ITALY: We didn't mean it, profess Prodi's 'traitors'

The Scotsman ^ | February 23, 2007 | PHIL STEWART AND VICTOR SIMPSON

[MadIvan]

THEY'VE been branded "traitors" and "bastards" and worse. But the two left- wing senators who brought down Italy's prime minister, Romano Prodi, on Wednesday night say they didn't mean to do it.

"Maybe if I knew my vote was so fundamental, I would have reflected a bit," said Fernando Rossi, a 60-year-old communist, sounding apologetic.

He and the other senator, a Trotskyite with the Communist Refoundation Party, tried their best yesterday to deflect blame. But with left-of-centre newspapers screaming headlines like: "They betrayed 19 million voters", it was a hard sell.

"First off, I didn't vote against it. I abstained," said a defensive Franco Turigliatto, who says he will quit the Senate. "Second, it wasn't me who was the determining factor."

Until last April's election, Italy's Left had been in the wilderness for five years while Italy's richest man, Silvio Berlusconi, a conservative media mogul, ran the country with a pro-US foreign policy that included Iraq peacekeeping.

Mr Prodi accelerated the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but angered senators like Mr Rossi and Mr Turigliatto by not ending Italy's participation in an Afghanistan peacekeeping mission.

They and other pacifists in the governing coalition wanted Mr Prodi to reverse Mr Berlusconi's authorisation of a US military base expansion in the city of Vicenza. They joined tens of thousands in a march in a protest held in Vicenza on Saturday.

The Senate vote in favour of Mr Prodi's foreign policy got 158 votes - two short of the 160 it needed.

"We're a country of madmen," concluded Massimo D'Alema, the foreign minister. "This is a shock. A real shock".

But it was déjà vu for Mr Prodi, whose nine-month government ending on Wednesday followed another stint as prime minister nine years ago. Then, as now, the communists turned on him.

Mr D'Alema, a former communist himself, said ultra-leftists were trouble for a centre-left government like Mr Prodi's that governed with a razor-thin one-seat majority in Senate. "What do you expect, if you put Trotskyists in parliament? This is the least that could happen."

Stefano Folli, a political analyst, said: "I believe Italy is today the only country in the West where nearly 10 per cent of the voters believe in an anti-American platform. This explains the aversion to foreign policy, which is an aversion to the alliance with the United States in its various forms."

Now Mr Prodi needs to scrape together a new coalition if he is to stay in power. Failure could pave the way for the return of Mr Berlusconi, a figure the left dreads because of his friendship with the US and the immense power he wields at the top of a media empire.

[MadIvan]

chuckle

If all this brings back Berlusconi, I'll be smiling for a week. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[fieldmarshaldj]

"He and the other senator, a Trotskyite with the Communist Refoundation Party"

A Trotskyite Senator in the 21st century ? Well, I guess that'd just make him a moderate Democrat in the U.S.

[MadIvan]

Indeed, at least politicians in Italy are honest about their labelling.

Regards, Ivan

[BillyBoy]

Yeah, the only difference is the Italians are at least honest enough that their Marxist nuts who are "anti-war" in every circumstance run as "Communists". Over here in the U.S., they call themselves " Independant Progressives"

I doubt Senator Bernie Sanders is deranged enough to vote "no confidence" in Harry Reid here, but you could say the "communists" took the Clinton/Gore regime out of power when enough far-left kooks voted for Ralph Nader. How unhinged do you have to be to vote Green because Al Gore is not "progressive" enough on the enviroment?"

I love it when liberals eat their own.

[MadIvan]

What is incredible is that the Left in Italy hates Berlusconi as much as the Left in America hates President Bush - in spite of this, they just self-destructed and may have let Berlusconi back in. This is utterly hilarious, given the context.

Regards, Ivan

[Earthdweller]

LOL! Really smart move. /s

[familyop]

"Indeed, at least politicians in Italy are honest about their labelling."

...not all of them. One of the parties comprising the Forzia Italia Party was openly Fascist.

[saveliberty]

"First off, I didn't vote against it. I abstained," said a defensive Franco Turigliatto, who says he will quit the Senate. "Second, it wasn't me who was the determining factor."

LOL Kerry has a bigger family that we knew.

[JerseyHighlander]

Worse yet, the Scotsman is printing this garbage:

Mr D'Alema, a former communist himself,

D'Alema was born to Communist parents, raised a Communist, was a Communist in his early political years, and as late as the Italian parliament's fight over first committing troops to Iraq, was still self labeling himself as a Communist in th Italian media. It's a canard to say otherwise.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Well, you know the old saying: there are lies, damn lies, and liberal newspaper articles.

[4woodenboats]

"Stefano Folli, a political analyst, said: "I believe Italy is today the only country in the West where nearly 10 per cent of the voters believe in an anti-American platform."

They obviously haven't been keeping up with our CNN/AP-Upside Down Polls that place Americans leading the pack with about a 70% anti American bias. Another shared phenomena is a significant, yet undetermined amount of those antis are also closet Troglodytes, who coincidentaly also inadvertantly eat the heads of their peers.

This is going to be a hilarious year!

[OldFriend]

The Italians are just so much fun!

[Miss Marple]

SILVO!! SILVO!! SILVO!!!

I would love it if Berlusconi gets back in. I especially like the idea of him getting back in before the President leaves office, so that he can visit here again.

I have a special fondness for Berlusconi, who (when he came for his first visit after September 11) thanked the young men who liberated his country during WWII. I have never forgotten that, because one of those young men was my father.

[MadIvan]

It's definitely possible; the Italian left seems bent on suicide. Berlusconi does need to get to grips with reforming the economy, but he was aces on foreign policy.

Regards, Ivan

[Texas Jack]

"Maybe if I knew my vote was so fundamental, I would have reflected a bit," said Fernando Rossi, a 60-year-old communist, sounding apologetic.

This kind of sounds like Hillary and the other rats. Let me see if I can paraphrase the situation. Hillary says that she was fooled by W, who has been charged with being the dumbest person to ever hold the office of President, concerning her vote on the war in Iraq.

And then she (they) say if you will reward me for my incompetence by making me President, I'll set things straight.

So Mr. Rossi had no idea what he was doing. Sounds like the perfect profile for a leftist. I do believe that they do not know what they are doing.

[Miss Didi]

Right, Ivan...but the Left hates Berlusconi because they hate his wealth. They hate his being a self-made millionaire, when they are all whining socialists demanding that the Mommy State take care of them from the cradle to the grave.

Which is all quite a laugh considering they adore his media empire and love watching his 3 private TV networks which brought them American TV in the 80's (Dynasty, Dallas, soaps, game shows, etc. ) Keeping in mind the only other choices are the 3 RAI state TV stations and the other private Telemontecarlo. And then he also gave them one of the most powerful teams, Milan, in the world of soccer.

I love Berlusconi; especially when he says he finds it unbelievable that Italy is the only country that still boasts having a Communist party.

[Cheburashka]

Marxist blockheads ping.

"What, you mean our actions have consequences?!?!?"

[MadIvan]

They're not big on cause and effect, are they? :)

Regards, Ivan

[toddlintown]

It's amazing to me that we can still use words like "Trotskyite" or "communist" when discussing European politics.

It really is "Old Europe."