this weekend... how i see it...

[adriatica]

in a sense this has all been a very quite and almost non contentious political experience as the two main parties that are due to get the mass of the votes here have tried to portray themselves as serious and concerned options

for the centre left it had to be this way as they are trying what would be the greatest illusionary trick on the masses in modern times to actually fight an election based on a sort of opposition stance to the last Prodi government whilst still apart from Prodi himself (who has been kept in a dark cupboard out of view)having exactly the same people and although doubtful to get elected the same team of ministers... Veltroni is indeed a like able sort of happy chap ... without the labored pronunciation and sleep making stile of prodi or the wolf like satanic appearance of Mr B. ... however he pretends to be new to politics and has been a professional politician involved at times in previous governments and was not a very well thought of mayor as regards Rome... his last political posting... he has worked hard... but it all came to soon thanks to Mastella

Mr Berlo. has had a good campaign...although Bossi in the last few days has mentioned the divide of the Po and armed struggles... he cannot help himself... which has given veltronis team the first chance to have a serious go at the new pdl alliance... and that might cause some problems for him... he is almost guaranteed to get more votes than any other party but not to have a governable majority... his major problem not being Veltroni and the PD but Cassini and the UDC... the reason is that he broke away from Mr B. in fact just after the last election...although i actually think he did it during the last one as his interviews and support were pretty dire ... he sees himself as some sort of Christian Messiah and is always rumbling on about governments of wide interest...coalitions to help Italy recover... that sort of thing ...i basically think so that he might well be suggested as a leader to run the country in a time of national crisis ... basically the only way he would get this opportunity to lead... so he has established a sort of political nothingness around him... only firmly talking about family and christian values... which they all talk anyway...by setting himself apart from Mr B.. he is likely to have removed enough votes so that the Senate at least will be a difficult house for any legislation to get through if and when Mr b does get elected...

The communists have aligned with the greens and a few socialists to make a sort of happy hippy type lot...basically making a centre left government unlikely as they always need this block of votes to be able to get any sort of majority... and another Mr B.. bertinotti is running the race here to become the countries leader... he is very articulate...and is one of the old men of politics here... always manages to come across as fair and reasonable ... despite being a sort of dinosaur of Marxism and the workers struggle against capitalism and global commerce... and also being i think about the third richest MP here... he wont get to run the country ... but in a sense he always has whenever a left wing government has ... as whenever they do not do something he likes he pulls the plug ...and because they have such a fixed percentage of the vote...it has always meant that the right has had to align itself with some fairly odd characters to get enough votes to get elected too... his alliance with the lega ambiente in this election is causing a bit of a problem as the leader of that party is under investigation for corruption... along with his brother... and they are supposed to be squeaky clean....

the rest are a mix of right or left extremes... often consisting of just one or two names... basically around because they know how to work the system here to milk the country for a very large amount of money that a political party can gain so enhancing their personal wealth... by often millions... the politicians after a referendum that said no to public funding of political parties came up with a disguised formula to do so anyway... at a profit... so we have 30 odd parties with 15 candidates for election to be prime minister,... more or less anyway...

by Monday night it will all be over and i guess i see it that there will be some lengthy discussions afterwards and concessions regarding who will be taken on board to allow Mr B of the right to run the country one more time...

i don't think things will change very much in a true sense... but i think Italians will feel better... the Prodi government has been such a miserable and dull experience it has sort of reflected on every ones attitude here ... i think Italy and Italians need the color of a Berlusconi type leader because they get up on it... and when everyone here feels good then the country just seems to run better anyway... finance...the IMF...world bank or even central European bank and all their controls and targets of debt against pil just mean something boring and consequences of high tax... and a very low feel good factor... I reckon Italy will be a happier place this summer.. how long it will last... ????

so i am sure there will be other views on this ... lots of us on the forum that live and or work here... who will see things differentley... be interesting to hear what you think...as soon in Italy the press and TV will be silenced as the vote approaches...

[redimp98]

16 parties. The whole thing is laughable. No wonder theyve had 61 elections since the 2WW. Mr Nasty himself likely to "win" as he has no moral principles which prevent him getting into bed with pseudo-fascists and religious crackpots. Unable to switch on the TV (errr, he owns the channels) without seeing this "man of the people" on the streets making out that he's one of us, all stage-managed surrounded by guards and a selection of supporters.

[Sally Donaldson]

a link to Election Party Profiles - ANSA.it - News in English - Election: Party profiles