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-----
title: "Italian General Elections - 2006"
content-type: article
timestamp: 1144560780
tags: "italy|politics"
-----
<p style="float:right;"><img src="http://www.berluscastop.it/v_imag/sodom1.gif" alt="" /></p>
<p>Another five years have passed and here we go again: General Elections time!<br />
Today and tomorrow Italy <del>must</del> should vote for a new government, and the choice is <em>again</em> between two main contenders to the Prime Minister&#8217;s <del>throne</del> chair:</p>
<p>- <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/299254.stm">Romano Prodi</a><br />
- <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3034600.stm">Silvio Berlusconi</a></p>
<p>Just today I was reading an interesting article titled <a href="http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,409538,00.html"><em>&#8216;The End of Silvio&#8217;s Show?&#8217;</em></a> in which the author examines the possibility that Berlusconi&#8217;s five years of subtle pseudo-dictatorship may end in favour the former president of European Commission Romano Prodi.</p>
<p><em>Who are they?</em></p>
<p><strong>Silvio Berlusconi</strong><br />
<img src="http://www.consapevolezza.it/notizie/gen-mar-2002/imgs/berlusconi_corna_5.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>I can&#8217;t imagine someone asking this question, at least I can&#8217;t think of anyone who doesn&#8217;t know Silvio Berlusconi as the icon of the latest <em>national oddity</em>. <br />
Forthose who need their memory refreshed, here&#8217;s a small collection of links featuring him:</p>
<ul>
	<li><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3034600.stm"><span class="caps">BBC</span> <span class="caps">NEWS</span> Profile</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi">Wikipedia Page</a> about him</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=587107">An Italian Story</a> &#8211; An article written in 2001 published by the Economist, <em>before</em> he was elected Prime Minister</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=593654">Fit to run Italy?</a> &#8211; Another article by the Economists explaining why Berlusconi should <em>not</em> lead the Italian Government</li>
	<li><a href="http://grabbyeducational.blogspot.com/">Meglio coglioni che mafiosi</a> &#8211; Italian blog against Berlusconi (warning: profanity).</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.geocities.com/basta2006/">Basta 2006 &#8211; Geocities</a> &#8211; a comprehensive directory of websites dedicated to Berlusconi, a really good resource.</li>
</ul>
<p>There are millions more. In particular, I&#8217;d like to add one more: <a href="http://www.consapevolezza.it/notizie/gen-mar-2002/impero_berlusconi.asp">The Empire of Silvio Berlusconi</a>, which features an image taken from an Italian magazine listing (roughly) everything owned (the image is dated 2002) by our current (for now) Prime Minister, such as:</p>
<ul>
	<li>Mediaset Television (100%) &#8211; which includes three national channels</li>
	<li>Medusa Film (100%) &#8211; Movie productions</li>
	<li>Milan A.C. (99%) &#8211; Football team</li>
	<li>Edilnord (63%) &#8211; Real Estate</li>
	<li>Blockbuster (51%) &#8211; Video retal shops</li>
	<li>Mondadori Spa (48%) &#8211; Biggest Italian editorial company</li>
	<li>Mediolanum (35.5%) &#8211; Financial sociaty &#8211; banks, insurances etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Nice, isn&#8217;t it? Of course he had to give those societies to some trusted administrators before becoming Prime Minister&#8230; but let&#8217;s not talk about this&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Romano Prodi</strong><br />
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/Prodi.jpg/200px-Prodi.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Perhaps not as well known abroad as Silvio, but was recently the President of the European Commission for a while. Here are some (more serious) links about him:</p>
<ul>
	<li><a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/archives/commission_1999_2004/prodi/index_en.htm">European Commission Archives</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/international-news/centre-left-candidate--profile-of-romano-prodi-?itemId=D23503&amp;cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&amp;idioma=en">eitb24&#8217;s profile of Romano Prodi</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/romano-prodi">Answers.com on Romano Prodi</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/romano_prodi/index.html?inline=nyt-per">New York Times archives about Romano Prodi</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Known as &#8220;The Professor&#8221; for his education&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>&#8220;He graduated in economics at Milan&#8217;s Catholic University in 1961 and did postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics. He also spent a year as visiting professor at Harvard in 1974&#8221;</em><br />
<em>(<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/299254.stm">Prodi&#8217;s <span class="caps">BBC</span> profile</a>)</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>&#8230;Romano Prodi is the candidate proposed by the current Italian opposition, grouping roughly all the center-left parties. He&#8217;s the one who pushed Italy &#8211; as President of the European Commission &#8211; to accept the Euro as new currency, back in the day, and also the one who was blamed for than after a few months when the <em>Euro effect</em> occurred: prices went higher and didn&#8217;t seem to be an <em>exact conversion</em> from Lire to Euro. He was chubby enough (&#8220;mortadella&#8221; is one of his most recurring nicknames) to be quickly appointed as scapegoat for the unpleasant situation.</p>
<p style="float:left;"><img src="http://www.dsmirandola.it/sg/img/berlusconi_corna.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Besides that, if someone asks me what&#8217;s the difference between the two candidates, I&#8217;ll answer: one is a politician and devoted all his life to Politics, while the other partly devoted only the last 10-years-or-so to politics because it seemed to be <em>a cool and worthwhile investment</em>&#8230;</p>
<p><em><strong>Who am going to vote?</strong></em></p>
<p>Well, one thing is sure: I don&#8217;t want Silvio to win again, I don&#8217;t want Italy to be publicly ridicolized abroad all the time that muppet opens his mouth or simply does something <em>he</em> thinks is funny&#8230;</p>