Tony Blair looking towards his favourite mediterranean holiday destination this week would, no-doubt, feel hard-done-by. While the UK and international press had a field day when Blair’s bully boys security forced 82 year old Walter Wolfgang out of the Labour party conference last year, hardly an eyelid is batted at the moment as an Italian […]
So, another week passes and impasse supposedly reigns in the political sphere in Italy. Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled, in accordance with electoral procedure, on the official results of the Election. It came as no surprise to anyone (not even Berluska) that, after a week of examining contested ballot papers, the result of the election […]
The View from Bologna (Romano Prodi’s home town) has been quiet this week, in the wake of the Italian general elections. Quiet for a good reason – the official verdict is still out as to who has actually won the election. Last night, Prodi took to the stage in a packed Piazza Maggiore, here in […]
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, addressing a group of business leaders on Tuesday, gathered together all of his formidable marketing skills to find a slogan to gather voters to his cause: “I’ve too much respect for the intelligence of the Italians to believe that there could be many coglioni about who would vote against their own interests”[1].
“For three and a half decades, the world’s media trained its attention on the terrorist ‘war’ raging in Ireland’s north-east six counties. Behind a screen of gunsmoke and fire, beyond the macho men in the woolen masks toting their rifles and laying their bombs, stands another narrative, a hidden Ireland.” [Colours: Ireland – From Bombs […]
Professor Rocco Buttiglione, Italian parliamentarian (currently Minister for Culture in Berlusconi's outgoing government), hit the global headlines in October 2004 when his proposed candidature for the position of European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security was blocked after M.E.P's objected to his conservative, catholic views on homosexuality and abortion. In an interview with Three […]
Fabrizio Quattrocchi, who was murdered by his kidnappers in Iraq two years ago, has been awarded the medaglia d’oro al valor civile by Italy’s President Ciampi, on the suggestion of Interior Minister Pisanu. Posthumous medals are as much about creating potent symbols for the living, as paying respect to the dead. As such, it’s worth […]
Boris Johnson, writing in the Spectator, suggests that it would be a shame were Silvio Berlusconi to lose the next election. Focussing primarily on Berlusconi’s legendary gaffes, suggesting “they help to make him fallible and human, and to explain his popularity”, Johnson admits that five years of the Forza Italia government have “been a disappointment, […]
Luca Coscioni, at one point in his life, was known as an Economics professor and enthusiastic marathon runner. During the 1990s though, his life changed radically as he was diagnosed with Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (also known variously as Lou Gehrig’s disease or Motor Neurone Disease). The disease left him paralysed and unable to speak without […]
In events that received scant attention from the English language press, last week protests in Libya against those cartoons resulted in rioting, an attack on an Italian consulate, the death of up to 11 protesters (shot by police). The fallout in Italy led to the resignation of a high-profile minister in Berlusconi’s government. Enough column […]
