{news} Fw: USGP-INT Italian elections in the news

[Justine McCabe]

Comments from 1 members of USGP International Committee
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mike-Frank G. Epitropoulos 
To: usgp-int at gp-us.org 
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 1:53 AM
Subject: Re: USGP-INT Italian elections in the news


I actually met with some Italian Greens and Bertinotti, who is president of the European Left Party, at that party's first congress in Athens last Novemeber.  It is clear that "Cavaliero" Berlusconi is playing Bush tactics with the elections though.  We should all be disturbed that the Right did so well though, given the  outlandish rhetoric of Berluscsoni in the final run up to the elections.

Mike-Frank G. Epitropoulos, PhD

USGP, IC (PA)

in Greece




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: Michael Canney <chicoverde at cox.net>
  Reply-To: usgp-int at gp-us.org
  To: usgp-int at gp-us.org
  Subject: Re: USGP-INT Italian elections in the news
  Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:27:50 -0400


  bahram wrote:

    I am writing this from Europe and as I watch the news coverage of the Italian election results I could see the flags of the Italian Green party waving in the celebrations; so they must be in the center-left coalition that won narrowly.

    bahram

     
  Yes, the Greens are part of Prodi's center-left Union coalition.

  This is from a Canadian BBC News Q&A page ( http://story.canadastandard.com/p.x/ct/9/id/6c0f9f32618ec4f0/cid/c08dd24cec417021/ )


  Q: Who are the main parties and players? 

  The centre-right House of Freedoms (Casa delle Liberta) is made up of a number of parties. Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia is the largest party, followed by the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale), led by Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini; the Northern League (Lega Nord) led by Umberto Bossi; and the Union of Christian Democrats and Centre Democrats (UDC), led by lower house Speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini. There are also a number of smaller parties in the coalition. 

  Relations between the various parties in the House of Freedoms have sometimes been fractious. A poor showing in regional elections last April prompted the UDC to pull its ministers out of the government in protest. There is little love lost between the National Alliance and the UDC - which both enjoy support in the poorer south - and the Northern League, which has consistently pushed for more powers to be devolved to Italy's richer northern regions. 

  The centre-left Union (L'Unione) coalition is led by Romano Prodi, who as well as being a former Italian prime minister was formerly president of the European Commission. Mr Prodi beat Mr Berlusconi in a general election in 1996, and the disparate group of left-wing parties that come under the Union's umbrella hope he can pull off the same trick this time. 

  Principal among those parties are the Left Democrats (Democratici di Sinistra), Italy's biggest centre-left party, led by Piero Fassino, with former prime minister Massimo D'Alema in the role of party chairman; the Daisy (La Margherita) party headed by former mayor of Rome Francesco Rutelli; and Communist Refoundation (Rifondazione Communista) led by Fausto Bertinotti. There are half-a-dozen other parties under the Union umbrella, including the Greens and the Social Democrats. 

  Mr Prodi is in the curious position of having no political party of his own, but a US-style "primary" held in October 2005 confirmed him as the number one choice, among those who voted, to lead the centre-left in the election. 

  Mr Berlusconi accuses him of being merely a "front-man" for a collection of quarrelsome left-wing groups. Some analysts suggest Mr Prodi remains vulnerable, as a leader with no substantial party of his own, to the same coalition party manoeuvering which forced him to resign after little more than two years in office following his 1996 election victory. 

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  Here is the webpage for the Italian Greens (in Italian): http://www.verdi.it/apps/news.php

  More information in English here:  http://www.answers.com/topic/federation-of-the-greens


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