Italy Votes... again...

Well, well, well… You all know that the elections in Italy will be held between April 13th and 14th. Two days as it is tradition in my country. Still don't know why we are the only country in the world where people have two days to vote… Probably you don’t know that in Italy the polls are hosted in schools and this means that kids miss one week school every time we have to vote for an election or a referendum. This year, if things go the way the opposition wants will mean that kids will have a couple of weeks off for the National and Local elections plus another week for the second run of local elections if none of the candidate mayors or president of province or region governor obtains at least 50%+1 vote after the first run, plus another week for the referendum that should abolish the election law with which we are going to vote. So, around 1.2 billion euro costs plus all the disruption to families, schools and so on.

Does it seem normal that a country has to create such havoc? It seems like it never passed through anyone’s mind the idea of voting during the week using the public servants working in the boroughs and perhaps using prefab polls or the borough themselves or some football stadium… Who gives a shit! But I cannot really understand the fact of voting in schools and pay people to be there on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday! People that will get free days at work and will get paid as well for going through the trouble of serving the country. Bullshit! Even the people working at the polls are normally sponsored by the political parties. I have never received a call from my borough asking me to go to the polls and serve the country… Normally the parties sponsor the people that need some cash or some time off…

Anyway, I wasn’t going to talk about this but about the current situation, party by party.

PD – Democratic Party. They will run alone, so if they lose it will be by them and whatever result they will get will be a success for such a brave political party. The call to Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to run alone has partially worked. Berlusconi new founded party, the PDL, will host Fini’s AN and Forza Italia. The PD will try to find a formula to have an allied, Di Pietro’s IDV, a small centrist party led by the judge symbol of Bribesville. Candidate PM: Walter Veltroni.

La Sinistra – It includes 4 leftist radical parties: PRC, PDCI, SD and Verdi. The First two are communist parties; the third one is a newly formed party that has been created by the exit of some leftist groups from the PD. The Verdi are the Green Party. They would have like to run with some sort of agreement with the PD but, as said above, the PD has refused any possible agreement even if with the current election system it would have increased the chances of winning the elections at the Senate. Candidate PM: Fausto Bertinotti, current Lower House Speaker.

PDL – This is the new party founded by Berlusconi, all of a sudden, that attracted so many criticism by his own allies. Amongst which Gianfranco Fini, leader of AN that now, all of a sudden, not only is in favour of the alliance but seems like he is the main sponsor and he doesn’t exclude to merge into the PDL and say goodbye to the party he founded a decade or so ago. Strange beasts Italian politicians are. Let’s add to this party the lady with a very cumbersome name, Alessandra Mussolini. She left Fini’s party when this declared that Fascism wasn’t something good and that Mussolini’s grandpa, Benito, was not the greatest Statesman Italy ever had (he declared this a few years before). She moved into a racist, xenophobic rightwing party and now she is back with Fini. Not only, now it’s entering the EPP, European Popular Party, which is far light years from Mussolini. Another chap that left Fini last year due to his Christian democrat approach is called Storace that created another Rightist party, La Destra. He will not be joining the PDL because the Northern League has put a veto on the participation of someone that still doesn’t recognize Israel rights and has not denied the damages of the racial laws during the Second World War that led to the deportation of many Italian Jews. But the nicest guests will be Lamberto Dini, one of the guys who made the incumbent government fall and Clemente Mastella, the main conspirator. Currently Mastella claims that he doesn’t know whether he will be with the PDL or with the White Rose, another party. Candidate PM: Berlusconi.

CDU – This is Mr. Casini’s Party. The only party not openly invited to the PDL because recognized as a pain in the ass. Even if Mr. Casini has a very weak will… He wanted to support the idea of a technical government to make a new election law and some more constitutional reforms before going back to vote but, all of a sudden, he supported Berlusconi idea and there were no more numbers to go ahead with a Grosse Koalition. To thank him for the support, Mr. Berlusconi, literally screwed him and asked him, by phone, whether he wanted to be part of the new Party: take it or leave it. At the beginning Casini, one of the biggest hypocrites of the Italian politics, was annoyed but now he is rethinking about it after he lost some very good elements from his party that will be creating a new Centrist Party, the White Rose. PM Candidate: I suppose, Casini.

The White Rose – TWR is a new political party that has some excellent politicians in it, some coherent people and some very good economists. If they were not Christian Democrats I could have even voted for them. Anyway, they might attract Mastella’s UDEUR and the other Christian Democrats of the Democrazia Cristiana, plus the odd politicians that have left the PD, the UDC and the PDL. Candidate PM: Pezzotta, former trade union leader.

Lega Nord – The Northern League will participate independently but with a coalition agreement with the PDL. They will participate only in the Northern Constituencies to avoid vote dispersion to the allies. However the Northern League is very much against the entrance of Mastella in the coalition and the Destra of Storace. The reason why they are against Mastella is because this became Justice Secretary after Castelli, a Norhern League member, and criticized the reforms the latter made.

There are other parties that are still not known whether they will join some coalition or not. The PR, Radical Party of Pannella and Bonino, Decidere, another Radical/Liberal party of former Radicla Party Leader Capezzone, that could join the PDL, the Socialists of Boselli (those in the left wing coalition, because the other socialists will be in the PDL with Berlusconi) and I think at least another 20 to 30 parties…

Now, this is just an overview of the political fragmentation but not all. The PDL should include another plethora of parties (PSI, PRI, LIBDEM, a few Liberal bushes, some neo-fascist parties and a few centrist ones) while the PD should run by itself accusing the PDL of what the PDL accused the incumbent party: too many parties.
So, my dear readers… You understand that this country has one inevitable destiny and while our politicians spend every effort in running election campaigns, other countries think of running the Countries towards the future. We are Italian and we should be kicked out of any possible Organization, from Eu to Nato to UN. We are just a bunch of tossers and crooks. Up everyone’s ass, I will not vote again… Once again! Get lost!