Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Italians dismayed at Berlusconi's low-key response to slaying

Italians dismayed at Berlusconi's low-key response to slaying
By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: October 22 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 22 2005 03:00
On Monday October 10, Francesco Fortugno was in New York for Columbus Day,  
the annual event that celebrates the contribution of Italians to American  
life.
 
On Sunday October 16, Fortugno was dead, killed at point-blank range by a  
suspected mafia gunman in his native southern Italian region of Calabria.
Fortugno, 54, was Calabria's deputy governor - the region's number two  
politician - and a centre-left moderate with a background in medicine.
His murder, blamed by investigators on the 'ndrangheta, the Calabrian  
mafia, has shocked Italy's political classes and put Silvio Berlusconi,  
prime minister, on the defensive before April's national election.
Even by mafia standards, it was a brazen crime. A masked assassin shot  
Fortugno four times in the chest and once in the abdomen in broad  
daylight, in front of a group of onlookers, as the politician voted at a  
polling station. The gunman then fled without being stopped.
What has dismayed Fortugno's family and friends, as well as some political  
commentators, is Mr Berlusconi's low-key response.
Mafia and terrorist murders of politicians, prosecutors and other  
prominent figures were common in Italy from the 1970s to the early 1990s.  
But such slayings have gradually dried up.
If the 'ndrangheta did kill Fortugno, he was the mafia's highest-ranking  
political victim of the past 13 years, making his murder all the more  
appalling. That is why Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italy's head of state, went  
to Calabria to pay his respects and to tell Calabrians: "All Italy is with  
you."
Romano Prodi, the centre-left opposition leader, also visited Calabria.  
"It's not acceptable that criminals and the 'ndrangheta control the  
territory like this. We can't tolerate it any more. People feel abandoned."
Similar sentiments came from Giuseppe Pisanu, interior minister. He  
visited the scene of the crime, and described the 'ndrangheta as "the most  
rooted, most powerful and most aggressive of Italy's large criminal  
organisations".
Mr Berlusconi, however, did not go to Calabria, where the unemployment  
rate exceeds 14 per cent. After Fortugno's widow complained she had  
received no condolences from the premier, he said: "I sent a message from  
the government, and the interior minister went in person to Reggio  
Calabria [a city in Calabria]. What else was the government supposed to  
do?"
On Wednesday, the day of Fortugno's funeral, attended by 8,000 people, Mr  
Berlusconi made amends by sending a message condemning his "vile murder at  
criminal hands".
But for some, it was too little, too late. Stefano Folli, a leading  
political analyst, noted that, in the first few days after the murder, Mr  
Berlusconi had found time to talk about pension reform.
"Silence only on Calabria. No message to the country. No response to the  
need for security, which is national, not local," Mr Folli wrote in Il  
Sole 24 Ore, a business daily.
Some commentators speculated that Mr Berlusconi, ever sensitive to his  
public image, feared local people might boo him if he went to Calabria.  
Still, his absence seemed curious. An election is less than six months  
away and, like his political rivals, Mr Berlusconi cannot afford to upset  
voters.
In the 2001 election, Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition dominated  
southern Italy, the home of the nation's main organised crime groups,  
winning in five out of seven regions. The centre-right swept all 61 seats  
on Sicily, the stronghold of Cosa Nostra.
Agazio Loiero, Calabria's governor and Fortugno's old boss, thinks people  
in his region may not easily forgive the premier for not showing up.
"What Berlusconi has done is wrong and inappropriate. Finally, it was  
dangerous, because it sends a reassuring message to the killers," he told  
La Repubblica newspaper yesterday.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/69be3270-4299-11da-94c2-00000e2511c8.html
-- 
Ralph Barker
«Il voto a Bolzano ha portato la città ad assumere una funzione  
emblematica,
è il simbolo della riscossa partita da Catania e che ci riporterà, noi
dell'Italia moderata, a tornare in testa alle prossime elezioni».
  berlusconi silvio 30.05.2005
-- 

Ma scusa, l'assassinio ha rovinato la festa al centrosinistra, ha preso
prezioso spazio sulle news in una giornata di sconfitta politica,
personalmente non gli ha creato nessun danno e anzi, piu' si parla della
ndrangheta cattiva meno si parla delle sue personali rogne e degli scarsi
risultati della sua gestione.
E' gia' tanto che non abbia brindato alla loro salute.
-- 
"Che abbia voce o no, il popolo puo' essere sempre portato al volere dei
capi. È facile. Tutto quello che dovete fare e' dir loro che sono attaccati,
e denunciare i pacifisti per mancanza di patriottismo e in quanto espongono
il paese al pericolo. Funziona allo stesso modo in tutti i paesi."
(Hermann Goering) <<< Sig. heil!

E' gia' tanto che non abbia brindato alla loro salute.
Infatti solo in Italia e a Bagdad si uccide in un seggio elettorale!
Avendo eletto uno in affari da 30 anni con gli assassini mafiosi di
che ci dovremmo stupire????
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.