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How Berlusconi beat the ‘Italian Obama’
Spiked Online ^ | Dominic Standish

Posted on 04/16/2008 10:46:55 AM PDT by obamahorror

Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s new prime minister - again - after winning a General Election against Walter Veltroni, who modelled himself on the US Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. ... The results from the General Election on 13 and 14 April 2008 gave Berlusconi a majority in both the Lower and Upper (Senate) Houses of Parliament. Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party (PDL) won 272 seats in the Lower House compared with 211 for Veltroni’s Democratic Party (PD); at the time of writing, 12 seats are still to be assigned from foreign constituencies. In the Senate, the PDL won 141 seats while the PD won 116. These results mean Berlusconi holds a decisive majority in both Houses of Parliament - a rarity in Italian politics in the decades after the Second World War. Berlusconi will now enjoy a third term as prime minister, having previously held the position in 1994-1995 and in 2001-2006.

In an attempt to crush the challenge from Berlusconi, Veltroni adopted Barack Obama’s campaign slogan ‘Si puo fare!’ (‘Yes we can!’). Obama and Veltroni are friends, and Veltroni wrote the introduction for the Italian edition of Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope. Veltroni’s Democratic Party was formed last year by merging the two largest centre-left parties, and it explicitly and self-consciously adopted the same name as Obama’s party. Hollywood star George Clooney campaigned for Veltroni in the week before the election; he compared him to Obama, arguing that Veltroni ‘also appeals to the young, he speaks of hope and a clean environment, rare in Italian politics’. During the election campaign, Veltroni borrowed from the American electoral repertoire and went on an environmentally-friendly bus tour of Italian constituencies. In contrast, Berlusconi flew around Italy, from one election rally to another, in his private jet. The stage was set for a battle between the ageing representative of old Italian politics, business and alleged corruption, Berlusconi (who is 72 years old), and the youngish candidate modelled almost exactly on Obama, Veltroni.

Yet Veltroni’s attempt to replicate ‘Obama-mania’ failed to win over sufficient numbers of Italian voters (1). As a 1970s communist activist and a former mayor of Rome, 52-year-old Veltroni struggled to present himself as a fresh personality for Italian politics. ‘Obama is innovative, unifying and post-ideological’, said the Obama-wannabe Veltroni (2). However, as Guy Dinmore of the Financial Times astutely observed: ‘In his post-ideological pragmatism and emphasis on non-confrontational politics, some voters wonder what [Veltroni] really stands for, especially when it comes to dealing with an increasingly intrusive Catholic Church.’ For many observers, Veltroni’s adoption of Obama slogans looked like a cheap cover for the fact that he had run out of inspiring ideas for the future of Italy.

As I reported on spiked during the election campaign, Veltroni and his Democratic Party backed off from engaging with the issue of abortion when it became a prominent issue (3). In fact, when the last government fell, in January/February this year, Veltroni argued against holding an election before a new electoral law could be introduced, such was his uncertainty about the kind of programme and vision he might put forward. In the end, he opted to copy, to an almost embarrassing degree, the electioneering of Obama (4). Nevertheless, Veltroni’s seemingly modern campaign, based on personality rather than politics, impressed outside observers. The UK Independent said of his defeat: ‘The left can gain some cheer from the perfectly respectable showing of Walter Veltroni and his Democratic Party. Indeed, the speed and energy with which the former mayor of Rome has reversed the slide in the fortunes of the left has been very credible.’ (5)

This statement is strange, especially when one considers that, in the latest election, Italy’s left Socialist Party has vanished from parliament for the first time since 1892, along with the Communists, whose hammer and sickle has been a parliamentary feature since 1921. Moreover, Veltroni’s campaign simply did not impress enough Italian voters.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama

1 posted on 04/16/2008 10:46:55 AM PDT by obamahorror
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To: obamahorror

“si possiamo”


2 posted on 04/16/2008 10:48:29 AM PDT by kingattax (99 % of liberals give the rest a bad name)
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To: obamahorror

Quit calling him the Italian Obama. He's a Roman and he's white.
Besides, we all know that I am the only one that I have been waiting for.

THE TRUTH ABOUT BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY

3 posted on 04/16/2008 10:49:11 AM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: obamahorror
Hollywood star George Clooney campaigned for Veltroni in the week before the election; he compared him to Obama

Can't stand Clooney.

4 posted on 04/16/2008 10:57:52 AM PDT by what's up
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To: what's up

“Can’t stand Clooney.”

Both cLOONey and obambi are self absorbed elitst snobs.


5 posted on 04/16/2008 12:19:19 PM PDT by Larebil (My name is liberal backwards, since they backwards thinking)
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