Italy 2013: The official thread

[Keystone Phil]

There is a trend of having politicians with names of foreign countries or languages?

Santanchè? Spanish or Portuguese?

No, Alemanno is a local local in Alsace/Swiss/Germany. Called Alemannic in English.

Really? Interesting. I was going to say Santanchè still seemed Italian but figured it was the most obvious of the three names to possibly be not-Italian.

Well, no. Alemanno is an Italian word, but it means Alemannic in Italian.

Yes, of course. Like "Russo" also means "Russian."

[Keystone Phil]

Alemanno denied he'll run.
In the meanwhile Galan, former governor of Veneto and quite moderate, announced he'll run.

Btw, Santanchè is a complete joke. She was the candidate PM for The Right in 2008, then went back to PdL. She is only famous for her habit of openly insulting people, both on television and on the street.

Interesting about Galan. An Italian friend of mine who is awfully conservative (even by American standards) said he is likely supporting him.

Sounds like Santanchè is going to be a real treat!

[Peter the Lefty]

Wow.  Vendola facing possible jail time. 
[url][http://touch.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-73036432//url]

[Antonio the Sixth]

Santachè is the Italian Sarah Palin.

As for Berlusconi, that's awesome. We're really rid of him.

[Keystone Phil]

Wow.  Vendola facing possible jail time. 
[url][http://touch.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-73036432//url]

Ouch!

[Iannis]

Alemanno denied he'll run.
In the meanwhile Galan, former governor of Veneto and quite moderate, announced he'll run.

Btw, Santanchè is a complete joke. She was the candidate PM for The Right in 2008, then went back to PdL. She is only famous for her habit of openly insulting people, both on television and on the street.

Interesting about Galan. An Italian friend of mine who is awfully conservative (even by American standards) said he is likely supporting him.

Sounds like Santanchè is going to be a real treat!

No, Santanchè is really a laugh, she has no real support behind her and she's mostly a media-phenomenon. Galan is one of the few real neo-lberal.

[SPQR]

The accusations against Vendola,even though not new at all,probably killed any momentum he had.
Bersani vs Renzi,then!

Btw, a major topic at the moment is that of the rules for the center-left primaries.

Those behind Bersani (who are a majority in the internal committees) changed them drastically with respect to the ones used in the past (those used to elect Prodi,Veltroni and Bersani), so as to have as little turnout as possible, thus favouring Bersani.
It's actually one of the reasons I'll be voting for Renzi.

[Keystone Phil]

So you finally committed to a candidate?

I think I'm rooting for Renzi. The writing seems to be on the wall for the General (though never underestimate their ability to collapse) and Renzi seems tolerable. Plus, I'm a grassroots/anti machine guy.

Hope Gallan has more of a web presence soon. I can't find much information.

[Keystone Phil]

And just by a total coincidence, two days after stating that he won't be a candidate, Berlusconi is sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.

[SPQR]

And just by a total coincidence, two days after stating that he won't be a candidate, Berlusconi is sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.

And for 3 years he won't be able to hold any pubblic office.

[Keystone Phil]

And just by a total coincidence, two days after stating that he won't be a candidate, Berlusconi is sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.

And for 3 years he won't be able to hold any pubblic office.

Has he resigned yet? When is the prison term starting?

[SPQR]

And just by a total coincidence, two days after stating that he won't be a candidate, Berlusconi is sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.

And for 3 years he won't be able to hold any pubblic office.

Has he resigned yet? When is the prison term starting?

Resign? Are you kidding? LOL
Anyway there will be no jail before the appeal, and given he's pretty old,probably not even afterwards.

[Peter the Lefty]

The accusations against Vendola,even though not new at all,probably killed any momentum he had.

Wow.  So the accusations are actually credible?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Statute of limitation will probably run out before all appeals are exhausted, which means Berlusconi won't serve any time in jail. But at least we can definitively write him off Italy's political stage.

[SPQR]

The accusations against Vendola,even though not new at all,probably killed any momentum he had.

Wow.  So the accusations are actually credible?

Health care in Puglia is absolute chaos.
Vendola helped to improve it a lot after that Fitto (PdL,former governor) had destroyed it, but still, one can't rule out that he did something wrong in the meanwhile.

[Andrea]

Sicily regional elections

Turnout: 47.42%

2,280 polling stations reported out of 5,308

Crocetta (PD+UDC) 30.8%
Musumeci (PdL) 24.8%
Cancellieri (Grillo) 18.8%
Micciché (Fli, MPA, Big South) 14.9%
Marano (Di Pietro+Left) 6.2%

Lists
5 Stars (Grillo) 15.5%
PD 13.8%
PdL 12.3%
UDC 10.2%
MPA 9%
Movimento Politico (Crocetta) 6.8%
Big South 6.4%
Cantiere Popolare (Musumeci) 6.2%
Musomeci for President 5.5%
FLI 3.9%
Italy of Values 3.5%
SEL 3.2%
Centrist Alliance (Musumeci) 0.2%

various other lists not supporting big contenders taking 0-1.5%

[Kitteh]

Sicily regional elections

Turnout: 47.42%

2,280 polling stations reported out of 5,308

Crocetta (PD+UDC) 30.8%
Musumeci (PdL) 24.8%
Cancellieri (Grillo) 18.8%
Micciché (Fli, MPA, Big South) 14.9%
Marano (Di Pietro+Left) 6.2%

Lists
5 Stars (Grillo) 15.5%
PD 13.8%
PdL 12.3%
UDC 10.2%
MPA 9%
Movimento Politico (Crocetta) 6.8%
Big South 6.4%
Cantiere Popolare (Musumeci) 6.2%
Musomeci for President 5.5%
FLI 3.9%
Italy of Values 3.5%
SEL 3.2%
Centrist Alliance (Musumeci) 0.2%

various other lists not supporting big contenders taking 0-1.5%

Sicily is traditionally one of the most conservative areas in Italy, no?

[SPQR]

Sicily is definitely one of the most conservative areas in Italy.
I don't remember the center-left winning regionally ever,honestly.

The victory is due obviously to the break-up in the center-right,but anyway gone are the times when the center-right candidate would get >60% just because of his party.

[Keystone Phil]

Oh wow. I didn't even know there were regional elections going on. Looks like FLI and MpA played a big role.

[Andrea]

Crocetta isn't likely to get an overall majority in the regional chamber though.

[SPQR]

Oh wow. I didn't even know there were regional elections going on. Looks like FLI and MpA played a big role.

FLI doesn't count for anything. Micciché is just a former PdL member who is anything but a moderate. Since FLI could not support PdL's official candidate Musumeci, and since PD did not want them, they joined Micciché.

Just looking at the percentages, it's easy to see that FLI's 4% counted for very little.
Also, as it often happens with local elections in Southern Italy, a lot of those votes came from Micciché voters who were told (or had a personal interest) to support also the smaller lists, so as to get more people elected.
So it's a bit silly to look at the percentages of the small parties.

[SPQR]

Crocetta isn't likely to get an overall majority in the regional chamber though.

Last I heard, he was going to get 40 deputies out of 80.
It shouldn't be too hard to govern overall.

[SPQR]

Btw, Crocetta is a gay poet, and a former communist.
Also fought mafia as a mayor of Gela.

Talk about an interesting candidate...

[Keystone Phil]

Btw, Crocetta is a gay poet, and a former communist.
Also fought mafia as a mayor of Gela.

Talk about an interesting candidate...

The new Vendola.

And when I said the FLI played a role, I meant the candidate that ran under the FLI and MpA banner.

[MaxQue]

Btw, Crocetta is a gay poet, and a former communist.
Also fought mafia as a mayor of Gela.

Talk about an interesting candidate...

Again?
Why that kind of candidates manage to win right strongholds?