22 marzo 2008

With a sense of hard-nosed Garibaldian heroism and excellent dramatic timing, Silvio Berlusconi addresses the crisis at Alitalia. When he swears that a home-grown Italian financial solution to the problem is just around the corner, it seems more likely than any contrary theorem. The possible solution that the Intesa-San Paolo banking group came up with was promptly dismissed by Berlusconi yesterday, without so much as a protest by the banking group (with the sole exception of an anonymous source which spoke to the financial daily il Sole 24 Ore). The thrust of Berlusconi’s argument is almost brutal - “Alitalia, get up and walk” – and its immediate effect is almost traumatic, to judge by the reaction of the Centre-left. Centre-left leader Walter Veltroni wants to see all the cards on the table in the next 48 hours (“but that’s absurd, it’ll take at least three or four weeks to work out a solution” according to Berlusconi’s camp), and while Francesco Rutelli flags up the “typical Berlusconi grand manner”, the radical left cannot help but appreciate the nationalist slant of his remarks, but has to be careful about admitting it. The governor of Lombardy Roberto Formigoni (who’s not exactly a neutral party in the whole affair) adds his weight to the issue, by confirming the financial solidity of the solution that Berlusconi has referred to. (Translation by William Ward)

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di Alessandro Giuli