Posted on 04/13/2008 7:58:09 PM PDT by blam
Italians vote as economic disaster looms
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 2:41am BST 14/04/2008
Voting began yesterday in Italy's general election but the winner will inherit a country on the brink of disaster.
A man in Sorrento was arrested after he announced 'politics makes me sick' and ate his ballot paper
According to the International Monetary Fund, Italy's economic growth will not rise above 0.3 per cent this year, and could be zero.
The country's growth is the slowest in Europe and Mario Draghi, the governor of the Bank of Italy, warned that "the crisis is not yet finished, and "it is not possible to see when it will end".
Inflation is at its highest level for 12 years, and petrol is costlier in Italy than anywhere else on the continent, although at 56p per litre on average it is still far less expensive than in Britain.
There has been a boom in theft, which has risen by 50 per cent in under 20 years, and prisons are one-third overpopulated, despite an "amnesty" two years ago in which 25,000 criminals were released.
Silvio Berlusconi, 71, voted at a polling station near the home of his mother, Rosa, who died earlier this year. Mr Berlusconi said during the campaign that his mother was "watching me from paradise".
As he left, he greeted three-year-old Dario Janik, who handed him a daisy. "You know that I have a little grandson like you," said the populist leader of the Right-wing People of Freedom party. "I was up with him in my arms all night."
Walter Veltroni, 51, the Left-winger who is Mr Berlusconi's main rival, joined the back of a queue at a polling station in Rome in order to vote.
A man in Sorrento was arrested after he announced "politics makes me sick" and ate his ballot paper.
Only one party in this year's election, the small Italy of Values group, is fielding candidates who do not have any previous convictions or who are not facing trials.
The polls remain open until 3pm today, with a result expected to be announced by tomorrow morning.
They arrested a man for eating his ballot?
there may be an unstoppable slide but I do get sick of the Telegragh predicting doom and gloom everywhere....why don’t they look at their own country?
Europe into the abyss? I just read that Germany is number one in exports in the world at 1.5 trillion.(China at 1.22 trillion).Don’t know where the US is in that statistic, but things ain’t to great here right now.
They may all use euros, but they are still seperate country’s.
I would like to try that. Or better yet, announce "politics makes me sick" and then pump a shotgun blast into a voting machine.
1) The garment and custom fabric weaver shops have been taken over by Chinese Nationals
who have replaced the the old world craftsman families and fired all the Native Italians.
2)A recent analysis of the River Po showed a shocking contamination of the water with Cocaine and Heroin.This was a continuous state.
3)Romanians have flooded the country, live in camps ,slums and on the streets.Documentaries show the fathers not only selling their daughters but profiting even greater from selling their boys as young as 4 or 5 years old.They also commit a disproportionate number of robbery, assault, murder and rape.
They specialize on the very old.
4) There is a large and vocal population of Palestinians in Italy.
6)The KLA trades Heroin from Afghanistan directly through the organized crime syndicates in Italy.
Nah. More socialism is the answer. Ask any Democrat.
And eating the ballot will make you feel better?
So how much longer till Italy backs away from the Euro? Not that things were any better with the Lira :)
Eating a ballot is illegal?
All because “free trade” created a monster, where there was once sovereign nation states.
Whatever is happening in Europe is also happening here. Our corrupt government has been promoting “free trade” open borders, no sovereignty for citizens over their own government, for years.
Twenty five years of globalization has created a huge liquidity bubble fueling high finance and asset prices instead of productivity investment.
Asset booms are unsustainable without accompanying income gains.
For the first time in 25 years we must de-leverage to sustainable levels. Projections are 50% or more decline in prices over a number of years.
Debtonation ! Inflate or die.
Funny how Ireland can be growing so rapidly and has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world and Italy is a basket case.I wonder if taxation might be part of the problem.
If it's Incest Panda Pron, the Italians will definitely be into it.
There is a lot more into their slide than just econimics. Rampant socialsm, capitulation to the mooslimes, and social and sexual depravity to name just three
Talking about Washington or Brussels ?
Is there a difference?
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