Question about Italian politics

[DrunkDestroyer]

Well Morm, if everyone who ever read this thread got Italian citizenship, you've definitely scored yourself more than a couple votes against Berlusconi.

It sounds pretty bad, but tbh, up till now, I just found him hilarious. I understood that he used sex to sell things, and figured that behaviour like that might earn him a few votes, but cost him many more.

And again, this is extremely interesting. I clicked your reputation button after that one, but it just told me to share the love first. So, sorry about that 

[Tom Bombadil]

I completely agree with Morm, whom I gave reputation for his post, and I must admin DD is right, I find Berlusconi hilarious, or simply pathetic; in public he behaves like a clown, pretending to make people laugh on what he says, joking other state leader, and so on...Just to make some example he replied with "Jelaous?!" to a spanish journalist asking him whether resign or not after the first voices of sexual scandals; or when he met Angela Merkel in Venezia (disclaim: not sure if it was really there), jumping off behind a street lamp to scare her...

[Neopergoss]

Heard something in the news about Italy/Berlusconi recently, thought I'd post it here.

Italy Votes in Overwhelming Numbers to Block Nuclear Power Revival

In a referendum vote on Monday, 95 percent of Italians voted in favor of blocking a nuclear power revival in Italy. The vote comes less than a month after Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power over the next decade. Italians also voted against water privatization. James Walston, a professor at the American University of Rome, said the results of the referendums are a blow to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government.

The major difference between the referendums and the local election is, of course, that for the referendums, the whole of Italy was able to vote, and if these results are confirmed, it means that 90 percent of about 57 percent of the electorate, means that more than half of the Italian electorate are in some way against Berlusconi, either very strongly or on specific issues. And this is damning for him. This is a very serious problem for him.

[The_Mormegil]

Heard something in the news about Italy/Berlusconi recently, thought I'd post it here.

Italy Votes in Overwhelming Numbers to Block Nuclear Power Revival

In a referendum vote on Monday, 95 percent of Italians voted in favor of blocking a nuclear power revival in Italy. The vote comes less than a month after Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power over the next decade. Italians also voted against water privatization. James Walston, a professor at the American University of Rome, said the results of the referendums are a blow to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government.

The major difference between the referendums and the local election is, of course, that for the referendums, the whole of Italy was able to vote, and if these results are confirmed, it means that 90 percent of about 57 percent of the electorate, means that more than half of the Italian electorate are in some way against Berlusconi, either very strongly or on specific issues. And this is damning for him. This is a very serious problem for him.

Heh, the referendum, yes. A clear victory for us, although half of THEIR supporters are against nuclear energy too, while some of ours are pro-nuclear. It wasn't really a political referendum in my opinion, but it's still refreshing

Also, don't be fooled by 95% result: the 5% is the anomaly, as we require a quorum of 50% votants for the referendum to be accepted, so those who oppose it are likely to go for abstention.

[Bruciato]

Disclaimer: I am an American, and the large majority of my news about Italy comes from British sources -- the BBC News website, and The Economist. Please forgive my questions if they are ignorant.

Nothing to forgive, I always appreciate who tries to get informations about the world with some intelligence instead (or in addition) of reading a newspaper.

My question, for anyone who knows more about Italian politics than I do: How does Silvio Berlusconi stay in office?

Silvio Berlusconi just minds his own business and aim to a dictatorship, that's my opinion of course. But the laws he makes and the ones which he would love to make are clear enough. Since the 7th July 2011 the governement can shutdown any website they want without any judge to say a word. Just to say one of these controversial laws. Only Birmany, Iran and China got this kind of law, as far as I know.

Do most Italians like him? If they don't, are the other choices so bad that he looks good by comparison?

PdL (Berlusconi's party) at the latest elections got 18% of about 60% of voters, this means he really got just a 11%. So he represents just the 11% of italians, but thanks to the retarded laws he gets much more power.

Does his business holdings allow him to influence what the media says about him?

Yes, absolutely. In a catastrophic way, because italians are now down to a retarded state. But there are many italians who still can use their heads and go find the news on the internet instead of dieing in front of a television.

And the British media seem to think that he talks about Communists a lot. Does he?

Yes, he stereotyped any persons against him into a communist. So every italian who support Berlusconi just refer to anyone else as a communist. That's a bad and false word to define the opposition. But the opposition is retarded in the same way as Berlusconi is, because they just keep saying that everything wrong in Italy is Berlusconi's fault. So on the newspapers, on the televisions, everyone is talking about Berlusconi vs communists, which is really stupid.

MY OPINION ON ITALIAN POLITICS
Really, I sent a letter to the American government, asking to please attack us and bring some democracy. There's almost none here. Politicians keep stealing from us and destroying every region. I'm in Veneto (Venice's region) and we pay €70billions/year of taxes and we get services for (so the italian governement says -> means they pay less) about €50billions/year. This means that Veneto lacks of €20billions/year. Where these euros go? Mafia? Camorra? Politicians? Many independent movements are growing now, like the faithful to the Most Serene Republic of Venice (ended in 1797 thanks to Napoleone, Italy and freemasonry) which still is the most long republic ever (1100 years long). But many other independent movements are growing in Sicily, Sardinia, Naples and many others. Just like Catalunya, Scotland (which is going to become independent in 2014 I think with a referendum) and many others even in Europe.

Italy just failed as a state. We're almost in bankrupt and we're going to lose almost everything while, to make an exemple, Giuliano Amato (an italian politician) gets around €31.000/month just as pension. But a revolution is coming, in a few years. I just hope we make it like the Frenchmen in 1799 (was it 1799) and we cut off their heads.

Berlusconi is really bad, but none of the politicians in italy are better than him, they all suck to the breast of money and corruption. Trust me, we're going down very very fast.

Sorry for the anger, but I'm tired of this and sorry for my english. School in Italy sucks and I learned it from videogames, tv series and movies.

P.S: U.S.A. don't look too good either, you got 14.000 billions of debt and you too are almost in bankrupt thanks to all the wars around the globe. (debt was 6.000 billions in 2006 if I recall it right)

[Belthus]

P.S: U.S.A. don't look too good either, you got 14.000 billions of debt and you too are almost in bankrupt thanks to all the wars around the globe. (debt was 6.000 billions in 2006 if I recall it right)

US debt in itself is not a problem. Unlike Italy, the US controls its own money. It need never go bankrupt, though of course politicians may choose to default anyway, out of stupidity. If resources were stretched to the limit, we would have no unemployment. There are plenty of idle facilities and idle workers, so the real economy needs to be stimulated, not held back by budget balancing.

I would agree if you applied other remarks about Italy to the US - e.g., corruption and the lack of meaningful democracy.

[Bruciato]

P.S: U.S.A. don't look too good either, you got 14.000 billions of debt and you too are almost in bankrupt thanks to all the wars around the globe. (debt was 6.000 billions in 2006 if I recall it right)

US debt in itself is not a problem.

As far as I know, U.S. can't have a debt bigger than $14.294 billions (law restriction) and the 2nd August politicians must find a way to raise this limit and change the law. If they don't, U.S. will have to cut a lot of costs (usually against citizens). Bankrupt isn't any close, but "smoking" $8.000 billions in 5 years is really unbelievable.

Italy is crap, politically speaking, corruption and democracy are the worst situations here. That's for sure.

[Belthus]

As far as I know, U.S. can't have a debt bigger than $14.294 billions (law restriction) and the 2nd August politicians must find a way to raise this limit and change the law. If they don't, U.S. will have to cut a lot of costs (usually against citizens). Bankrupt isn't any close, but "smoking" $8.000 billions in 5 years is really unbelievable.

That's a self-imposed problem. "Finding a way" isn't difficult. Congress could repeal the debt limit at any time - not just raise it, but get rid of it completely. The only thing holding it up is that one party has decided to take the economy hostage. It's a political problem, not a financial problem. Investors are buying US Treasury bonds at negative real interest rates for the short-term and medium-term. That's not what markets do when they feel that a country has too much debt.

[Bruciato]

As far as I know, U.S. can't have a debt bigger than $14.294 billions (law restriction) and the 2nd August politicians must find a way to raise this limit and change the law. If they don't, U.S. will have to cut a lot of costs (usually against citizens). Bankrupt isn't any close, but "smoking" $8.000 billions in 5 years is really unbelievable.

That's a self-imposed problem. "Finding a way" isn't difficult. Congress could repeal the debt limit at any time - not just raise it, but get rid of it completely. The only thing holding it up is that one party has decided to take the economy hostage. It's a political problem, not a financial problem. Investors are buying US Treasury bonds at negative real interest rates for the short-term and medium-term. That's not what markets do when they feel that a country has too much debt.

Sorry I probably explained myself in a wrong way, I wasn't making any comparison or saying that U.S. are going into bankrupt, I just wanted to say that raising the debt from 6k billions to 14k billions in 5 years is insane. Of course they can raise the limit or do whatever they want, this doesn't change the insanity of the spending, that's all

[onpupil]

<is under the impression that generally just agencies/big corporations run politics & the rest are basically puppets.

[Bruciato]

<is under the impression that generally just agencies/big corporations run politics & the rest are basically puppets.

That's a sure thing

[YawnChainHow]

I hear this Berlusconi guy agreed to resign? How did this come about, and what does this signify for Italy?