YEP: leftist government just taxed Italians to death. Besides, Italians never fell in love with the left to begin with: when Berlusconi was sacked, he lost the Lower House for just 24.000 votes, but won the Senate for more than 200.000. Leftist government was pushed ahead by unelected senators.
certainly don’t think there’s a huge pro-American movement there....
Huh? Young folks are leftist like everywhere else, but where I live (the north) conservative parties (Berlusconi + Lega Nord) have more than 60% of electoral preferences.
They may be conservative, but are they pro-American? I haven't seen much of the latter.
Ahh...a polentone! My family are all terroni (Lazio/Molise). But my cousin married a guy from Lombardia...he likes to tick his anti-American countrymen off and wears a cowboy hat when he goes back. :)
I'll tell you this. There's not a great deal of love for America in my family there. My parents are always defending the U.S. to my cousins and aunts/uncles. And they are not university-type leftists.