Opinion of Matteo Renzi

[Antonio the Sixth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Renzi

It's time we get one of these.

[RogueBeaver]

What you said in your sig: last, best hope. Mega-FF.

[windjammer]

What you said in your sig: last, best hope. Mega-FF.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

He's from a DC background, which means what it means, you know. On the other hand at this point it seems fairly clear that winning the next election properly is rather important.

[Dereich]

Absolutely a FF. Only the TNF types and Phil have a reason to vote HP

[Peter the Lefty]

Third Wayer=HP

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Third Wayer=HP

Nuh-uh. That's not his background at all...

(besides, does anyone call themselves 'Third Way' now? It has a very post cold war feel to it).

[Niemeyerite]

Lean FF

[Antonio the Sixth]

He's from a DC background, which means what it means, you know.

It means little to nothing in the modern Italian political landscape. D'Alema is a former PCI bigwig and he was one of the most unbearably useless moderate heroes, as well as a vile, scheming piece of sh*t. Veltroni is another former PCI guy and he's the closest thing Italy had to a Tony Blair. On the other hand, Rosy Bindi is formerly DC and yet she's pretty left-wing and has a good deal of personal integrity.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Anyway, despite all the reservations one may legitimately have, he is, within the current context, one of the few forces for good in a country whose politicians have been actively making worse for over two decade. If he is successful (which of course remains uncertain, but there are good reasons to bet on him), then he could be the first one to succeed in changing this course. Massive FF in that regard.

[H. Ross Peron]

FF

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It means little to nothing in the modern Italian political landscape.

I don't mean in terms of views or policies or anything like that. Thinking more in terms of attitudes towards power and its purposes. Maybe its an irrelevant concern and he's grown out of it, but he was sufficiently shaped by that whole political subculture to head into politics via what remained of that route by the mid 90s.

That's all.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It means little to nothing in the modern Italian political landscape.

I don't mean in terms of views or policies or anything like that. Thinking more in terms of attitudes towards power and its purposes.

I wouldn't think so, either. As I said in the previous post, D'Alema is in many ways very close the scheming Andreottian archetype.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

His actual policy positions seem to be pretty far from what I'd consider ideal center-left standards, but--yes, last good option and last best hope and all that.

[PJ]

He's an FF.

[greenforest32]

I read that he wants to abolish the Italian Senate. What's the chances of that happening? Would it have to be put to a referendum like what happened in Ireland recently where voters voted against abolition?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_constitutional_referendums,_2013#Abolition_of_the_Seanad

[Antonio the Sixth]

I read that he wants to abolish the Italian Senate. What's the chances of that happening? Would it have to be put to a referendum like what happened in Ireland recently where voters voted against abolition?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_constitutional_referendums,_2013#Abolition_of_the_Seanad

Theoretically, the chances should be high, since more or less all coalition parties support the reform and Berlusconi can't really afford to publicly trash it. But many things that are supposedly agreed upon in Italy end up never being done... Renzi needs to push forcefully for it and denounce any politician (including from his own party) who will stand against it. This is the only way anything can get done in this country.

Reforming the constitution requires a simple majority in both Houses. However, if the majority by which it is passed is less than two thirds, the opposition can call a referendum on it. The vote is simply up-or-down though, without any turnout quorum.