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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’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>‘The End of Silvio’s Show?’</em></a> in which the author examines the possibility that Berlusconi’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’t imagine someone asking this question, at least I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t know Silvio Berlusconi as the icon of the latest <em>national oddity</em>. <br /> Forthose who need their memory refreshed, here’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> – 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> – 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> – Italian blog against Berlusconi (warning: profanity).</li> <li><a href="http://www.geocities.com/basta2006/">Basta 2006 – Geocities</a> – a comprehensive directory of websites dedicated to Berlusconi, a really good resource.</li> </ul> <p>There are millions more. In particular, I’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%) – which includes three national channels</li> <li>Medusa Film (100%) – Movie productions</li> <li>Milan A.C. (99%) – Football team</li> <li>Edilnord (63%) – Real Estate</li> <li>Blockbuster (51%) – Video retal shops</li> <li>Mondadori Spa (48%) – Biggest Italian editorial company</li> <li>Mediolanum (35.5%) – Financial sociaty – banks, insurances etc.</li> </ul> <p>Nice, isn’t it? Of course he had to give those societies to some trusted administrators before becoming Prime Minister… but let’s not talk about this…</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&cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&idioma=en">eitb24’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 “The Professor” for his education…</p> <blockquote> <p><em>“He graduated in economics at Milan’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”</em><br /> <em>(<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/299254.stm">Prodi’s <span class="caps">BBC</span> profile</a>)</em></p> </blockquote> <p>…Romano Prodi is the candidate proposed by the current Italian opposition, grouping roughly all the center-left parties. He’s the one who pushed Italy – as President of the European Commission – 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’t seem to be an <em>exact conversion</em> from Lire to Euro. He was chubby enough (“mortadella” 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’s the difference between the two candidates, I’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>…</p> <p><em><strong>Who am going to vote?</strong></em></p> <p>Well, one thing is sure: I don’t want Silvio to win again, I don’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…</p> |