Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, meets his best buddy George W today. Tomorrow he's to speak in front of the US Congress (apparently an honour reserved to few foreign heads of State so far) and will be given the "Intrepid freedom award 2006".

What a huge political spot for next 9th April elections to be held in Italy.

Who are you gonna vote for in the elections? Forgive me my imprudency...

don't worry, Enzo. I'm still to decide! :rolleyes: I guess I should choose the least worst. Which - given the current situation- is a tough choice. Very very very tough choice.

don't worry, Enzo. I'm still to decide! :rolleyes: I guess I should choose the least worst. Which - given the current situation- is a tough choice. Very very very tough choice. [/b][/quote]Who are the other candidates, Lavi?

there are basically two competitors, the current PM Berlusconi as the leader of the centre-right coalition, and the former PM Romano Prodi, as the leader of the centre-left one. We are spoilt for choice!

Does Mr. Prodi have a real chance at winning the vote? Or is Mr. Berlusconi too powerful and too entrenched in power? Also, who are you leaning towards Lavinia, if you don't mind me asking??

there are basically two competitors, the current PM Berlusconi as the leader of the centre-right coalition, and the former PM Romano Prodi, as the leader of the centre-left one. We are spoilt for choice! [/b][/quote]Do you have an option to vote against both?
If you don't know who is the better don, you always can have your own family, senator. I'd vote for you.

When I saw the title of this topic, I thought :






MEETS





Don Cardi

The idiot and the mobster. What a pair of crooks.

Silvio's an idiot, huh?


Don Cardi

all polls indicated he had the edge over Mr Berlusconi, but apparently they are almost even lately. For what polls are worth....


I don't mind! I suppose you could say I'm leftish. That's what I've been considering myself all my life anyway. But if you want to know the truth, lately I'm worryingly turning into a conservative for some (many) respects. Apparently it's quite a physiological thing -- to turn somehow conservative at a certain point in your life. The trouble is I'm already at it!

not really. There are other options, but if you want your vote got some actual meaning you have to choose between these two. Otherwise you can choose to not vote at all, an option I'm not considering though.


thanks, JM! However, it's definitely more likely I'm going to be Mrs Pacino than I'm entering politics.

Yeah, I would say I'm a Centre-Leftist although I voted Conservative in the last election over here. If I was an Italian citizen I would probably vote for Mr. Prodi and I think that it would probably be better for the country if he gets elected instead of Mr. Berlusconi winning another term.

One dominant trend I notice in Italian poltics if you'll allow me to say, is instability. I believe that Italy has had the most elections as a result of governments falling of any modern, industrialized democratic country in the world since World War II. This obviously is due to many reasons and I'm ashamed to say that I'm ignorant regarding most of them. I have my opinions and views as to why this is the case but it would be foolish to state them now seeing as how they are not really backed up by facts or even educated guesses.

I believe that although there probably isn't a whole lot of difference between Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Prodi, Mr. Prodi would probably bring a bit more stability to the governance of the country and would be better for the economy than Mr. Berlusconi. I heard that Mr. Berlusconi owns the major Italian media outlets, the A.C. Milan Soccer Club, and some major Italian corporations. I don't know how the Italian people feel about this but let me just say that if Mr. Berlusconi wants to be a businessman, he should be in the private sector and be a businessman. If he wants to be a poltician, he should be in the public sector and be a poltician. I think that Mr. Berlusconi is trying to have his gelatto and eat it to. Go Prodi!

don jasani you voted for haper? Dude what's wrong with you? lol....i voted for the Librals. In the end, they'll fuck up...but they still get the job done. Remember who the last conservative in power was? Kim Cambell...what happened to her?

Yup, mr. soprano I voted for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the last election and I'll give you my reasons (in no particular order mind you). I should start off by saying that in the previous election I voted for Paul Martin and by the time the next vote came around I was so fed up with his idiot bullshit that I was ready to completely lose my mind and vote for The New Democratic Party or The Green Party. After I calmed down and realized that a vote for The N.D.P. or The Greens was a vote for idiocy I looked at my options. Bloc Quebecois? Separatist bastards, and they only run in Quebec. Liberals? Please. What exactly did Mr. Martin or his crew do to earn your vote? They couldn't even manage to hold on to the status quo and managed to start to fuck up the good work that Mr. Chretien did. I do admit that Mr. Martin was a kickass Finance Minister and he was a so so PM. However, Mr. Harper has promised to establish an Equal, Elected, Effective (EEE) Senate, lower the G.S.T. to 5% (eventually), subject Supreme Court Justice appointees to House Of Commons hearings etc. Also, he will be tougher on crime, and we both live in T.O. and we know how things can get here sometimes. Granted, it's not New York or Los Angeles, or Chicago or Washington D.C. or Detroit or Miami or anything like that, but still, it is the roughest city in Canada and we do need to do something. In addition, it would be hard for him to do anything about it now without using section 33 (I believe its 33) of The Charter Of Rights And Freedoms (the notwithstanding clause), but he is against gay marriage and so am I. Another reason why I voted for him, he's not Paul Martin. Nothing against Mr. Martin but I mean The Liberal Party had been in power for what, like over 10 yrs. right? It was time for a change. I'm only sorry that The Conservatives did not win more seats and were not able to form a majority government. I only hope that the Liberals, N.D.P. and B.Q. don't give Mr. Harper too much shit and allow at lest some of his policies to go through Parliament. I also plan to vote for Mr. John Tory and The Ontario Conservative Party in the next Provincial poll in 2007. Hope you do too man, but whatever you do and whoever you vote for, just remember to vote.

Oh yeah, and I mentioned this to T.I.S. who had asked a question about Females in Canadian politics in another thread a while back, Kim Campbell was never elected Prime Minister by the Canadian people. She was PM for like 6 - 8 months before she called an election and lost everything except two seats and her shirt. She became PM because Brian Mulroney decided to retire and have an election called. Ms. Campbell won The Conservative Party leadership race and the Prime Ministership (obviously they were the governing party at the time). It would not be fair to prejudge Mr. Harper and the 2006 Conservatives based on the actions of Ms. Campbell. Also Mr. Harper and Mr. Mulroney although they do share many similarities are not the same person. Call me a cockeyed optimist but I believe the future of our country is very bright and will be very bright under PM Harper.

well, basically instability used to be the trademark of Italian governments until, say, early 90s. Then our election system changed (from a proportional system to a majoritarian one) and things began to work better. Lately the election system was changed again into something that would be hard to describe.... Consider it a proportional system with strong majoritarian traits....a very Italian thing....a creative electoral system....


Yeah, you're rubbing salt into the wound! I believe Italy is the only advanced industrialized democracy in the world where a huge conflict of interests (especially for what media are concerned) is still to be solved. It is called "the Italian anomaly".