra              106 0.28.17 8,79%
6 Margherita                               101 0.28.04 8,73%
7 Lega Nord                                44 0.13.03 4,06%
8 Rifondazione Comunista            41 0.10.05 3,14%
9 Verdi                                        42 0.09.32 2,96%
10 La Rosa nel Pugno                  37 0.09.00 2,80%
11 Partito dei Comunisti Italian     30 0.06.39 2,07%
12 Popolari - Udeur                     25 0.04.59 1,55%
13 Italia dei Valori                       17 0.03.59 1,24%
14 Alternativa Sociale                   8 0.01.47 0,55%
15 Indipendenti                             8 0.01.46 0,55%
16 Ulivo                                       6 0.01.24 0,44%
17 Liste Civiche                           5 0.01.17 0,40%
18 Casa delle Liberta'                  3 0.00.50 0,26%
19 Altri                                        4 0.00.45 0,23%
20 Socialisti per Craxi                  1 0.00.20 0,10%
21 Democrazia Cristiana              2 0.00.19 0,10%
22 Movimento per l'Autonomia    1 0.00.17 0,09%
23 Partito Socialista Italiano         1 0.00.14 0,07%
Totale                                  1.047 5.21.37 100,00%
Che dici?
Ciao.
P.