Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Financial Times: Berlusconi e i suoi inquieti alleati

Scusate la lingua straniera, se necessario posso tradurre ma chi conosce
bene l'inglese non manchera' di notare il tono divertito e vagamente
beffardo usato dall'autore dell'articolo...
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EUROPE: BERLUSCONI TRIES TO KEEP HIS WILDER
ALLIES IN CHECK: THE FORZA ITALIA LEADER - WITH
A STRONG LEAD IN THE POLLS - IS TRYING TO PROJECT
A MODERATE IMAGE.
James Blitz, Financial Times, Nov 17
www.financialtimes.com
Italy's centre-left govern ment faces a tough strug gle over the next few
months if it is to have any chance of defeating Silvio Berlusconi's
centre-right coalition in next spring's general election.
But the government has this week gained a much-needed psychological
boost after one of Mr Berlusconi's far right allies triggered a political
storm by calling for the revision of school history books on ideological
grounds. The row started when the ruling council of the region of Lazio (of
which Rome is the capital) agreed a proposal regarding the content of
history text books used in local schools.
Lazio's council - run by Francesco Storace, a leading figure in the
far-right National Alliance party (AN) - said it would set up a commission
to "review" the political content of these books, "exposing mistakes
and false arguments".
Mr Storace and his allies said the books glorified the role played by
anti-fascist partisans in the second world war without taking sufficient
account of the murder of Italians by Yugoslav communists in the north-east
of Italy. They also complained, among other things, that the books
give an unfairly negative assessment of Mr Berlusconi's short-lived
premiership in 1994.
The ruling drew immediate condemnation from ministers, who warned that a
centre-right government would return Italy to the kind of propaganda and
censorship last seen under former dictator Benito Mussolini.
In a powerful parliamentary performance on Wednesday, Giuliano Amato, the
prime minister, insisted that history texts should be changed after academic
debate from below, not censorship from above. "What the devil does it have
to do with the region of Lazio?" he asked.
Mr Berlusconi has also been forced to distance himself from Lazio's action.
He warned Mr Storace this week that he should not expose the centre-right
coalition to "easy attacks" from the left.
Mr Berlusconi's coalition continues to have a strong lead in opinion
polls (a Datamedia poll in Il Giornale puts the opposition on 59 per cent
against 33.5 per cent for the government). This latest row will do
little to unsettle that.
But it raises questions over how much grip Mr Berlusconi has on
his allies and what kind of policies the four-party coalition would
pursue if it wins power.
The 64-year-old media magnate has gone out of his way to present himself to
Italians as a moderate, centrist figure in firm control of the coalition.
To help convey this image, he has plastered immense posters all over Italian
cities. They are dominated by a huge picture-portrait of the Forza Italia
leader. Alongside are moderate slogans like "lower taxes for all",
"dignified pensions" and "simpler adoption procedures".
However, within his coalition both the AN and the Northern League have
risked upsetting the image he is trying to create.
The leader of AN, Gianfranco Fini, is a shrewd politician who is loyal to Mr
Berlusconi and has sought to drag the AN into the mainstream European right.
But some of Mr Fini's allies in AN - Mr Storace among them - belong to a
movement called the "social right" which is more faithful to the party's
pre-war fascist traditions.
Umberto Bossi, the fiery Northern League leader, is an even more
uncomfortable ally. He has renounced his former commitment to separatism for
the north. But he remains an aggressive opponent of European integration and
of uncontrolled immigration. Mr Bossi recently pledged to organise a "march"
of his supporters on next month's European Union inter-governmental
conference in Nice. He abandoned the idea only after he was publicly
slapped down by Mr Berlusconi.
Stefano Folli, political editor of Corriere Della Sera, insists that a rift
within the coalition ahead of the election is inconceivable. "All these
parties know the coalition is within sight of victory. It would be
madness to jeopardise that."
The centre-left will also find it hard to highlight whatever splits may
emerge in Mr Berlusconi's camp during the election campaign. Despite
recently choosing Francesco Rutelli, the mayor of Rome, as its
candidate-premier (its fourth leader since 1996), differences within its own
ranks have yet again been all too evident in recent days.
While they may remain loyal to Mr Berlusconi, however, Mr Bossi and some of
the more extreme figures inside AN are unlikely to remain quiet for long.
"Italy has many small parties which must continue to agitate and make
themselves heard, otherwise they start losing votes to the bigger ones,"
says Sergio Romano, a leading commentator. "That will be the case before
the election, and will remain so after it."
Trascritto da Andrea
salo...@mediacomm.it

 beffardo usato dall'autore dell'articolo...
Ho letto tutto l'articolo... non c'č nessun tono divertito ne beffardo.
L'autore si limita a riportare i fatti ne piů ne meno come č stato fatto in
Italia.