International   

Italy goes to the polls today

Vaiju Naravane

Silvio Berlusconi, Romano Prodi wrap up one of the nastiest campaigns

Rome: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Centre-Left challenger Romano Prodi held their final electoral rallies on Friday in one of the nastiest electoral campaigns in post-war Italian history.

At the Piazza del Popolo in central Rome where Mr. Prodi and other Opposition leaders addressed a mammoth gathering, there was tremendous indignation among the crowd at the tenor of the remarks made by Mr Berlusconi and his allies.

Several Prodi supporters wore T-shirts proclaiming "Io sono un coglione" which translates as "I am a bloody idiot".

Explained 22-year old Luca: "It's a compliment to be called a coglione by someone like Berlusconi. That's the message this T-shirt gives."

Mr. Prodi, former Italian Prime Minister and E.U. Commission President, leads a motley group of parties which includes liberals and Communists — an alliance which Mr. Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman who reviles Communism, has taken every opportunity to denounce.

"Need for unity"

Mr. Prodi arrived for his rally riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by an aide. "I want to address all Italians, a country that has been divided," said Mr. Prodi. "We have a need, a desperate need for unity."

Mr Berlusconi's use of foul language has shocked many voters. "Such invective should not be allowed. Imagine branding Left-wing voters `bloody idiots' in the crudest possible manner. I sincerely hope Berlusca loses. He has made Italy sink so low. What is the world going to think of us — that the leader of a country that gave the world its finest works of art and treasures such as Venice should be bandying vulgarities," said retired schoolteacher Tiziana.

Indeed, Mr Berlusconi and his allies have waged a campaign that is insulting to say the least, lumping all Centre-Left supporters together as either Communists, homosexuals or an extremely gross term denoting "bloody idiots".

"In Mao's China, they didn't eat babies, they boiled them to make them into fertiliser," Mr Berlusconi said during one of his campaign rallies.

His conservative ally Alessandra Mussolini, the grand-daughter of Italy's wartime fascist leader said: "It's better to be a fascist than a homosexual," referring to one of the Communist candidates who has undergone a sex change operation and is campaigning for gay rights.

While Roberto Calderoni from the xenophobic Northern League, another of Mr Berlusconi's coalition partners, derided "absurd homosexuals who had the temerity to demand equal rights".

Surprise promise

At the final rally held in Naples on Friday night before an audience of 10,000 people, Mr Berlusconi said Italians had to choose between the Centre-Left "that knows only how to tax, to hate, to envy and to forbid" and his Right wing alliance that offers them "love and rights".

Flanked by his coalition allies, Gianfranco Fini of the National Alliance and UDC Christian Democrat leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, he reiterated his intention to abolish a council tax on houses, a surprise promise made in a tense TV debate with Mr. Prodi in the final week of the campaign.

He said the country faced a fundamental choice between "an Italy of tax, an Italy of pessimism, an Italy of insults and an Italy of lies," led by the Left, and "an Italy of freedom and rights, of tolerance, respect for all, well-being, above all an Italy of love — that's our Italy."

Defending Italian "Christian and family values" he denounced the Centre-Left's plans to grant legal recognition to same sex unions.

He said Italy could choose between freedom guaranteed by his Government and a Centre-Left which idolised "Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot," and Cuba's Communist leader Fidel Castro.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Italy goes to the polls today
Undeclared civil war has broken out, says Iraqi Minister
IAEA chief set to visit Iran
Religious schools registered in Pakistan
Rumsfeld, Rice fall out over Iraq
`Casablanca' the best of them all
FAO for more efforts to combat bird flu
Lukashenko sworn in for the third term
Tornadoes claim 10 lives
Chinese weather channel
Stones rock Shanghai
Pakistan MPs protest against curbs on dealing with Indian mission
Singapore, India may expand economic pact

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu