Friday,
June 22, 2007
Prodi
The
ANNOTICO Report
Prodi
Incredibly,
Prodi has essentially only one ally, and a reluctant
one at that: Silvio Berlusconi who, were he to retire, the leadership of the opposition would fall to
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, and Prodi
The Italians
wanted to oust Berlusconi, and because there was no alternative they voted for Prodi. Today they would like to see the center-left
government voted out of office, but not as long as Berlusconi heads the
opposition
The
dissatisfaction level in
In
that Environment, Politicians across the political spectrum will be
attempting to fill the Centrist void in Italian politics - in other words who can attract the constituency of the Democrazia
Cristiana, the now defunct Democratic Christian Party, that once dominated
Italian Politics.
So
far no one has successfully managed the tight rope act of creating a liberal
economic party that also promotes social values acceptable to the
Rumors of the
political death of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
appear to be greatly exaggerated -- "Il Professore"
is hanging on in office despite a razor-thin majority and a lack of vision. But
are Italians tiring of their pampered political caste?
Der Spiegel
By Alexander
Smoltczyk in
June 19, 2007
Gravity
appears to function in a similar way in Italian politics as it does in animated
cartoons. In a cartoon, when the hero runs off a cliff he keeps on going as if
nothing has happened, only crashing to the ground when he notices the abyss
below. Romano Prodi seems to have decided not to look
down.
Week after week,
the newspapers declare the 67-year-old Italian prime minister to be finished
politically -- deceived by his allies, duped by his own intelligence services
and considered completely incompetent by his fellow business professors.
Last week Prodi announced, once again, that he has the government
There are easier
jobs than his. Prodi, a native of
Italian
cartoonist Giorgio Forattini depicts Prodi as a square-headed country pastor whose cross has
been replaced by a hammer and sickle dangling on a chain in front of his belly.
It is easy to poke fun at this affable man, at his seemingly endless sentences,
his demonstrative ease and his composure so complete it borders on sleep.
And yet, for
someone whose political prospects were unpromising after his narrow election
victory last year, Prodi has in fact been rather
successful in his first year in office. Newspaper articles about
In the wake of
the recovery in the euro zone, the Italian economy is
also predicted to grow by 1.9 percent this year. In 2007, the national deficit
will be well below the critical 3 percent level, something that hasn
A Sense of
Dissatisfaction
Nevertheless,
the sense of excitement about the future which Italians felt last summer after
the end of Silvio Berlusconi
In
its first stab at reform, Prodi
Urgently needed
investments in universities, transportation and healthcare were sacrificed in
favor of cost-cutting measures. And the gentle increase in the retirement age,
from 58 to 61, that the EU Commission, International Monetary Fund and
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have been demanding for
years appears to be impossible to carry out.
Prodi has essentially only one
ally, and a reluctant one at that: Silvio Berlusconi.
If the politician-cum-business tycoon were finally to retire and perhaps hand
over the leadership of the opposition to former Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, Prodi
The Italians
wanted to oust Berlusconi, and because there was no alternative they voted for Prodi. Today they would like to see the center-left
government voted out of office, but not as long as Berlusconi heads the
opposition.
There is a
palpable sense of dissatisfaction in
In the last
communal elections, Prodi
"These
voters saw that the French voted twice in the space of three weeks, and that,
within 48 hours, the winner had formed a government consisting of only 15
cabinet ministers, half of them women. They compare the situation in
Ironically, the
reform-oriented Prodi
government has increased the number of cabinet posts to 26 ministers and 87
junior ministers -- because each of the 14 coalition parties and minor groups
wanted a piece of the pie.
Part
2: Shameless Self-Enrichment
A new book about the shameless practice of self-enrichment that
transcends party affiliations in politics comes at an inopportune time for
COMPARISONS OF ANNUAL SALARIES OF MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN
PARLIMENT (in Euros)
In the upper
house of
"The
Caste" was even the subject of the annual general meeting of the Italian
manufacturers
For some
observers this was not so much a plea for change as a campaign manifesto.
According to a poll taken after the speech, almost a third of all Italians said
they would like to see Montezemolo, who is also the
head of automakers Ferrari and Fiat, elected prime minister. Romano Prodi sat in the front row and attempted to maintain his
composure.
Italians are
beginning to yearn once again for a populist or, better yet, a nonpartisan man
(or woman) of action. Unlike the 1990s, this time the pressure on politicians
is not coming from the left but from the center.
At
an event on May 12 dubbed "Family Day," more than half a million
Italians demonstrated for Christian values and family-friendly government
policies. Their spokesman, former union leader Savino
Pezzotta, promised that his alliance could very well
play a useful role in politics in the future -- a statement politicians on both
sides clearly understood as a threat.
The key question
revolves around who can fill the great void in Italian politics -- in other
words, who can attract the constituency of the Democrazia Cristiana, the now defunct Christian democratic
party which once dominated Italian politics. So far no one has successfully
managed the tightrope act of creating an economically liberal party that also
promotes social values acceptable to the
Prodi, for his part, hopes to
succeed in committing a portion of the center to his pet project of
establishing a party modeled after the Democratic Party in the
Preparations
for the planned inaugural convention this fall have already led to emotionally
charged scenes. The two parties Prodi hopes to unite
are in fact like fire and water. The Democrats of the Left, led by Piero Fassino, have their roots
in
But even such
impossibilities appear incapable of disturbing "il
Professore" Prodi
Besides, it is by
no means the case that everyone in
The North
Translated
from the German by Christopher Sultan
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