Italiafile – for italophiles.
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Post seismic activity
Its 9 years ago today that an earthquake shattered Aquila. Reconstruction continues though the state sponsored reconstruction seems to have ground to a halt. Not one school has been rebuilt – all are housed in prefab structures. While private citizens – those with insurance or deep pockets have managed to rebuild, everyone else still lives…
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A wailing and gnashing of gums.
Don Silvio is not happy. He has been plotting complicated manouvres to keep his influence in parliament and put the mockers on the M5S, and it has come to nought. Last night it seems that all the carefully plotted alliances with the Lega of Salvini hit the fan. Silvio has been insisting on…
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20 days and counting
We’re coming up to three weeks since the election, and it’s all still a mess. THere have been approaches, rebuffs and silences, and we are still no wiser as to whether the election result will actually give us a government. Today is the day when the newly elected mp’s vote for the president of the…
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Some are more equal than others
Don Steptoe, from the lofty height of Arcore, pronounces that if the allies in the centre right coalition arent all equal, then all agreements are off. Now while Silvio was doing the rounds of his tv stations in the run up to the election it was quite apparent that he, as undoubted winner and the largest party, would…
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Exit stage left followed by a Berl..
Renzi has been ditched by the electorate and by his party. His retirement to be a ‘simple senator’ has lasted a weekend, and is already plotting his comeback. Convinced that his ignominious exit is purely down to the M5S he has started a complicated mission behind the scenes to make sure the Pd doesnt side…
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First impasse the post
Under the convoluted and hugely undemocratic rules the election of Italian deputies and senators has thrown up a whole bunch of usual suspects. First amongst these is Lurch Ghedini, the lawyer of Berlusconi and a senator who vaunts an absence rate of 99.27% from parliament. His complete apathy and disinterest in the process of…
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Portillo moments
Rehabilitated thanks to a copy of Bradshaw and a dubious choice of pastels, few people now remember the Portillo moment in the Blair landslide when he was gleefully taken down by a Dimbleby. For this who rail against the sanctimony of politicians, it remains a seminal point of the democratic system. Given the labyrinthine machinations…
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Erroneous tags
As the results continue to dribble in, Italy has woken up to a bit of a mess. The 5 star is the biggest party at 30%, the right the largest coalition at. 35%, so nobody is going anywhere. Before the politicos start the dissection, its worth pointing out a few facts that are conveniently obfuscated…
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The point of the moral compass
One of Berlusconi’s tv channels ran a story about the 5 Star movement ‘stealing money’ which all the press and tv channels have been running with for over a week. nobody has actually bothered to put it in context, mainly because all the press and tv dont want 5Star to win because they have…
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All the people all the time
Don Silvio is promising everything to everyone this election. Yesterday, not content with flat tax, free money for everyone, and no immigration he went back to his first manifesto from the 1990’s and promised a condono on illegal building as well as not having to have any permission to build a house in the first…