February 17, 2009

The debacle of the Italian left

So, now that most of the ballots have been counted, there is no doubt that the center-right candidate Ugo Cappellacci has won—with about 52 percent of the vote against 43 percent—regional elections in Sardinia against a left-wing coalition led by the outgoing governor and Tiscali internet company-founder, Renato Soru.

It’s quite a surprising result, since most pre-election surveys had predicted a narrow victory for Soru, and also a terrible blow for the Democratic party (PD) and its secretary Walter Veltroni, who in fact offered his resignation this morning, and this afternoon confirmed it despite his party’s (weak) rejection. As a matter of fact Sardinia is the second region (after Abruzzo last December) the center-right have captured from the center-left since its victory in April 2008’s national elections.

The center-left’s defeat is confirmation that last year’s electoral win by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is “a watershed event,” and that “Silvio Berlusconi’s adversaries are incapable of analysis and of facing a new political era,” writes Corriere della Sera newspaper in his today’s editorial (in Italian), titled “The roller.” But, in his j’accuse, Massimo Franco, the author of the editorial, should have included some other people in the bunch, for example most of the mainstream Italian media … er, by the way, what about  Corriere itself, Massimo?

6 comments:

  1. this is very interesting. Il mio professoressa di Italiano `e a sinistra. Lei non ama Silvio Berlusconi. I wonder what her reaction to this would be...
    I can get extra credit for talking about news from Italy in class.
    I do appreciate having an "alternative" source of opinions on Italian politics.

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  2. Please, Paul, convey to your Italian teacher my deepest condolences ... ;-)

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  3. "Bonolis è bravo sa fare il suo lavoro, non mi crea problema il suo cachet di 1.000.000 di euro a Sanremo. Quello che mi preoccupa sono i 300.000 che verranno dati a uno del Grande Fratello". Walter Veltroni.
    Il problema non è che abbia portato la sinistra all'estinzione. Il problema è che, secondo me, non sta nemmeno tanto bene di salute.

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  4. Rob, online non credo ci sia nulla, tenuto conto del fatto che alcuni dei suoi libri son addirittura introvabili (in Italia, ovviamente, in Portogallo, per dire, c'è tutto).
    Però direi che "Cemento" - che secondo me è uno dei più belli in assoluto - lo trovi qui a 3,35!!! anche in contrassegno.
    E, secondo me, è un investimento: se ti garba, per iniziare. Se non ti piace hai buttato via un'inezia.

    http://www.libraccio.it/compraonline/adv_search.php?base=base&r_titolo=thomas+bernhard

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  5. “Silvio Berlusconi’s adversaries are incapable of analysis and of facing a new political era,” writes Corriere della Sera ...

    They got it! Better late than never ...

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