Thursday,
February 28, 2008
The
ANNOTICO Report
Menachem Gantz, a journalist based in
According to the Israeli journalist, there are
also many similarities between
Gantz goes on to explain
that the "Fragmented Party" system in Israel and Italy are quite
similar, and represent similar problems, especially when the coalitions are
evenly divided, and threats from "sliver" parties can cause
"confidence" votes that threaten the Prime Minister position, or
force New Elections.
"We have only just avoided early elections
because at the end of the month of January the Winograd
Commission evaluated on the outcome of the war in Lebanon and that jeopardised the government of [Israeli prime minister Ehud]
Olmert," said Gantz
referring to the report by the commission to shed light on how Israel managed
the conflict in 2006.
Ehud Olmert
Two
party systems offer more stability, but less flexiblity,
and wide swinging changes with the change of Presidents.
Adnkronos International Italia - Roma,Lazio,Italy
February 28, 2008
Menachem Gantz,
a journalist based in
Gantz, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that
"Elections are a democratic celebration and it is for this reason that
Italians, who may be critical of the
Gantz told AKI that the two main alliances or
political parties "cannot pit themselves fiercely against each other"
or "offend each other" or have "an election campaign with
low-level accusations" and then find that after the polls that they have
to work togeth er.
According to Gantz, in this electoral race, former
prime minister Silvio Berlusconi "has so far
conducted an election campaign with a lower profile than the one in 2006",
also because the candidate who really has his work cut out for him is the
outgoing mayor of Rome and leader of the newly formed centre-left Democratic
Party (PD), Walter Veltroni.
Gantz said that even though elections are always a
fascinating event, these Italian elections are "forced", and
"the Italians are not as content and enthusiastic".
As such it is difficult to explain the "details" of the Italian
electoral campaign to
Gantz said an example would be "speaking of the
crisis involving [Italian national carrier] Alitalia,
explaining how the election campaign touches this question, what is the
position of the [anti-immigrant] Northern League party or that of the
Left," without get ting caught up in the "daily developments".
Israelis are likely to pay more attention to Italian politics, once the vote is
over and the results are known and "when the new government is
formed," said Gantz.
"It all depends on who will be the new foreign minister," he told
AKI.
"Compared to previous elections, these are in some way different in terms
of Italy
"As such, the consequences of the vote, even if their
are not immediate, could be of interest to
According to the Israeli journalist, there are also many similarities between
"We have only just avoided early elections because at the end of the month
of January the Winograd Commission evaluated on the
outcome of the war in Lebanon and that jeopardised
the government of [Israeli prime minister Ehud] Olmert,"
said Gantz referring to the report by the commission
to shed light on how Israel managed the conflict in 2006.
In the end, Ehud Olmert
According to Gantz, this is similar to the way in
which the smaller centrist Udeur party in Italy
pulled out of the government coalition, citing a lack of support for its
leader, the former justice minister Clemente Mastella,
who together with his wife was implicated in a corruption probe.
This led to the resignation of f ormer premier Romano
Prodi in January, the dissolution of parliament and
the calling of fresh elections on 13 and 14 April.
Gantz said that Barak
In such a context,"Barak could not be the one
who would drag the country into an election campaign that in the end would do
nothing but waste time," said Gantz.
The correspondent of Yedioth Ahronoth
also highlighted the "particular relationship" between
"His government represented an improvement in the ties between the two
countries and Berlusconi was closer to
"This message has been passed on even to certain elements of
As for the current situation in
The latest refuse emergency in
Gantz said that his "dream" is to see in
"
"Thinking of my country and the city of
"This is an important gesture, that with my great love for
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.1915680035
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