Of course I cannot vote but as a resident I'm still interested in the politics here.
I see that the Lega Nord beat the PDL (Berlusconi's party) in the Veneto region. This confuses me. I thought they were part of the same coalition. So why were they running against each other?
PDL won in Lazio and Piemonte. These two areas were the battleground regions and the race was very close. Berlusconi's approval ratings were dropping and there was all this infighting within the PDL. They must be happy and relieved they won.
I haven't heard much about Casini this election. Which party, if any, did he back?
Berlusconi appeared to be on the ropes but as usual he's like Teflon. After his term as PM is up he wants to be the President. He's going to be around forever it seems.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
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8 comments:
Here's the basics:
Lega Nord/Bossi usually are part of the coalition but can choose (often do so in local/regional elections) to be separate, which they did in this case.
In this election, you could vote for the list or individuals. Lega Nord won in Veneto, thus they will decide who will be the representative of that region. If they were in a coalition with PDL for this election, and PDL won, then PDL i.e. Berlusca would decide and potentially it wouldn't be a Lega person. (Lega Nord + Padania means they don't fool around).
Casini-- UDC which for me stands for Unknown Dude Campaigning. Horrible I know, but I really can't figure out that guy.
regional elections, in particular in regard to Padania,
Instead of posting news of who won, everyone's pointing fingers at who "lost" I can't figure it out. One thing about BerlusK being around forever appears to be the only certainty at the moment. And some of us are not very happy about that.
In Puglia a very interesting, cultured and open minded politician won, Nichi Vendola. Now the left are wishing they'd appointed him as leader of their coalition.
As far as Casini, a man who shrouds himself in the flag of family values but has two marriages (with a number of scattered kids) under his belt cannot win my respect.
Did I manage to confuse you even more?
Ciao bella
Grazie E. and E. this helps a lot.
I've heard great things about Vendola. The center left needs to do something.
True Silvio B. controls almost all of the broadcast media but it doesn't help that the electorate is not inspired by the alternative.
From where I live in the US it seems like Berlusconi is almost like a dictator and won't leave unless he wants to leave - no matter what happens.
He is worse than Teflon, he is like dirt on Teflon that never goes away.
About Berlusca controlling the broadcast media: it's interesting, because I read an interview with Pagnoncelli last week, who runs IPSOS, and has forgotten more about politics than most of us will ever learn.
He said that, perhaps counter intuitively, this control of the media isn't decisive. Looking at the past 16 years' worth of elections, whenever Berlusconi's media control has been highlighted and said to play a big part, the left has won. And vice versa, the right has often won when that kind of discourse has been more rare.
J. Doe - He really does have nine lives. Just when you think the latest scandal will take him out of politics, he survives.
oscar - very interesting. The PD is doing a lot of soul searching. Analysts are saying they should have done better given all the trouble Berlusconi is in right now.
Clearly their message (if they have one) is not resonating with voters. It's not enough to say Berulusoni is not good for Italy. Tell the voters why your party is.
Actually Lega and PDL were in the same coalition in every Region, in Veneto and Piedmont the candidate "Governor" was a Leghista, but that was decided before the elections. In regional elections you can vote for both the candidate and a party of the coalition, or even a party from the opposing coalition (the so called "voto disgiunto") so when you read that Lega Nord beat the PDL it means that party won more votes, not that they were against each other. Hope I did not confuse you even more!
enrico - no, you didn't. Your comment was helpful...grazie mille.
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