'Muslim women live in terror …' (updated)

After the killing in the northern Italian city of Brescia of a young Pakistani woman by her own family, Adnkronos International reports that in a letter to Italy’s Interior Minister Giuliano Amato, the female president of the Confederation of Moroccans in Italy, Souad Sbai, is urging to put violence against Muslim women on the agenda of the government-appointed advisory body on Islamic affairs (the “Consulta Islamica”):

"Muslim women live in terror, yes in terror! The Consulta’s next meeting must tackle the problem in Italy, starting with the case of Hina Saleem, killed by her father because she wanted to be an Italian," Sbai wrote in the letter.
In the letter, seen by Adnkronos International (AKI), Sbai, who has studied the problems of Muslim women in Italy, asked how many more women would die in the name of Islam.
"We have seen from the episode of the young Pakistani woman murdered in Brescia how religion can become a state within a state and Islamic law be inculcated in the minds of many Muslim parents who live in our country by self-styled, uneducated preachers (imams), " Sbai stated.
Hina’s father, Mohammad, apparently cut her throat last week in Sarezzo after she repeatedly refused an arranged marriage to a cousin in Pakistan. The 20-year-old woman was romantically involved with an Italian, had gone to live with him, worked in a pizzeria and wanted to become an actress.
"These imams are religious extremists who accord women no rights," Sbai stressed. For years, they have been operating from makeshift mosques in garages or Halal butchers’ shops, have fanned misogyny, have terrorised immigrant Muslim communities and have retarded their integration, she said.
"Minister, for how long much must we continue to turn a blind eye on a situation that harms our women, who are forced to endure this type of abuse? Must we wait for further violence, more segregration, and see more Muslim women being humiliated and even have their throats slit?" Sbai asked.
"Must Muslim women have to endure polygamy, even if this is prohibited by Italian law? Must they be slaves under the sexist or paternalist yoke of extremists? Those who arrive in Italy are immured in their homes and often subjugated by the ignorance in which they are kept," Sbia said.
She claimed Muslim women’s documents are being confiscated by their husbands or fathers when they get to Italy, which forces them to live clandestinely and prevents them from being able to bring domestic violence charges against male relatives. Sbai denounced the forced return of Muslim girls at 14 or 15 years of age to their countries of origin to become victims of arranged marriages.
"The objective is to prevent these girls from becoming Westerners, not just through gaining citizenship but above all through embracing Western societies’s shared values of liberty and democaracy. These girls have no country that protects them: they are immigrants in Italy and foreigners in their countries of origin," Sbai stressed.
Following the apparent ‘honour killing’ last week of Hina, 20, allegedly by her father, Muhammad, Amato has signalled that tougher rules may be needed for Italian citizenship, for which Muhammad – a legal resident in Italy since 1989 – had recent applied.
Amato said immigrants wanting Italian citizenship must demonstrate they uphold human rights and respect for women – not just swear loyalty to the Italian constitution as required by the government’s new citizenship bill due to be debated by the Italian parliament next month. Hina disappeared last Thursday and last Saturday was found buried beneath the family home in Sarezzo, facing Mecca with her throat cut. Muhammad has been arrested in connection with her murder and has reportedly confessed to killing his daughter.
Police investigating Hina’s killing are searching for her-brother-in-law and have also detained her uncle. They suspect Hina her father may not have acted alone in planning and carrying out her murder. The slaying has shocked Italy and has been condemned by Muslim community leaders.
Hina’s boyfriend, Giuseppe Tempini, a carpenter has reportedly tried to commit suicide since her death.

UPDATE: Sunday, August 20, 2006.  See also The Independent and ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome.

A secular saint?

There is a debate now going on in Italy: was Tiziano Terzani a secular saint, a Guru, or even “the lay Pope?” Terzani (see Wikipedia and The Guardian), before wearing a long white beard and robe and living in an Indian ashram, was a former war correspondent and an expert on China and Japan—he wrote for Der Spiegel, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica—who covered wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

 

Terzani’s last book, La Fine è Il Mio Inizio (The End is My Beginning), has become this summer’s bestseller in Italy. The title speaks for itself: imbued with oriental mysticism raised to the level of keys to life, and in spite of any institutionalised forms of religion, the book is about the harmony of opposites, communion with nature, and other issues of Indian philosophy and spirituality. Is it—as argued by its mostvehement detractors—“a confused mixture of Oriental philosophy, Marxism and Christianity?” Are Terzani’s Catholic opponents right when they accuse him of “leading people astray?” Be that as it may, but Terzani’s website has been indundated with admiring e-mails …

Fond of Gregorian chant? Good times are coming back again!

Are you Catholic and fond of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony? Good news at last! Something can help you stay in high spirits: good times are coming back again. But let’s try to be methodical.

Benedict XVI, who is highly competent in the area of sacred music, is also known as severely critical of what he considers the degradation of music following the Second Vatican Council. The Pope has written on a number of occasions that he wants to restore to the Catholic liturgy the great music that “from Gregorian chant passes through the music of the cathedrals and polyphony, the music of the Renaissance and the Baroque, to Bruckner and beyond.”

In a message to the participants at the congress of the Vatican Congregation for Worship, hold  on December 5 2005, he encouraged them “to reflect upon and evaluate the relationship between music and the liturgy, always keeping close watch over practice and experimentation.” In turn, in the same occasion, cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Worship, criticized the musical fashions found in many churches, which he characterized as “chaotic, excessively simplistic, and unsuitable for the liturgy.”
 
As Italian Vaticanist Sandro Magister reported, during that congress

  

[m]usicians and liturgists of the postconciliar “new direction” found themselves constrained to justify themselves before an audience mostly oriented toward reviving traditional liturgical music, and Gregorian chant in the first place.

One could gather this from the strong and confident applause that greeted the addresses delivered by Dom Philippe Dupont, abbot of Solesmes and a great cultivator of Gregorian chant, by Martin Baker, choirmaster of the cathedral of Westminster, and by Jean-Marie Bodo, from Cameroon, “where we sing Gregorian chant every Sunday at Mass, because it is the song of the Church.”

But one could gather this above all from the applause that punctuated and concluded the address by monsignor Valentino Miserachs Grau, president of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, the liturgical-musical “conservatory” of the Holy See, which has the task of training Church musicians from all over the world.

With concise and concentrated arguments, Miserachs argued forcefully on behalf of the revival of Gregorian chant, beginning with the cathedrals and monasteries, which ought to take the lead in this rebirth.

And he called upon the Church of Rome finally to act “with authority” in the area of liturgical music, not simply with documents and exhortations, but by establishing an office with competency in this regard, as it did for example with the pontifical commission dedicated to the Church’s cultural heritage.

“This is the opportune moment, and there is no time to waste,” Miserachs concluded, clearly referring to the reigning pope.

 

Ok, this happened six months ago. Where are the good news? Here:

 

the concert conducted in the Sistine Chapel, on Saturday, June 24, by maestro monsignor Domenico Bartolucci.
With this concert, Benedict XVI has symbolically restored the Sistine Chapel to its true maestro. Because the famous chapel is not only the sacred place decorated with the frescoes of Michelangelo, it also gives the name to the choir that for centuries has accompanied the pontifical liturgies.

Maestro Bartolucci was named the “perpetual” director, the director for life, of the Sistine Chapel by Pius XII in 1959. Under this and later popes, he was an outstanding interpreter of the liturgical music founded upon Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. But after a long period of opposition, in 1997 he was dismissed and replaced by a choirmaster thought to be more fitting for the “popular” music dear to John Paul II.
Bartolucci’s replacement was the finishing stroke of the almost complete elimination of Gregorian chant and polyphony as desired by the authors of the postconciliar liturgical reform.

At the time, the only significant figure in the Roman curia who came to Bartolucci’s defense was Ratzinger, for reasons that were both musical and liturgical, as he explained in essays and books.
His positions then were isolated. But with his election as pope, Ratzinger immediately indicated his intention to proceed, in the liturgical and musical field, with what he calls “the reform of the reform.”

[Read the rest]

The new Bank of Italy

In a speech at the presentation at Rome‘s city hall of Elena Polidori‘s book, Via Nazionale. Splendori e Miserie della Banca d’Italia, Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said that

 

“[t]he Bank of Italy has experienced its worst period, now with Mario Draghi it is recovering its prestige but it will not be as it used to be, it cannot be a sacred institution anymore, we need secularisation. Italy no longer needs a sacred institution, but a serious and reliable central bank that will efficiently carry out its institutional duties, led by a governor, not a saint.”

 

With regard to former Governor Antonio Fazio, and reminding that “Draghi’s predecessor talked a lot,” he added:

 

“Alan Greenspan once said to me: ‘Why do you speak so much? I only speak once a year before Congress.’" (Source: AGI-Italy On Line)

Why the Left has lost its way

A seminar was held in Rome last week (on May 31) to discuss the reasons why the Left has forgotten its own principles. The speakers at the seminar were Paul Berman, Christopher Hitchens, John Lloyd, Piero Fassino (general secretary of the Democrats of the Left), and Adriano Sofri (former leader of the far Left Lotta Continua).

 

Organized by the Italian daily newspaper Il Foglio, whose director Giuliano Ferrara—“the closest thing Italy has to a neoconservative,” as John Lloyd (Editor of the New Statesman and a writer for the Financial Times) puts it—introduced the seminar, the event was occasioned by the publication of Cambiare Regime: la sinistra e gli ultimi 45 dittatori (Regime Change: the left and the last 45 dictators), a book by Christian Rocca, the US correspondent of Il Foglio.

 

The account of the seminar given by a special correspondent for normblog—final comment included—is a good read for all those wishing to learn more about it.

Italy's post-election challenge

Should you read about Italy in the financial press, you might be excused for thinking that the days of la dolce vita are over: “zero growth, record deficits and staggering unemployment,” writes Newsweek International in its May 1, 2006 issue. This woeful record, after all, was the main issue raised by Romano Prodi in his campaign. Nevertheless, Berlusconi fell short of controlling the Camera dei Deputati (the lower house of Parliament) by getting only 25,000 votes out of 38 million less than his competitor. Which suggests that half of Italy concluded that life in Italy is still sweet.

 

How could it be possible? “Are Italians drinking too limoncello?” asks Barbie Nadeau in her piece. Not really, she (kindly) writes. As a matter of fact there is an important factor to be considered:

 

Italy’s long postwar history of doomsday predictions that didn’t come true. In 2001, when Berlusconi last came to power, the main fear was that he’d use his media holdings to boost his political advantage. As it turned out, the mogul’s TV and print publications mostly painted him as a scoundrel. In 1996, when Romano Prodi first beat Berlusconi, no outsiders thought the country could possibly manage the reforms required to join the euro zone. Before that, naysayers always found omens of apocalyptic proportions. In 1992, Italy recovered from its temporary suspension from the European monetary system when no one said it could. In the 1970s and ’80s, it was national terrorism and civil unrest that threatened disaster.

 

Well, if I can say it, this is exactly what I think with regard for the past. But what about the present and the future? What about “the long-awaited, much-needed (and painful) reforms?”

 

 

Italians sometimes surprise even themselves when new laws are imposed. Six years ago, who’d have thought they’d obey helmet regulations when riding their Vespas? Or stop smoking their MS cigarettes with their meals? But you won’t see a bare head on a moto in Milan these days, and the air in any Roman trattoria is as clean as it would be in San Francisco. If Italians can learn so quickly to do without those classic appurtenances of la bella figura, maybe they can be convinced of the need to impose some order on the country’s economic figures, too. But first they must believe such stiff medicine is indeed necessary.

 

That’s right. In fact, now the challenge will be how and when my fellow-countrymen will convince themselves that “such stiff medicine is indeed necessary.” But now we can count on the former communists of the Democrats of the Left party and, above all, on the Communist Refoundation party and the Party of the Italian Communists. Making no bones about it, doesn’t this essentially render the whole situation easy to manage? Are you skeptical by chance?  

Prodi Italy Berlusconi elections

To be young in Italy

Excerpts from Time’s special report on Italy, focused on The Fading Future Of Italy’s Young:

 

 

Growing up, Italian teenagers learn the tale of Giotto and the fly. As a young apprentice in 13th century Florence, the aspiring painter sketched a fly on the nose of a portrait his master-teacher Cimabue was finishing. So lifelike was the insect that when the elder painter returned to the studio, he repeatedly tried to swat it off the canvas. Realizing he’d been fooled by the bravura talent of his pupil, Cimabue told him: "You have surpassed your teacher." Thus encouraged by his master, Giotto went on to revolutionize Western painting, and posterity regards him as the man who launched the Italian Renaissance.

Fast-forward to Italy 2006, and the image of the precocious apprentice has been replaced by a humbler figure: the underemployed 30-something despondent about the present, let alone the future.

[…]

Developing the potential of a Giotto requires masters with the wisdom and magnanimity of Cimabue. Even if Italy’s under-40s were to push harder for responsible roles, Italy’s old guard — in virtually every field, from academia to entertainment — shows few signs of ceding space to them.

[…]

Frida Giannini, 33, has taken over as creative chief [at Gucci, the luxury-goods maker]. The Rome native says Italy must find new ways to do what it has always done best: brilliant design allied to fine workmanship. "You grow up in a place like Rome, every other meter there is a work of art, some kind of treasure. It’s not the same to see it in a postcard," she says. "It’s in our dna." But that native aesthetic sense needs an extra dose of ingenuity to add value in today’s competitive environment. "Quality must be wedded to creativity," Giannini says. "If you want to give luster to whatever you produce, you must focus your resources on the young. You have to always be in search of what’s new, what’s next."

[…]

Italy is now on course to become quite literally the oldest of countries. Beset by economic and social stagnation that makes it among the most ossified slices of Old Europe, it is stuck with a stubbornly low birth-rate that means Italians are not even replacing themselves. In a more fundamental way, the nation has not figured out how to make use of the energy and ingenuity of its young. Faced with bleak job prospects and a lack of young leaders to look to, Italians in their 20s and 30s risk falling into a nationwide generational rut. Many are afflicted with a pervading sense of hopelessness and malaise that contrasts with the youth-driven vigor boosting states like Sweden or Slovenia.

[…]

Though absent from the candidates’ slogans, Italy’s need to rejuvenate itself ought to be the nation’s No. 1 priority. Better educated and more connected with the outside world, young Italians are ready to step into full-fledged adulthood and reshape their country’s future. But far too few have had the chance.

Elections Updates (5)

I — Political analyst Renato Mannheimer, one of Italy’s top pollsters, on the second and last U.S.-style TV confrontation between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his rival Romano Prodi:  

How many votes did the Berlusconi-Prodi clash actually swing? The ban on publishing poll results means that a precise estimate cannot be made but in the opinion of various commentators, the debate’s impact was limited. In fact, it was lower than expected. Both contenders had two goals. First, they aimed to persuade potential abstainers – who make up most of the undecided voters – to go into the polling booths and vote for their coalition. Their second aim was to consolidate consensus acquired so far. In the event, both leaders seem to have achieved the second aim more successfully than the first.

[Read the rest]

II — AGI’s reports on the duel and the post-debate reactions:

 

(AGI) – Rome, 4 April – At the final whistle the Knight [Berlusconi] tried for a knock out uppercut: the abolition of ICI tax on the first home. No reply from the Professor [Prodi]. Time had run out. In the most recent TV duel between Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi that saw a share down by 10 points (4 million fewer from 16 to 12 million viewers compared to the first meeting on 14 March) but fevers were high: witness the effort made by the arbiter Bruno Vespa to bring calm down the exchange of under the belt blows: "a drunk"; "a useless idiot". The day after the big match was no different. For Massimo D’Alema the matter of the ICI tax "is a blunder, otherwise we stand before Vanna Marchi and Italy cannot trust in Vanna Marchi", who yesterday made a comeback in the newspapers. And again for D’Alema, the knight "is like Toto selling the Trevi Fountain", "he’s ready to sell the State in order to win the election". "But the voters won’t believe stories……….." claimed Romano Prodi on the remark on the ICI tax on the first home. "They’ve believed it once – he warned – this time they’ll know what to do". The Knight, despite the revolt on the part of the unions, keeps going: "You’ll realise that it’s something that really is nothing to worry about" and that it is absurd to cause alarm on where the money will come from in order to abolish the ICI tax, being an expenditure that goes "from 2.3 to 2.5 billion euros. It’s something that is completely sustainable. It’s terrible to say that the funds aren’t there. They are easily found. It’s like one point of a tax tranche. The unions will not be angry" and will recoup 30 pct of the increase in taxes via tax evasion control. For the Knight, "a Prodi government is to be feared because it wants to spread taxes. Anyone voting for the left chooses to become poor…". Abolishing the ICI tax "is plausible and righteous" said Finance Minister Tremonti, "it could be funded by fighting off tax cheating, and by selling state assets". ICI "makes 2 bln euro, hence only 0.3 pct of the overall revenue from taxes, not much for the state, but a lot for the people". Even Agriculture Minister Alemanno believes so: "modifying the ICI, focusing more on second and vacant homes is possible". According to deputy PM Fini, the criticisms againt the PM "are groundless".

 

 

(AGI) – Rome, April 4 – All round clash and tension for the second round of Prodi vs. Berlusconi. The face-to-face meeting moderated by Bruno Vespa touched on several issues such as tax, public accounts, safety, war in Iraq. The debate was not devoid of "rough" moments, accusations and interruptions. The issue of women too caused some high tension between the leaders. Prodi denounced a poor policy in this field, while the PM announced unexpectedly that if he won there might be a woman Vice PM. Regarding the war in Iraq, Berlusconi confirmed the Italian commitment even while he assured that the troops would soon be brought home; the Union?s leader, on the other hand, accused Berlusconi of spending the entire budget allotted to the Iraq operation in military aims as opposed to humanitarian ones. Silvio Berlusconi’s final coup on the abolition of the Ici (home tax) brought immediate reactions from the mayors. Rome’s mayor, Veltroni, said that "Berlusconi must now explain how he plans to compensate for the lesser entries and that in this way Rome may be forced to cut down even on essential services to citizens’. Florence’s Mayor and president of Anci, Domenici, thinks alike, declaring that he is "convinced that without that tax Municipalities cannot work". Turin’s mayor, Sergio Chiamparino, talked about "demagogic ideas" and protested thus: "in this way we shall force cities to increase other taxes". Cacciari and Cofferati (Venice and Bologna’s mayors respectively) attacked the premier saying that Berlusconi’s exploit was "a bad card to play". Adriana Poli Bortone (An), mayor of Lecce, declared herself in favour: "the tax may be abolished by recovering resources from tax evasions".

III — International reports on the duel and the post-debate reactions:

 

> Berlusconi promises to abolish council tax (The Guardian, April 4)

> Berlusconi accused of hitting new low after ‘dickheads’ jibe (The Guardian, April 5)

> Berlusconi’s ‘testicle’ insult overshadows poll debate (The Independent, April 5)

> Berlusconi’s tax pledge rebounds (Financial Times, April 4)

Prodi debate Berlusconi elections

Italian Elections 2006 (6)

[Updated  11:45 PM]

I — Perhaps Martin Kettle is right when he argues in The Guardian that

 

[i]t would not be hard to capture the worldview of the British political class in one of those celebrated Saul Steinberg New Yorker magazine covers that depict the world as seen from 9th Avenue in Manhattan. That’s because so many of the people who practise politics and government in this country – and certainly those who write about it – have such a limited and solipsistic view of the rest of the planet.

[…]

It is […] depressing that so few of our politicians and commentators address today’s European scene with any generosity of spirit or intellect. British attention to the French crisis offers little more than condescension. Chirac? A pompous scoundrel. Riots in the streets? That’s the French for you. Good news from Germany – real signs of an economic upturn, strong showings for the Merkel coalition in the regional elections – stir no imaginative response. Italy’s election has been little more than an opportunity to mock or denounce Berlusconi, however understandably.

 

As a matter of fact, in my surfing the net in search of newspaper articles, analysis, etc, related to the general election campaign, I didn’t happen to come across something very different from what Kettle was talking about. None of the major national daily US newspapers, however, has done better, IMHO. This is also why it was surprising for me to read in English, a couple of days ago, a “guest column” in which I could recognize my country, at last, and not a caricature of it. But what was most surprising to me was that the author and the newspaper were both Korean, respectively Pio Song and The Korea Herald!  

 

Here is, for instance, what he writes about the pessimistic comments on Italy’s economy:

 

At the end of 2005 two important and authoritative magazines published very crude articles about the state of the Italian economy. The Economist wrote an article entitled "Addio, Dolce Vita" (or "Farewell, Sweet Life"). The diagnosis sounded like a declaration of imminent death, and "very difficult" the prognosis to recover the situation. The obituary seems ready to be printed. Time Asia edition put on its cover an emblematic title "Italy vs. China" with in background the images of Michelangelo`s David sculpture and one Xian Chinese clay soldier. The reportage inside was a necrology of the Italian chair manufacturing district defeated by Chinese producers.

These pessimistic comments are not new. In the last few years many foreign and some Italian commentators expressed similar worries. The list of the problems Italy has to face is very long.

Also 30 years ago some European newspapers declared the Italian economy defunct. In 1974 the international press described Italy with dramatic tones. Frankfurter Zeitung: "Italy on the brink of abyss"; Die Welt: "Dance on the brink of abyss," "Five minutes before twelve"; Le Monde: "Italy on the brink of bankruptcy"; Le Figaro: "Autopsy of the Italian failure". At that time, after the oil shocks, there were deep concerns not only about Italian economy as a whole, but in particular regarding her fragile financial system.

 

Well, says Pio Song,

 

[i]n the 1970s, Italian political and social issues were strongly debated and argued. Today in my opinion the situation seems difficult, but not so desperate as it was depicted at that time or it has been described recently. Italy and Italians have experienced more difficult times than the actual moment. The agenda of the new government should be long and complex. Problems to face and solutions to implement are hugely unpopular but even more necessary. Now that monetary policy has been handed over to the European Central Bank, Italy can rely only on fiscal policy in tuning its economy by itself.

 

What do we infer from that?

 

Surely a sort of Rooseveltian New Deal is needed. Italian infrastructure system should be modernized and renovated. The ailing national air company Alitalia, railways, highways, schools and hospitals need a remodeling.

I was told that in Chinese ideograms the word crisis has two signs: one meaning danger and another one meaning opportunity. Italy`s economy is in danger as well as many other countries. Global competition is becoming more and more fierce with resources getting more and more scarce. Maybe Italy has remained unprepared to cope with those new challenges and has been left behind by other countries.

But Italy has also many opportunities and abilities. One example of those is the recovery operated by Fiat, the most important national car maker that owns also Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands. After losing market shares to other European competitors, ending an agreement with GM and downsizing its productive capacity, Fiat focused again on its core business and produced a new line up of cars. One of her models is now the best selling car in Europe.

It is not only in tourism, gastronomy, design and art, where Italy can excel. There are many Italian entrepreneurs and companies that are world leaders in small and niche markets. There is an humus of creative ideas that only need to be finalized in market products or services.

It does not matter who or which party will win the next elections, provided the new government is committed to address the real problems and capable to design a long term strategy to win the challenges for the next years.

[Read the rest]

  

I must say that I am amazed at the quality and profundity of that analysis. My compliments, Mr Song.

 

II — While the second and last U.S.-style TV confrontation between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his rival Romano Prodi is approaching (it will take place on Monday night), and just over a week before the vote, many undecided voters are becoming increasingly angry and increasingly disenchanted with the Union. As a matter of fact a row over the centre-left’s tax plans is dominating the campaign. Commentators are warning confusing messages by Prodi and other Union’s leaders may cost them dearly:

 

Prodi has been under pressure to clarify how he would fund a proposed 5 percentage point cut in labor costs — a pillar of his manifesto worth some 10 billion euros ($12 billion).

He has said 2.5 billion euros would come from a plan to raise taxes on income from bonds and stock market capital gains.

Prodi insists the change in the rate of taxation to 19-20 percent from 12.5 percent would only affect newly issued bonds, not those already held by investors.

But Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti says that means the policy would deliver no more than 200 million euros.

Prodi also plans to restore inheritance tax, abolished by the Berlusconi government, but said it would only affect a few hundred very rich people.

While he has not specified at what level the tax would be set, he and his allies have made a series of confusing remarks that have played into the center right’s hands, putting the center left on the defensive ahead of the April 9-10 ballot.

According to the latest surveys, Prodi has a lead of between 3.5 and 5 percentage points over Berlusconi, a gap which remained stable in the two months until a poll black-out came into force 15 days before the vote.

But commentators said on Friday the tax row was damaging the left and might threaten its expected victory.

"The leaders (of Prodi’s alliance) have scared voters with contradictory announcements," the Corriere della Sera daily wrote in a front-page editorial.

"Taxes risk becoming the last-minute trap for the athlete who has led the race all the way," it said.

Even left-leaning La Repubblica said Prodi’s bloc had been inconsistent in explaining its tax plans, warning it risked dissipating its capital of credibility with voters. Several newspapers said there was growing unease within the center left over Prodi’s focus on taxes. [Reuters]

 

Of course Berlusconi is playing his part to the end:

 

“For five years this government has never put its hand in the pockets of the Italians. In fact, we have reduced fiscal pressures and 80pct of those contributing pay less than they paid before. I am reading with concern what the left candidate is saying and that is that it is necessary to correct the retreat “in a radical fashion.” This means unequivocally that the left is planning to tax BOTs and CCTs, houses and inheritance of Italians. Italians have understood and studies of notaries and business consultants are filled with those who feel threatened by an eventual, although unlikely, left-wing government. The picture of the last week of the electoral campaign is becoming more and more clear: the 281 pages of the left’s programme announce an assault on the pockets of Italians that will strike for the most part the middle classes, small businesses, the vast majority of families. Many Italians have already understood. We are trying to make the rest understand in the days that remain before April 9.” [AGI]

 

 

As a result of the pressure from both Berlusconi and commentators. Prodi said his rivals were "political criminals" for claiming he would raise taxes on shopkeepers and the self-employed. Such a harsh language prompted indignant reactions from the centre-right. "Prodi has lost his nerve … he’s having a full-blown hysterical crisis," said Foreign Minister and The National Alliance (AN) leader Gianfranco Fini.

 

Even in the light of this new context Roberto Weber, of SWG (a polling company), believes that Italy "is not a country that makes up its mind at the last minute who to vote for. What counts more is what is created over a period of months, not some extraordinary coup at the last moment." But Corriere della Sera is not of the same opinion, as its Saturday’s warning shows: "Tax could become the snare in which the feet of the athlete who has led all the way the way risk becoming trapped." [The Independent]

Berlusconi Italy economy elections

MacKenna's campaign

Elections Updates (4)

 

It hasn’t anything to do with the cult movie MacKenna’s Gold, but it’s quite interesting all the same:

 

A Scottish journalist is standing in next month’s Italian general elections.
Ron MacKenna, The Herald’s restaurant critic, is hoping to be elected as an MP on a Christian Democrat ticket in the constituency of Europe.
It is one of several constituencies being created around the world to allow Italians living abroad to have someone represent them in parliament for the first time.
In the past, ex-patriate Italian passport holders have been eligible to vote in the country’s national elections, but have not been allowed to stand for election.
Mr MacKenna, 44, now also a trainee criminal lawyer, was born and brought up in Scotland, but holds dual British and Italian nationality. His mother is Italian and lives in Verona.
[Read the rest]

 

More news and updates:

> Economy is key vote issue for struggling Italians (Reuters)

                         

> Premier’s Accusation Prompts Chinese Outcry (Los Angeles Times)

 

> China disputes ‘boiled baby’ jibe (Cnn Europe)

 

> Italian coalition hit by fresh internal dispute (Financial Times)