Berlusconi survives confidence vote

Last month we predicted the end of Silvio Berlusconi.

Consumed by scandals, a stagnant economy, as well as increasing defections within his own right-wing coalition, it really looked like the tycoon's days in office were numbered.

Wrong. Minutes ago the Italian PM survived a vote of confidence in both chambers. Literally, by the scruff of the neck, thanks to a few opposition MPs who stood their party up (literally going AWOL, imagine that in Westminster) and an unxpected extra handful of votes in favour.

Like my good old dad said, "You can never write Berlusconi off. He's like a cat with nine lives". Nine lives, as well as the fattest chequebook in Italy.

Allegations that several MPs, who had publicly announced they would vote against the government, were "cajoled" (or even "threatened") into realigning are gaining weight. This morning, opposition parties submitted to the courts "legal evidence" that a "trading operation" went on between Berlusconi's party and individual deputies.

In any other western democracy, the government would have some major explaining to do. In Italy it will just blow a raspberry.

[Photo : Italian politics in action this morning - from la Repubblica]

The last days of Berlusconi

Despite a massive majority, the Italian Prime Minister is days away from bowing out.

His third election victory in April 2008 was saluted as "historic": nobody in Italy's democratic history had ever won such a huge majority.

A series of factors suggested that Italy's messy political system was braced for stability at last.

A mangled opposition for starters. With the hard left wiped out of parliament for the first time since fascism and the remains of the centre-left worn out by more rows than a couple in the throws of divorce papers, an easy ride in parliament appeared well within Berlusconi's grasp.

Not to mention the media tycoon's notorious grip on the country's television. Lest we forget, 69.3 per cent of Italian voters openly admit telly is influential to the way they cast their ballot.

Add to the equation the recent European trend in favour of centre-right parties, and you can see why the pro-Berlusconi camp had never felt so buoyant.

"This is a historic victory, one that hands Silvio Berlusconi a clear majority and no time for hesitation", wrote some of his supporters two and a half years ago. "This time he's got the experience, his group is cohesive and the targets are clear. No more excuses now".

In the spring of 2008, Italy's most right-wing government since 1945 produced an ambitious programme that included lower taxes, reforming the justice system, reducing the public debt, a more dynamic cabinet and everybody in the country feeling generally wealthier and happier.

Yet in two and a half years, all the Italian government managed to knock together was a number of controversial immunity bills (which critics slammed as "tailor-made" to protect the scandal-ridden PM from prosecution) and a series of anti-immigration measures dictated by Berlusconi's openly xenophobic coalition partners the Northern League.

Otherwise, the Berlusconi ship started treading water pretty much from the off.

First, there was "his brand of bombastic politics", as aptly branded by Sarah Vine in the Times. A style more akin to an Emperor with no boundaries and no sense of decorum produced the first casualty when his wife Veronica Lario announced she wanted a divorce.

"I can no longer stop him from making himself look ridiculous in front of the world, I've reached the end of the line", she said.

Her words ("I cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors") opened a can of worms, with more reports following that the 74-year-old PM was at the core of a network of call girls paid to be sent to his residence (his own lawyer famously described prostitutes as "goods" and Berlusconi as "the end user").

In the meantime, the entire world was left with its mouth agape. Was all this actually taking place in a modern democracy?

But most baffling was Berlusconi's defence. "Better to love women than gays", "I'm loaded, that's why women love me" (school of "so Debbie what first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?") and "I love life and I love women" was all the billionaire could muster without grasping any sense of ridicule.

And while increasing questions were raised over a PM whose behaviour left him exposed to blackmail, Italy found itself grappling with a number of unresolved issues. From cuts to education and street riots, organised crime and uncollected rubbish, as well as rotting heritage in Pompeii and growing poverty, Italy under Berlusconi appears in a total state of chaos.

The final straw came last month in the guise of a 17-year-old aspiring model known as 'Ruby'.

When the girl - who first met the PM at one of his notorious "parties" - was arrested for theft in Milan, it emerged that Berlusconi pressurised police to free her. The PM admitted he helped Ruby, but lamely denied interfering with the justice system.

Last week's news that Berlusconi's loyal long-erm ally and House Speaker Gianfranco Fini took the unprecedented step to leave the government and take with him a number of ministers and MPs signalled the beginning of the end.

"Sometimes I think this is the government of pretending that all is well without taking into account society's problems", said a visibly fed-up Fini in a public speech. "There's a sort of moral decadence, consequence of the progressive loss of decorum from those same public figures who are supposed to set the example", added the right-wing leader, obviously aware that his words would trigger political earthquake.

Fini's supporters declared that they will vote against a crucial vote of confidence on December 14. They may have enough MPs to bring Berlusconi down for good.

The irony is that the end of the empire is not being caused by any particular government policy backfiring or, even less so, by a centre-left opposition still in tatters. Berlusconi's coalition is simply, literally, imploding.

What will happen next nobody knows. But, two weeks from now, the action of a few dozen MPs may end up in history books as the official end of Berlusconismo.

Also on the subject: Help this man (Part 2)

Redundancy Island

How a group of laid off workers took over an uninhabited island and began their protest.

When so-called "reality TV" programmes started mushrooming up one after the other, many commented on the fact that the only "real" thing about them was in the name.

And yet, as they quickly saturated television, their artificial, dumb and repetitive formula will probably be judged by history as the Noughties' worst cultural legacy.

Back in 2005, we wrote that a Temping Idol or Casual Employee Academy would have been a good antidote to the binge of televisual fakery that goes by the name of "reality".

Now, a dramatic story is actually underway and it's no fake.

A group of workers barricaded themselves on Asinara, a small island off the northern coast of Sardinia. For decades, and until 1997, the island was used as a maximum security prison, and its only inhabitants were prisoners and warders.

After being collectively laid off four months ago, on February 24, a group of workers from a chemical company called ENI landed at Asinara and set camp at the old prison.

This is when their L'isola dei Cassintegrati, "Redundancy Island", started. Though there are no celebrity and no television crews, the workers are hoping to direct collective focus towards their plight.

Their families help them set up a Facebook group which has already gained over 14,000 supporters. It reads:

"Redundancy Island is a 'real' reality, unfortunately, where no-one is famous but everyone is jobless. Hidden away on an island which is the symbol of what a once Great Sardinia which is now in the throes of a deep crisis, we are dwelling in cells which are no worse than the prison bars that the national government, the regional one and ENI presented us with.

There are no yachts, billionaires or showgirls on this island, just the crude reality of unaccountable politics and a state-controlled company – ENI – pursuing its business goals as they trample on hundreds of families. Not least, a group of brave workers fighting for their rights".

Since redundancy notices were served in November, the workers have had to make do with a single 800 Euro payout.

"It's embarrassing that we have to mimick Celebrity Island to remind people of what's going on in both Italy and Sardinia", said one of the protesters to Italian daily la Repubblica.

Italy, drugs and rock'n'roll

There's a country where the Prime Minister can organise orgies with prostitutes and showgirls, but a rock singer is banned from TV for saying he smoked crack!

Rejoice British readers, rejoice. There may be moments you think the country's not made full progress on social liberalism and that the ghost of Mary Whitehouse is still with us, especially in the guise of a Daily Mail piece or two.

That may be annoying, but take a quick look at Italy and you'll find moralism in its densest, most primeval form.

You may already know that the place has recently managed giant leaps backward on anything that requires a grain of social acceptance: women's rights, the morning after pill, basic gay rights, immigration, you name it. But the news I read this morning is just from another planet.

Now. You know festivals like Glastonbury, Reading or T in The Park? Right. Italy's equivalent is a crass annual event called Festival di Sanremo, broadcast live on national TV. Laid on as a 3-day competition where viewers can cast a vote, the show is an astonishingly naff, cheap and nasty affair: the most stereotypical Italian telly where female legs and cleavages abound and where even someone as tame as Michael Bolton would possibly be deemed a subversive satanist.

Two days ago, one of the aspiring contestants, a 37-year-old singer/TV celeb known by the name of "Morgan", admitted in an interview that he made use of crack cocaine to take the bite out of his depression.

In most countries this would be a run-of-the-mill comment. Imagine if access to TV shows, recording studios or festivals was only granted to those who've never used "substances". Your DVD and music collections would shrink by 95% in an instant.

In Italy, however, a comment like Morgan's is enough to grant you -literally- public guillotine.

The singer was immediately banned from the Festival and MPs loyal to country's right-wing government, normally busy churning out industrial levels of anti-immigrant white papers, began a race for who could sound the most repulsed and outraged of them all.

The Director General of the State TV Channel broadcasting the Festival called the singer's words "delirious". Italy's consumer group Codacons have tabled a legal petition as the singer's words "may contain grounds for prosecution".

The most popular political talkshow on state TV dedicated an entire programme to the affair, called "A step away from precipice".

Benito Mussolini's granddaughter, right-wing MP and former topless actress Alessandra, called for "compulsory drug tests" for all singers appearing on TV, a measure that if seriously applied would only allow children's choirs to be broadcast.

Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni (rough equivalent of Britain's Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families) accused the singer of setting a bad example. "You're a bad teacher. How can you not clock the dramatic impact you're having on thousands of kids?", she told him live on the radio, as she accused him of "glorifying crack".

Another Cabinet member, ultra christian borderline Bible-belter Carlo Giovanardi, expressed "shock". "I hope Morgan doesn't turn into an idol now. What he's got to do now is get out of the drug tunnel as soon as possible".

Maurizio Gasparri, Parliamentary Leader in the Senate for Berlusconi's party said that "In no way should the Festival organisers take back someone who can send such a wrong message on drugs".

I guess that's Italy in a snapshot. A country where a "pro-family values" Prime Minister is robustly defended even when he's pictured organising adulterous orgies with 18-year-olds, showgirls and "escorts", but where a rock singer is publicly torn to pieces and banned from TV for saying that he used to smoke crack cocaine.

Shooting at immigrants: the case of Italy

Last week's riots highlighted the explosive combination of modern slavery, organised crime and racism.

The old saying that history tends to repeat itself is looking particularly true these days. Last week the Southern Italian region of Calabria ('the toe of the boot') became the theatre of a depressing anti-immigrant witchhunt eerily reminiscent of last century's Ku Klux Klan violence in the US.

First off, the background. Like in most of Europe, fruit-picking is carried out by immigrants, except that in the South of Italy, those are largely underpaid and illegal - under the ruthless watch of the local mafia (n'drangheta), one of the most powerful groups of organised crime in the country.

Reports suggest that up to twenty thousand illegal immigrants in the region are paid £20 for a 12 or 14-hour working day minus a £5 'fee' handed to their gangmasters for transport and "protection".

They live in appalling conditions, amassed in rat-infested warehouses with no light and poor sanitation and with nothing to do but work and sleep - effectively becoming profit fodder for the n'drangheta. Every morning they are rounded up together, packed into rusty trucks and driven to orange or olive groves.

Last month, a report by Italian daily la Repubblica highlighted a ticking bomb, comparing the migrants' living conditions to concentration camps. "About seven hundred of them live jam-packed into a derelict paper mill", wrote reporter Carlo Ciavoni. In the article, volunteers from Doctors without Borders described an alarming high rate of respiratory illnesses amongst the migrants, "mostly due to fumes coming from the fires they start in the warehouse to cook and keep warm ".

Calabria is also the poorest and least developed Italian region. The grip of organised crime is visible at all levels. Many councils in the area were long ago "dissolved" on suspicion of mafia infiltration and provisionally handed to a commissioner.

The levels of unemployment are staggering: 28.3 per cent with peaks of 65 per cent amongs those under-25. Per capita income is 50 per cent the corresponding value in the Centre-North of the country.

It is against this background that one of the ugliest pages of European history was written last week. On Tuesday a legal immigrant from Togo was wounded in a random pellet-gun attack which was reportedly carried out for fun by youths associated with the local mafia clans.

This became the spark for the immigrants' frustration. Obviously letting off steam for their subhuman exploitation, hundreds took to the streets of a town called Rosarno. According to the BBC, "the protesters clashed with police in riot gear [...]. Cars were burned and shop windows smashed. Many shouted 'We are not animals' and carried signs saying 'Italians here are racist'".

It's at this point that Ku Klux Klan-style lynching took over. In succession, immigrants were runover by cars (and in one failed attempt, a bulldozer), more locals began shooting at any non-white person they could spot (injuring several) and, in many cases, gangs of youths beat up migrant workers with iron bars. Amongst shouts of "negroes out", about thirty immigrants ended up in hospital.

Things turned even uglier when volunteers who were spotted taking meals and warm clothes to the migrants became the target of a spontaneous local residents' demonstration. A crew from national television RAI was pelted with stones and, according to peacereporter, journalists were threatened with phrases ranging from "don't you dare take photos" to "mind your own fuckin business".

In the end, three hundred policemen were called into the area to save the immigrants from being lynched. Most migrants have now been evacuated from the area and scattered around asylum centres around Italy, while encampments have been bulldozed by the authorities.

In the midst of all this mayhem, the target chosen by Home Secretary Roberto Maroni, from the far-right Northern League, was clear: "In all these years illegal immigration has been tolerated without doing anything effective, an immigration that on the one hand has fed crime and on the other has led to situations of extreme squalor such as that at Rosarno". "All the clandestine ones will be expelled. Someone could have died there", he added.

Italy begins crackdown on freedom of speech

They say that agents' individual actions don't matter against power structures, but look in succession at what the assault on Berlusconi has done.

Millions worldwide have cheered the individual action of Massimo Tartaglia, the man who last Sunday whacked Berlusconi in the teeth. A divisive, dodgy, inflammatory right-wing Prime Minister got what he deserved, many commented online.

However, two days later, it's important to make a cool-headed assessment as to what the blow landed on Berlusconi's gob really means in the short to medium terms.

Until Sunday, Berlusconi's coalition were showing their biggest cracks since their landslide election victory in April 2008. His hacking at the Italian constitution caused a series of unexpected rifts within his own coalition. By last week, one of his most senior and influential allies, Gianfranco Fini, was all but considered no longer part of Berlusconi's coalition.

Most significantly, on Friday, Mr Casini, a former centrist partner of Berlusconi's government, called for the formation of a broad 'Republican front' to finally defeat the billionaire Prime Minister.

Also, a number of recent mass demonstrations added to the voices of discontent over Berlusconi's social and economic management of the crisis. In the meantime, galvanised by all of the above, the battered Italian centre-left managed a few weeks without jumping at each other's throats on important matters such as which colour the party leader's tie should be.

And if you also take into account the spectacular sexual scandals that marred the Prime Minister throughout the summer, for the first time in years Silvio Berlusconi looked all but rock steady.

By Sunday evening, however, everything had changed.

They say that agents' individual actions don't matter when seen against power structures but look in succession at what Massimo Tartaglia's smack has done.

Practically every single reluctant ally rejoined the ranks and stood in line at the hospital to bow down before the martyr. The same with opposition MPs. Anxious to make it clear that they don't condone any violence, they're all sitting at Berlusconi's bedside mumbling their concerns.

Their hope, presumably, is to escape the fire of accusations directed at opposition politicians and journalists. "They have been remote-controlling the violence", wrote Il Giornale, a right-wing daily owned by Berlusconi's family. The same concept is now the staple at the table of every single government minister. "The opposition turned Berlusconi into an enemy to tear down at all costs", was the united voice from the government's ranks.

Which is the background against which Berlusconi's own Freedom Party announced yesterday they're beginning legal proceedings for "incitement to crime" against the Prime Minister's most outspoken critic, opposition MP Antonio Di Pietro.

Most importantly, however, Home Secretary Roberto Maroni from the far-right Northern League announced this morning that the government is about to table emergency measures to ban all Italian websites and online groups that have been openly cheering Sunday's incident.

"We're looking at the technicalities", Mr Maroni said "in order to take down all websites that are echoing what is tantamount to incitement to crime".

On similar lines, this morning Italy's biggest daily Corriere della Sera, sported an editorial called 'The dark side of the web', blasting "online hatred" and calling for the prosecution of those guilty of "incitement to hatred" and "glorifying crime".

In short, two broken teeth and a looming crackdown on freedom of speech. This is what Tartaglia's action has achieved.

Aggression on Berlusconi: developments

Massimo Tartaglia, the man who today hit the Italian PM in the face has no political affiliation.

UPDATE: Video of the aggression.

According to Italian press agency Ansa, the man (photo) who whacked Berlusconi in the face at a Milan rally is not a member of any political organisation.

Initial reactions from Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition partners suggested that the Opposition was to blame for their alleged "hatred and criminalisation" of the Italian tycoon and Prime Minister.

However, it turns out Massimo Tartaglia, the 42-year-old aggressor, has no political affiliation, no criminal record and has a history of mental problems as he's been under psychiatric treatment for over ten years.

It therefore appears like an isolated act of folly as opposed to a politically motivated aggression.

Many in Italy fear that today's incident may pave the way for the introduction of a series of emergency measures, including an overhaul of the post WWII Italian constitution, something the Italian Prime Minister and his right-wing coalition have been persistently calling for in the last few weeks.

Antonio Di Pietro, one of Italy's most outspoken opposition leaders, said: "I never condone violence, ever. Yet Berlusconi, with his behaviour and couldn't-care-less-like attitude, is effectively instigating violence". The MP added: "I maintain we all deplore and condemn the aggression on the Prime Minister. To say the least! However", Mr Di Pietro continued, "this cannot and should not excuse nor justify the spiralling exasperation that this administration's lack of social and economic policies is causing amongst thousands of workers and families [in Italy]".

Mr Di Pietro's accusations were thrown back at him by members of Mr Berlusconi's coalition as evidence that the opposition are to blame for the escalating tension in the country.

According to Father Federico Lombardi, a spokesperson for the Vatican, "this goes to show the real risk that verbal violence can be followed by factual violence".

Il Giornale, owned by Silvio Berlusconi's family and Italy's main pro-government daily, reports the reaction of some of Berlusconi's supporters in the crowd. "It's all Di Pietro's fault", some shouted, calling for the "arrest" of the Opposition's most outspoken MP.

More on the aggression on Berlusconi here.
Read more about Italy's right-wing policies here, here and here.

BREAKING NEWS: Berlusconi hit in the face

More evidence of the extremely tense political atmosphere that is currently reigning supreme in Italy.

The controversial right-wing Italian Prime Minister was hit in the face and knocked to the ground while signing autographs in the crowd. The incident took place in the wake of a public speech in Milan.

A 42-year-old man called Massimo Tartaglia (see photo below) was immediately apprehended and taken to a police station.

First reports suggest Silvio Berlusconi lost a copious amount of blood and suffered nasal septal fracture as well as at least two broken teeth. He's going to be kept under observation for at least 24 hours.

Witnesses report the afternoon had been tense, with Berlusconi further inflaming the situation as he repeatedly shouted "vergognatevi" (rough translation "be ashamed of yourselves") at a group of protesters in the crowd .

Pictures from www.repubblica.it

Macho Italiano

Fresh from his sex-scandals, Silvio Berlusconi insults a middle-aged female MP live on TV.

Enough has been written about the unexpected display of mettle from Italy's Constitutional Court as they overruled Emperor Berlusconi's most controversial immunity law.

If you feel unfamiliar with the subject, we're on about the first thing that the pervy multi-millionaire Italian Prime Minister did the moment he was voted in. In essence, an immunity law that exempts the country's top four office holders from prosecution.

This has now been declared unconstitutional as it breaches the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

Nonetheless, not used to being contradicted, Berlusconi has reacted by literally lashing out like a rabid dog who had his bone snatched from right under his nose.

Not content with his reputation as a slimy Lothario suffering from incurable sex-addiction (his own lawyer defined him as "the end user" of a prostitution racket), and borderline tourettes (he called Barack Obama "tanned"), today the 73-year-old right-winger grabbed a few headlines with some spectacularly misogynist comments.

Attacking Rosy Bindi, a 60-year-old female MP who was guilty of disagreeing with him on TV, Berlusconi slammed: "I've always thought you are more beautiful than intelligent". He was later joined by one of his coalition's most far-right (and senior) ministers, Roberto Castelli, who called Ms Bindi "a petulant spinster" live on state television.

Pure Macho Italiano-style, a mindset where the woman is either:
a) a tarty barelegged ornament in a mini-dress whose only duty is to spice up the night or cook;
or:
b) an old hag - in the event she dares to contradict the patriarch.

Which makes me terribly ashamed of carrying Italian blood in my body.

Rampant homophobia in Berlusconi's Italy

From beatings, stabbings and arson attacks to bombs going off in Rome's "gay village". Life for sexual minorities in Italy is not looking safe.

More news about Italy's rapid journey to a 21st century version of European fascism. In the past we've already documented the alarming rise in anti-immigrant attacks, the legalisation of vigilante groups (including the adoption of dubious symbolism) and the implementation at local and national level of punitive measures against ethnic minorities (i.e. the so-called 'kebab ban').

Italy's rampant homophobia is another reason for concern. Since some seriously ugly rhetoric was the soundtrack to the right's electoral triumph in 2008, anti-LGB attacks have been piling up. August 2009 was the worst month on record across the whole country, with a worrying daily escalation of street aggressions (including stabbings and attempted murder). Last week, a popular gay nightclub in Rome was the target of an arson attack, while last night two bombs were thrown in the midst of what is known as the capital's 'Gay Village'.

As passers-by chased after the culprits, they soon had to relent as one of the bombers produced a gun and managed to run off. Opposition MP Pier Luigi Bersani spoke of a "civil emergency" and called for the government to pass urgent measures to tackle homophobic crime.

****

On to more developments, in the past few days billionaire Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced that he's sueing a number of newspapers, Italian and foreign for writing about his sexual scandals and asking questions he slammed as libellous. As he's seeking damages of up to €1m, to many this looks like an attempt to gag the press.

Two days ago, a newspaper editor mildly critical of the PM's recent sexual scandals was publicly smeared with a front-page story (later exposed as unfounded) in one of Berlusconi's own national dailies as a closeted homosexual and convicted stalker. Some observers called it a latter day (and more effective) version of force-feeding castor oil to political opponents - a strategy the old brown shirts were notoriously very fond of.

Kebab ban in Italian town!

Anyone still of the opinion Italy's not going through a fascist comeback?

This is unbelievable. After a wave of ugly rhetoric and dubious policies, a number of northern Italian councils run by the far-right Northern League (Silvio Berlusconi's biggest coalition partner in government) have gone on the rampage against anything foreign.

Top of the list, the town of Capriate, 20 miles from Milan, where the council announced a ban on kebab and 'ethnic' shops from the town centre. The news hasn't reached the foreign press yet, so you'll have to be able to understand Italian if you want to find out more here and here.

In a nutshell, a council ordinance tabled by the Northern League bans all 'ethnic' shops and businesses from Capriate town centre. Most stunning is the motivation offered by the Chair of Trade and Safety at the local council: "This is not a racist decision [of course, ed.]. The town centre is short of parking space and those businesses would worsen traffic congestion".

The ban is a direct consequence of last June's ruling by the Lombard Regional Assembly (also governed by Berlusconi's coalition) which granted local councils power to shut down businesses that are deemed "incompatible" with the "local context". "We couldn't just sit down in front of the invasion of kebab shops, internet cafes and Chinese restaurants that are sucking the identity out of our town centres", explained Northern League Assembly Members Daniele Belotti and Giouse' Frosio.

Morning after pill is poison, says the Vatican

Expect excommunication any time soon.

"Lethal poison", "human pesticide", "DIY abortion", an offence that "will grant excommunication" for whoever takes it or is involved in its prescription or sale.

Always on the side of modernity, the Vatican are pulling a right strop after Italy's Drug Agency's recently gave the nod to abortive pill Ru486.

Now, bear in mind the pill will only be administered in hospital, so it's hardly going to be hordes of randy 16-year-old girls popping over to the nearest chemists to grab hold of them like lozenges. More, the agency said "the pill can only be taken up to the seventh week of pregnancy, and not up to the ninth as is the case in other countries".

And yet, as they launch their crusade to pull the pill from the market, the Vatican keep pointing out that excommunication is looming. According to one of their top officials, Most Rev. Giulio Sgreccia, the Ru486 is unsafe because a total of 29 people who took it worldwide since 1988 lost their lives. Surely more people have popped their clogs while jogging?

Italian government to legalise vigilantes...

...And guess who's already volunteering?

With the controversy surrounding Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's love for young female company and his ill-conceived invitation of new best pal Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, the international press have plenty to talk about.

However, perhaps due to all of the above, something more sinister is taking place away from the limelight. The Italian government has just issued a White paper on law and order that gives the go-ahead to private vigilante groups. While the paper states that such groups will have to sign up to a licensing scheme, it's interesting to take a peek at those who are enthusiastically jumping at the opportunity.

Enter the Guardia Nazionale Italiana, whose website is currently recruiting "true Italian Nationalists and Patriots, people who are able to wear their uniform with pride and dignity, and for everything that it represents, are able to serve our land and the Italian people".

You may be excused if it rings familiar: black trousers with yellow band, black hat donning the Imperial Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, khaki shirt carrying both Italian flag and a certain symbol (a black sun that is popular amongst German neo-nazis), black armband, black tie and black boots.

Yet any allegation that it may echo a certain period in history are dismissed as 'nonsense'."It's a legitimate way of combating crime", says Home Secretary Roberto Maroni. So why the garish outfits?

The answer comes the moment you take a peek at the people behind the vigilantes. Amidst retired carabinieri and assorted military, there he is, the founding member of the far-right Social Movement (MSI-DN, the group that rose from the ashes of the Fascist Party following Mussolini's death in 1945) and leader of the Italian Nationalist Party, both groups possibly to the right of the BNP.

So next time you hop to Venice, Florence or Milan for your long weekend break, don't be surprised if you spot vigilante squadrons marching along la piazza. You may have to get used to it. And quick.

Click here to find out more about why Italy is currently the most right-wing country in Europe.

Slicing the Leftist pie.

The consensus is that the Right triumphed at the Euro elections. We say it's courtesy of a leftist vote split into a myriad of tiny fractions.

"Voters steer Europe to the Right", says the BBC as results keep coming in from the European elections. It's the same analysis wherever you look.

BBC correspondent Mark Mardell talks of "March of the right", with particular reference to the advance of far-right parties across the continent, while the Independent talks of "Right advances in Europe" and, in case the message hadn't been rammed home yet: "Right wing parties sweep to power in the European Parliament", is the Daily Mail's headline .

The Mail adds that the electoral wipeout was a "vote against stimulus spending and corporate bailouts", more or less in line with the theory that European Social Democracy is in serious trouble.

That may well be the case but, as of today, few have picked up on the crucial factor that turned the right's victory into plain sailing: the spectacular divisions within the left.

Let's look at five of what the BBC calls "Europe's big six".

France. There's reports all round that, with 27,8% of the vote, Sarkozy mastered an "amazing victory". But how's that the case when every opinion poll in the run-up to the vote suggested Le Président was in trouble? A quick glance at the left's line-up for the elections should shed some light.

The Socialist Party's dismal performance cannot be read without taking into account the historic 16.2% pocketed by the Greens. More though, if you put together the Front de Gauche's 6% and the 5% of the brand new Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) led by rising star Olivier Besancenot (without forgetting Bayrou), the progressive anti-Sarkozy vote is in excess of 50 per cent, hardly a popular endorsement for the President.

Italy. In Berlusconiland, the centre-left's internal divisions are now legendary. Counting the myriad of parties mushrooming up to the left of Partito Democratico has become humanly impossible. Elbowing their way through the crowd, meet the fiercely anti-Berlusconi Italia dei Valori (8%) and not one but two, I mean two, post-Communist Parties, each of them netting a rough 3,5% - plus plenty of other tiny groups.

Add them altogether and they could bring off a comfortable 5% lead ahead of the Berlusconi coalition. Alas, such parties tend to disagree on stuff like whether Fidel Castro should have shaven his beard in the summer of 1964 - which is why Berlusconi's grip on power remains secure until he pops his clogs.

Germany. Similar story. No doubt the SPD is looking battered, reaping perhaps the harvest of coalition governments with the centre-right. But did its haemorrhaging votes shift to the right? By the look of it, the answer is no. With the Greens and Die Linke pulling off a total of 20%, the assumption that free-market conservatism came out on top ends up looking a bit flimsy. Yet, courtesy of the atomised left, it's Angela Merkel who's popping the champagne.

Last but not least, Britain. There's absolutely no doubt the government was handed a drubbing of epic proportions, perhaps the natural consequence of 12 years of New Labour meticulously eating away at what was left of Britain's progressive politics. And yet, here too, the Green Party managed a historic 8.6%, suggesting many disillusioned Labour ballots found a temporary shelter.

But then witness the the depressing sight of leftists grupuscules fighting for the crumbs- if that. Can anyone explain, for instance, the tactical differences between Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (1,1% of the vote), Bob Crowe's NO2EU (1%) and the Socialist Party of Great Britain (0,3%)? What did they hope to achieve exactly, aside from splitting the leftist vote into a myriad of tiny fractions?

And while arguments about socialist purity thrive, today the Europeans wake up more right-wing than at any time since WWII.

José Saramago: The Berlusconi Thing

The Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist and journalist on why Silvio Berlusconi's Italy is looking more and more like a "lower empire".

I don't see what else I could call it. A thing perilously similar to a human being, a thing that throws parties, sets up orgies and rules a country called Italy. This thing, this illness, this virus threatens to be at the root of the moral death of Verdi's country, unless a spew manages to double kick it from the Italians' conscience before the poison eats the veins away and rots the heart of one of the richest European cultures.

Every day the slimy paws of the Berlusconi Thing trample on the basic values of human cohabitation. Amongst its talents lies a bamboozling ability to abuse words, twisting meaning and sense, as it's the case with the name of the party he used for his onslaught to power, the People of Freedom Party (Popolo delle Liberta').

'Delinquent' I called this Thing and I harbour no regrets. For reasons of semantic and social nature that others may explain better, in Italy the term 'delinquent' has more negative connotations than in any other language spoken in Europe. To translate clearly and effectively my opinion of the Berlusconi Thing, I will use the term in the sense given by Dante's language, though I doubt if Dante ever used it at all.

'Delincuencia', in my Portuguese, means, according to dictionaries and current communication practices, "the act of committing crimes, disobeying laws or moral principles". The definition fits the Berlusconi Thing without a single crease or wrinkle, to the point that it looks more like a second skin rather than a layer of clothes. It's been years since the Berlusconi Thing started committing offences that may vary in nature yet are always demonstrably serious.

The irony is that it's not as if it's breaking any law; worse, it's making them in order to safeguard its public and private interests, whether in the guise of politician, entrepreneur or minors' playmate. As for moral principles, they're not even worth talking about, for there there is nobody, in Italy or worldwide, who isn't aware of how low the Berlusconi thing sank them a long time ago.

This is the Italian Prime Minister, this is the Thing the Italian people twice elected to act as their guide, this is the path to ruin along which are being dragged the values of dignity and liberty that characterised Verdi's music or Garibaldi's political work, and those who, during the fight to unify the country, turned 19th century Italy into one of Europe's spiritual guides.

This is what the Berlusconi Thing wants to chuck into the binbag of history. Will the Italians end up letting him?

Read 'La cosa Berlusconi' in its original Spanish version on El Pais.

Click here to read 'Anatomy of Berluscoland'.

In praise of...Paolo Maldini

A football legend retires

I was only 8 when Paolo Maldini made his professional debut aged 16. It was 1985 and the international press were already taking notice of AC Milan's new wonderkid. Imagine how long ago that was that one of Maldini's senior teammates at Milan was Ray Wilkins, a guy who's been assistant coach at Chelsea for something like a whole century.

Those were the days when players would stick with the same team for longer than just a year or two. Today you get people like Scott Sinclair who start their season at Charlton Athletic and end it at Birmingham City via a brief loan spell at Chrystal Palace. But even by yesterday's standards, Paolo Maldini's career is a spectacular achievement.

In spite of one lucrative offer after the other, he chose to spend his entire career at one club only: AC Milan. It was at San Siro that Maldini survived the biggest changes in the game: clubs turning into tycoon-owned profit machines, TV rights taking over, the Bosman rule and the radical changes in eligible foreign players, the adoption of those stupid 0-99 numbers, the growing athleticism of the game.

And yet, he always remained at the top - discreet and elegant, focused and professional. In spite of looks that could have landed him a Hollywood career, Maldini never went for the primadonna path. When you look at today's brats and their antics (Cristiano Ronaldo or Ashley Cole, to name but two), you appreciate the value of Maldini's composure.

The AC Milan star won everything he could have hoped for, including a staggering 5 Champions Leagues and 7 Serie A titles. He won 126 Italy caps (an all-time record), coming close to lifting the World Cup in 1994 when he lost on penalties to Brazil.

Now 41, Paolo Maldini is calling it a day. It's a reminder, perhaps that we shouldn't take familiar faces for granted. Bear that in mind next time you think Ferguson is a bit of one.

Help this man (Part 2)

Remember Tony Blair's good mate, Silvio Berlusconi? You criticise him at your peril...

Excellent stuff in the Times on Italy's rapid descent towards 21st century totalitarianism. Following the recent scandal about Berlusconi's mysterious "friendship" with a teenage girl and his wife's accusations that "he frequents minors", the way the Italian tycoon and his henchmen are intimidating anyone standing in their way is becoming impossible to ignore.

"Silvio Berlusconi survives as the lech with the common touch", by Rosemary Righter, is an excellent snapshot of the situation (click here for the full article):

"So he turns up at Noemi’s 18th birthday party in a Neapolitan suburb (as he never, says his wife, turned up to his own children’s parties); so he gives the girl a £5,300 pendant (a bit much, but he can afford it); so he has more ways of saying how and when he came to know her than there are colours in a cassata ice-cream; so it’s all uncomfortably similar to other rumours about nubile “interns” at his Sardinian summer villa".

Excellent is also today's leader "The Clown's Mask Slips": "The most distasteful aspect of Silvio Berlusconi’s behaviour is not that he is a chauvinist buffoon. [...] What is most shocking is the utter contempt with which he treats the Italian public".

Also on the subject: Watch it, Italy

Necrophile

The unbelieveable world of Silvio Berlusconi: a woman in an irreversible coma "could even have children".

It's no mystery that Italy boasts the most right-wing government in Europe. People often wonder whether its current Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is inspired by the pre-enlightement days of absolute monarchy or 20th century Latin American brand of populism. Until today, however, little was known about his necrophiliac tendencies.

Let's have a look at the background first. On Tuesday, the Italian courts gave the father of Eluana Englaro, a comatose woman who's been in a vegetative state since 1992, permission to disconnect her feeding tubes. Mr Englaro says that she once expressed a clear wish for extraordinary measures not be taken to keep her alive in such a condition and he called for "a dignified end to his daughter's life".

But here's where Berlusconi comes in. True to the maxim that Italian politicians can't even take a dump without the Vatican's consent, the billionaire Prime Minister pandered to the Pope's wishes and overturned the court's decision by decree, like an old-school monarch, an unprecedented case in the country's post-WWII history. According to the BBC, "the case puts Mr Berlusconi in direct conflict with the courts and President Giorgio Napolitano" who, in fact, said he would not sign the the decree on the grounds that it's "unconstitutional".

This is how Berlusconi explained it: "I will do everything I can to save her life. Eluana is alive, and she could have children". Then he went on, "hypothetically she could even bear a child while in a vegetative state”. Aside for his staggering hypocrisy (his wife had an abortion after 7 months for fears the child was going to be born with defects), it's intriguing to see how in his eyes, as well as those of the catholic Talibans, a woman is simply a pregancy machine, a two-legged reproductive apparatus, and sod those arsy issues of consent, will or simple common sense.

In Berlusconi's view, the issue of whether a woman may actually be entitled to decide is actually irrelevant. How would Eluana get pregnant? Would they hire a certified rapist? A stud? A necrophile? Could Berlusconi volunteer?

The "Italians" on the wildcat strikes

"If the Brits kick us out, we'll do the same to their workers here"

As I translated this article from the Italian daily la Repubblica, I discovered that about one hundred Brits are currently working on a regasifier on an oil rig in the Northern Adriatic. This is the stuff the Daily Mail & chums conveniently don't tell you about.

*****

"PORTO VIRO (Rovigo) - 'It's a pity. È un peccato, I love working with the Italians, I love Italy. I just hope this Stuff about the Grimsby refinery is just a one-off'. Brian has just got back from the oil rig in the Adriatic where one hundred Brits, along with two hundred Italian and foreign colleagues, are working cheek by jowl on a regasifier that will provide 10% of our country with methane. He doesn't want to talk, as he walks out from the Porto Viro base, guarded like barracks, where another one hundred employees work, mostly from Exxon Mobil, British, American, Norwegian, Italian.

It looks like the idea of beggar-thy-neighbour rhetoric may suddenly jeopardise this beacon of harmony and international cooperation on high seas, where no tension has ever flared between the Brits and the locals. Here on Christmas day, the English cook turkey for their Italian colleagues. At sea they have a game of ping pong, they eat together, watch the football on Sky. Their cabins are identical, on a 50mt high oil rig, large like two football pitches, two thirds under water, 15 miles from the coast. They take a break on the lodging barge after a 12-hour shift.

But the news of those walkouts against the "Italians" arrive like a bad omen. The ghost of a sour story that may turn up here as well. Which is why many of them clock out with their heads down, without uttering a word, sidestepping the questions. "I haven't read the papers, I haven't a clue", says another British worker as he walks away, looking down. "I'm not qualified to speak", mumbles yet another as he vanishes into the thick cloak of fog around the base. They seem to have a hunch that the mood is changing amongst the locals.

"In Italy it's a mess- protests 200 meters away Melchiorre Vidali, bricklayer, working on the naval dockyards- I don't mind the English or the French, but if they reject us, then we'll have to do the same". Luigi Tessarin, owner of the Taglio di Po hotel that hosts half a dozen technicians from the UK is concerned. "The English want to grab hold of their cake- he utters- but if that's the way they want to play, then we'll send them home too".

A warning that sounds like self-defense. There aren't any demonstrations or protests in this sea-soaked land where the Romea motorway is all that mends together a landscape made of warehouses, ghosts of derelict factories and small villages. Yet the strikes against the Italians are kickstarting a sense of malaise. "Here it's all fine" - objects Orazio Milani - a customer at the bar Mauro, hosting twenty Poles who every morning at 6 set off for the platform and at night drink "a beer, a shot and hit the sack at 10, with never a problem". In England "they're bang wrong, they want to go backwards" slams Marziano Berto, the barman. "They're only ignorant", confirms the customer as he sips his coffee.

The workers at the base also sense the atmosphere; the company invited them to avoid controversy, especially after the Northern League threatened the foreigners that it's "payback time". Security measures at the base are as strict as they'd never been. Alcohol is banned and there are regular tests. "We're working on a great project", explains Adriano Gambetta, from Genoa, a long-term captain who's been managing operations from ashore for a year. At the end of the spring here they'll start producing methane from liquid gas coming from Qatar. Three ships a week will be emptied, and they'll heat a tenth of all homes in Italy. Eight billion cubic meters of gas produced by Adriatic Lng (45% Exxon Mobil, 45% Qatar Gas, 10% Edison).

It's a pilot scheme that involves technicians from worldwide. Once the construction work's done, there'll be only 66 Italians left to run the day-to-day operations. "All I'm interested in is to get the job done", an English technician explains: "I don't want trouble, don't ask me what my name is". The anti-Italian walkouts? "Ridiculous", retorts an Exxon employees from ashore. "I don't get them, this way we're going backwards", adds Bjorne, a Norwegian who finds Italy "a fantastic country". For Bill, from Houston, USA, who for $10,000 a month plus travelling expenses brought his wife along, the only complaint is for the "bad weather". "[The strikes] are sterile protests, I don't think we'll witness similar things in Italy", bets Gambetta the manager. Less optimistic is a Parisian engineer, who's just got back from the oil rig: "What if this was the first sign of a protectionist revival worldwide? That would be no good".

Watch it, Italy

A strange mix of racism and authoritarianism is surfacing in Berlusconi's Italy

As parallels are constantly drawn between the current economic climate and the 1929 crash, we can at least hold on to the certainty that Europe is now a profoundly democratic place.

Italy, however, is a peculiar case. Since Silvio Berlusconi's landslide victory last April, it's as if the country started to passively give the nod to a disturbing series of populistic and semi-authoritarian measures. Whether it's style, rhetoric or actions, whatever the government is doing is increasingly greeted by a collective shrug. The result is that Italy's standards of democracy are lowering fast.

Berlusconi's victory wiped out of Parliament the radical and green left and dropped the decimated centre-left into a morass of petty infighting. That allowed the Government to hit the ground running. Propped up by the type of anti-immigration rhetoric that Britain would only tolerate if the BNP were in power, the new Italian executive agreed to some seriously draconian legislation. Immigrants are now officially b-citizens. One measure, for instance, requires their expulsion the moment they get a criminal record - and the grounds for appeal are strictly limited. In the meantime, reports of immigrant-bashing and racist incidents, in some cases involving the police, are just piling up.

In September, Giancarlo Gentilini, a pro-Berlusconi mayor (famous for his calls for "the right to carry out ethnic cleansing against the faggots") said: "I wanted our streets cleansed of all the ethnics groups that are destroying our country". He taunted the immigrants that "piss in our streets". "Let them go and piss in their own mosques", he barked, adding "I don't want to see any blacks, browns or greys teaching our children"… Only two months ago, members of the ruling Northern League, including MPs, took part in the pan-European far-right gathering in Cologne, the type of event you'd want to pop to if you fancied a picnic with the NF or Combat 18.

Next, the Government proceeded to set up 'special' classes for children of non-Italians at school. And while Berlusconi grabbed the headlines for calling newly elected Obama "suntanned", only muted grumbles met his new ad-hoc law that will grant the Italian Prime Minister (himself, that is) immunity from all criminal courts. What followed was the scandal at the Parliamentary Committee overseeing the state television network RAI. Even though the committee is traditionally chaired by an opposition MP elected on a bipartisan vote, the government rejected the centre-left's official candidate. Instead, they handpicked their own. This too was shunned by the general public as petty political squabbling.

And then came the student strikes. Unhappy with budget cuts proposals as detailed in the White Paper on higher education, undergraduates and college students alike took to the streets in numbers. And this is where it turns sour. After scuffles erupted in Rome when a mob of organised skinheads attacked unarmed teenagers (see pictures here), the hawkish former Home Secretary (and later President) Francesco Cossiga went on record saying that the best way to deal with such protests is to infiltrate them with agent provocateurs and shoot (or beat) at random.

"This is how I dealt with them when I was at the Home Office", he revealed in an interview. Cossiga was speaking of Italy's so-called 'years of lead' in the late 70s, at the height of the country's own terrorist crisis. Between 1977 and 1979, a period of high civil unrest, several demonstrators died in dubious circumstances. Some were shot by random fire during protest rallies. Although the courts were never able to convict anyone in particular, we now officially know that the government was directly behind it. In the words of Cossiga:

"The security forces should massacre the demonstrators without pity, and send them all to hospital. They shouldn't arrest them, because the magistrates would release them immediately, but they should beat them up. And they should also beat up those teachers who stir them up. Especially the teachers. Not the elderly lecturers, of course, but the young women teachers."

No doubt Cossiga is pleased that only in 2001, during Berlusconi's last stint in power, the Italian police pulled off that magnificent mix of Pinochet-style torture, mass-beating and planted evidence that stoked up the infamous riots at the G8 in Genoa. And they really did pull it off because no police officer will ever spend a minute in jail for that.

Yet, what's most disturbing is the Italian's sense of resignation, as well as Berlusconi's enduring popularity in the polls. The temptation is to say that, after all, Italy is the place where fascism was invented. But it wouldn't be fair on all the Italian trade unionists, socialists and liberals who lost their lives fighting for their freedom.