Monday, April 04, 2005
Berlusconi Whacked. posted by Richard Seymour
Direland brings news of Berlusconi's hammering defeat in the local and regional elections in Italy. Of 13 regions at stake, Berlusconi's mob have lost all but two . One unfortunate aspect of this is that it is hard to detect just how big the vote for the radical Left was because the main socialist party, Rifondazione Comunista, joined with Romano Prodi's centre-left Olive Tree coalition to fight the elections. This was a move promoted by the right-drifing leader Fausto Bertinotti. One has to wonder if, should Berlusconi lose the General Election next year to a broad left coalition including the PRC, how they will be able to retain any independence from a government certain to sell out on even its most limited agenda. It is a simple matter of record that Prodi slashed social welfare just as viciously as Berlusconi.That said, this is a serious defeat for the war party in one of the most radicalised countries in Europe. Our own war government is unfortunately unlikely to face defeat by anyone to its left, but one can hope for its majority to be slashed, and in particular for it to be gutted of its most snivelling, spineless, nose-tanning MPs. Today's revelations that Labour councillors rigged local elections to the disadvantage of the antiwar Peoples Justice Party who would otherwise have won, should help with that.