Italian elections

As I mentioned in my previous posts on languages, I have a fairly reasonable grasp on Italian now. I have therefore been able to follow the current election campaign a lot closer than usual. I first became aware of the campaign when I visited Milan in Feburary. The streets on the ride back to Malpensa, were lined with countless election bilboards. We only see these in Britain when an election is imminent, so I was very surprised that they were up a month and a half before the election! That is one of many differences between Italian and British politics.

The British press have majored on Berlusconi's gaffes, which to me, has a whiff of snobbery and arrogance about it. Our politicians maybe seen as superior to our press, perhaps because they are walking, talking, bland clones, who consistently talk to us like we are children. But, Berlusconi is a personality and that is why the Italians voted for him 5 years ago. However, ultimately Berlusconi has failed to deliver. Growth has slowed and his support amongst business owners has dried up. His personality based politics is simply not up to the task of giving Italy the reforms it so badly needs. The challenger to Berlusconi is Roman Prodi who seems to believe that high taxes is the answer to Italy's problems, as the Italians would say, Mamma Mia!

I attempted to find my Italian political position on Dove Sei? (literally, where are you?) Unfortunately as we are at poll day, the site has been overloaded and has crashed. Nonetheless when I voted on it I came out with a position just to the left of the Alleanza Nazionale of Gianfranco Fini. It's likely that I would have been virtually dead on their position or maybe a tad to the right if I hadn't of made a hash of one of the translations and alligned myself with the Italian Communists!! The AN come across to me, through their manifesto, as a very sensible party amongst the chaff of the others. I will be hoping that they come out of the elections with big gains.

The best blogging coverage I could find is from Black Knights, a great blog someway to the right of mainstream British "conservatism". It is a blog that I have found very easy to read and understand, even as a non-native speaker. His blog heavily support's Berlusconi and highlights many of the good things he has done in the last 5 years. I also love his tagline and I think that wherever we are in the world it's a universal truth:

Ciò che è bene per la sinistra è male per l'Italia. Ciò che è male per la sinistra è bene per l'Italia.

That, that is good for the left is bad for Italy. That, that is bad for the left is good for Italy.