After all his fine words, the DOM is playing true to form. He now is threatening to bring down the government if the President of Italy doesn’t give him ‘la grazia’ – the Italian equivalent of a royal pardon. He has bleating about the 20 years of sacrifices he has made for his country and for what? Well, the what is precisely what we arent allowed to know. The private visits to Putin, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Tripoli. Its a fair guess that the sacrifices could well include deals on tv, gas, petroleum, etc etc all of which dont help Italy, but help the old goats media empire and other interests, augmenting his personal wealth by no small degree. 20 years of government designed only to increase his wealth and standing, 20 years of government designed to evade justice by passing laws which help him personally. And now he talks about sacrifice as he takes an entire country hostage because he’s run out of luck. So we now have a situation where there is a general scrabbling about trying to find a face saving solution or we have elections. His army of lackeys are threatening to resign on masse – one of the most antidemocratic self serving excercises that will have ever been countenanced in a ‘democracy’. La Gelmini – one of his most fervent supporters precisely because she is so incompetent and useless that without Berlo she would never be in parliament, let alone a minister – talks of the 10 million voters who voted for Berlo at the last election. As education secretary she should be able to do a bit of maths. The PDL got 7.3 million votes, less than the 5 stelle. – Thats 8% of the population – hardly a ringing mandate. In the name of this paltry sum, Berlo is desperate to 1) avoid losing his ‘Sir’ 2) hurry along elections to claim legitimate impediment as the ‘will of the people’ demands that he be in parliament and 3) is threatening the end of the world if the president doesnt give him what he wants. If it weren’t so surreal it would seem like an episode of the The Thick of It.
