14 marzo 2008

Pier Ferdinando Casini has been encouraged by first his gaining an electoral pact for Sicily with Berlusconi,  then with successfully putting pressure  on  Veltroni’s centre left Pd [Democratic Party] by offering himself as always as an alternative to the centre left, while at the same time being  even harder on the unphased Cav. Berlusconi and Casini’s deluded ex-crony Fini;  his sometime allies in the  Cdl [the House of Liberty] the  centre right’s previous - that is   before Christmas -    incarnation. For  Pier Ferdinando Casini is betting all on an electoral result that will allow his Udc [Christian Democrat Union] to remain a decisive force in Parliament. This is not so much down to reasons of numbers, but rather because, in the event of a tie in the polls, Italy is destined to be governed by a grand coalition. And whoever leads this, whether   a politician, or   an Establishment figure, will struggle to find a way to justify the exclusion from the game of a party traditionally of the centre. Inclusion would seem apposite also before European opinion, for it is not by chance that the leader of the Udc has sought to represent the Pdl [Berlusconi’s People of Freedom] as a party leaning too heavily to the right and in danger of developing markedly populist  tendencies after the candidature under their banner of the far right  fellow-travellers Ciarrapico and Benito Mussolini’s  granddaughter Alessandra. (translation by Richard Newbury)

© - FOGLIO QUOTIDIANO

di Alessandro Giuli