Berlusconi already has (plus he has a 'stay out of jail' card for the next few years). Apparently, he plans to step down after a couple of years and hand over to one of his coalition partners. That person is widely tipped to be Gianfranco Fini of the National Alliance, who seems to be playing a long political game. Another one to watch (at least in terms of kingmaker) is Umberto Bossi of the Northern League, which made significant gains. Although there is an obvious contradiction between Fini and Bossi (the former is a staunch Italian nationalist, the latter an advocate of greater autonomy for Northern Italy), it seems there could be an accomodation on the cards. Moreover, any meaningful opposition is likely to come from the 'right' as well, since the communists and socialists were wiped out last night. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

... but whatever happens Berlusconi will do very well out of it. ... but that's what politics is all about! Especially for Boniscerlu now that he can't be prosecuted for his previous, and most likely, ongoing corruption activities. After all, he has some friends to protect...

Moreover, any meaningful opposition is likely to come from the 'right' as well, since the communists and socialists were wiped out last night. .... and not before time, they've done nothing but damage since the war.

In the meantime, Berlusconi looks to appease the Northern League whose vote doubled. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/16/italy

He seems to have a number of policies that could upset the EU - although I won't lose any sleep! The "jobless foreigner camps" are not a new idea though. They already have them in France near the Channel ports. The Sangette Centre is probably the most famous.

Now that the dust is settling on this election and the papers are starting to run out of photos of 'hot Italian women politicians' to print (...the Times still managed 2 more today) the scale of the defeat of the Left, as Jack & Tony mentioned further up, has become clear. In a way, this result is earth-shattering as the left has been rejected by its formerly loyal working class supporters. So what are the main reasons for this? The failure of the previous left-leaning government? Internal disputes between the North and South of Italy? The looming financial crisis? Problems caused by immigration? or a combination of all of these things. Brown is looking increasingly out of step.

But it's only temporary though. The reason they have been trounced this time is because they were incompetent last time. However, ALL governments are incompetent and at some point in the future the wheels will come off the new one - in Berlusconi's case that will most likely be sooner rather than later. In the 80s it looked like the left were going to be beaten for all time, all over Europe. Mrs T had shown the way and the rest were following, but the seeds of destruction were embedded in Thatcherism. Bliar also set the timer running, but he had the wit to get out and leave Brown to carry the can for his lies and smoke and mirror politics. The biggest reason that ALL political systems fail is that they lie. On a really good day they merely avoid the truth and only speak of that which supports their positions and just ignore anything they don't like. 40% of the vote will get a government elected, but when only 70% (on a good day) vote that means they gain power with a mere 28% of the total electorate. As a consequence, coupled with incompetence and deceit, their demise is inevitable The 'left' will come again, maybe in 10 years time, and then the cycle of incompetence will continue - for as long as our so-called leaders are prepared to lie to us. Until the situation gets unbearable for the majority nothing will break this cycle, but it will still take someone very special to get the public voting in a different way. Gryphons need not apply.

Kilroy was here!

Really? I hope you gave him a nice cup of tea.

All apart from some of their wines (Orvieto and Amerone Valpollicello and Barolo best of all) and much of their cuisine, I've never much liked Italy or Italians, Sophia Loren apart, of course! They do, at times, or perhaps more accurately, did, have something of a way with automotive design and engineering, remembering such stylists as Pinin Farina, designers responsible for early Maserati, Alfas and Ferrari and that Etore Buggati was of course Italian. I have also totally distrusted as a race to do business with. When I recently read a book (perhaps the de facto authority on the Mafia and the history of the Mafia) I was not at all surprised to learn that Andreoti was a Mafia puppet. Italy is economically in shit state: the bloody place is a basket case. it fudged its numbers to join EMS and the Euro club. Berlesconi is a prototypical smiling villain: if he isn't in fact a Mafiaoso, then he ought to be. If Italy sinks into the sea or is totally engulfed in volcanic mud like Pompei I'd cheer. Sadly, it enjoys serious influence in the misbegotten monolith known as the EU. No wonder that realisation of an Ivory Towered concept is such an unmitigated disaster. Shame the Huns, Vandals and Goths didn't finish the job properly.

Now why don't you say what you really feel?

Oh! I didn't want to be rude, Mate! Glad it gave you a larf. :lol:

The most comprehensive story about Rome's new mayor and the continuing fall-out from the election was in today's Independent It will be interesting to see whether Alemanno goes through with his 16-point “Pact for Rome”. It will upset a lot of people in power in Europe if he does. Neo-fascist sweeps in as Rome's mayor AP By Peter Popham in Rome Tuesday, 29 April 2008 A former street-fighting neo-fascist won a crushing victory in Rome’s mayoral election last night, crowning the victory two weeks ago of Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right in the general election, and fuelling fears that Italy is now set for an unprecedented assault on immigrants. The Eternal City’s new mayor is Gianni Alemanno, the 50-year-old son of an army officer, who still wears the Celtic cross belonging to a rightist friend killed with a spanner blow to the skull during a demonstration. He has mellowed since his wild youth: as agriculture minister in Berlusconi’s last government, his passion for organic food would have done credit to a Green. But getting tough on immigration is a key promise. In his 16-point “Pact for Rome”, point number seven reads: “Immediately activate procedure for the expulsion of 20,000 nomads and immigrants who have broken the law in Rome.” Point eight follows: “Closure of illegal nomad camps, rigorous and effective checks on legal ones and their progressive elimination.” Mr Alemanno’s election, with a margin of nearly 7 per cent over the former centre-left mayor Francesco Rutelli, confirms that the xenophobic wave which swept the Northern League to historic highs in this month’s general election has now reached Rome. The signs were there from last November, when the murder of Giovanna Reggiani, a housewife from Rome, on a footpath from a railway station to her home, provoked the mayor Walter Veltroni to demand that Romando Prodi’s government pass a diktat mandating the expulsion of undesirable foreigners, including those from inside the EU, without the need for court action. The demand was followed by the demolition of migrant squatter camps across the capital. The “decree law” was rammed through - the most draconian reaction to immigration pressures yet seen in western Europe. Generous, humane Italy suddenly bared its teeth, and people elsewhere recalled that it was an Italian who invented fascism and filled the city streets with goose-stepping, Roman-saluting blackshirts. But like many Italian laws, last year’s “diktat” did not do the job it was designed for, and now Mr Alemanno moves into a new office close to where Il Duce harangued the crowds in Piazza Venezia, armed with a mandate to carry out what Mr Veltroni and Mr Prodi only threatened. Mr Alemanno’s victory marks the arrival in the Italian capital of the politics of paranoia that have already triumphed in much of the rest of the country. The biggest winner in the general election was the Northern League, which increased its share of the vote to 8 per cent. The party was founded by Umberto Bossi to fight for the rights of the over-taxed north of Italy in the battle with “Roma ladrona” (“thieving Rome”). After a farcical declaration of secession from the Italian state, the party was written off as a spent force. But since early last year, with the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU, the League has discovered that immigration paranoia is their winning card. A Northern League mayor, Massimo Bitonci, of Cittadella, in the Veneto region, passed an ordinance banning the poor, the homeless and the unemployed from living in the town. Others proposed banning illegal immigrants from getting married, or from being eligible for scholarships. Cittadella also become one of many League-dominated northern towns to implement all-night security patrols by League volunteers. And the appeal of such gestures was amply proved in the election. Star of the campaign for the League was Roberto Calderoli, already notorious for ripping off his shirt on live television to expose a T-shirt emblazoned with one of the Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohamed. After the election, Mr Calderoli was touted as Mr Berlusconi’s possible deputy prime minister, though the idea has since been canned. Italy has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, and economic growth is at a standstill; manufacturers and other businesses clamour for the admission of more immigrants to enable them to take on cheap labour. But the popular mood is set against it. Yesterday, the man likely to become Mr Berlusconi’s foreign minister, the former EU immigration commissioner Franco Frattini, added his voice to the swelling chorus. “We need a national law that establishes a minimum income below which foreigners cannot stay in our country for more than 90 days,” he said. “Whoever above that level stays. Whoever does not have the minimum income will be sent back to their country of origin.” Mr Alemanno said: “I will be the mayor of all Romans, including those who did not vote for me” - but not necessarily of those born far away. His first act as mayor, he said, would be to visit the widower of Mrs Reggiani. It seemed a decent gesture: more than any other one event, Mrs Reggiani’s death made Mr Alemanno’s victory possible. The key people on the Italian Right * Gianfranco Fini The man who brought the MSI, the heir to Mussolini's Fascist party, in from the cold and created the National Alliance. Tried to bury the Fascist record of anti-Semitic persecution by visiting Israel. In 1993 he ran for mayor of Rome against Francesco Rutelli, the man defeated by Mr Alemanno yesterday. A key pillar of Silvio Berlusconi's coalition. * Gianni Alemanno Rome's newly elected mayor likes rock-climbing, meditating and organic foods; he's a friend of Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement. As minister of agriculture in Mr Berlusconi's last government, he was praised by an opposition leader as "Berlusconi's best minister". His extremist past makes him a bogeyman of the Roman left. * Alessandra Mussolini The dictator's grand-daughter followed Mr Fini into the National Alliance following stints as an actress, singer and medical student . Frequently at war with other far-right leaders, she is famous for her unscripted outbursts on live television. Said to be a candidate for minister of equal opportunities under Mr Berlusconi. * Daniela Santanche The other glamorous face of Italy's far right declined to follow Mr Fini into Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party before the general election, instead becoming prime ministerial candidate for The Right, the unapologetically Fascist rump of the old MSI. Verbal punch-up with La Mussolini on live TV enlivened general election campaign.

Mr Alemanno’s victory marks the arrival in the Italian capital of the politics of paranoia Spoken like a true tree-hugger!

manufacturers and other businesses clamour for the admission of more immigrants to enable them to take on cheap labour. And there's the nub of it all. Pay proper wages and there isn't a problem. If the business can only survive on 'cheap labour' that costs everyone else their country then the business should be closed down.