291. Obama: Europe, Be Nice To Italy!
 |
| The President of the USA Barack Obama |
Words that sent ripples of warmth to my heart.
This sentence was transmitted on all Italian TV channels and
how I revelled in Obama’s words:
Europe, be nice to Italy, she is a good ally of the United States.
The next day he added: Italy is not like Greece.
True, Europe has handled
Italy by no means gently and I can find examples going back just a few months
when Europe abandoned Italy to her own devices over the African immigration crisis, then bullied her into the expense of a war she did not want to
take part in, Libya, and now, the massacring
of the debt.
And of course, said they, the font of all of Italy’s, woes was/is indicated in Italy’s Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, and he alone.
 |
| Silvio Berlusconi |
For them, to even be
able express their slightest thought in 140 characters, seems a task beyond
their capacity. When someone lamented
that Italy is under surveillance and I answered that this was thanks to the 9
years government by the Left and 8 by the Right... there was utter
silence. No one from the opposition had
the decency to Twitter back, because the opposition will never admit to be
co-responsible for having added to Italy’s debt rather than improve it.
In effect the Prodi government abolished Berlusconi/Maroni’s Pension Reform which consisted
in cutting on pensions to invest that money in industries that would employ
young people starting work, thus giving growth to the country. We are still paying for that error even at this
very moment. Let us remember that
Italian pensions, in a great deal of cases are very generous indeed.
So, Berlusconi weaves, and the opposition unstitches what
has been woven....
But back to the present.
Once
approved the provisions made to the EU, the voting should take place
Thursday 10th Nov for the Senato (Upper House) and Saturday for the more
crucial vote in the Lower House. After
which Berlusconi will resign and the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano will begin consultation as who will be able to
form a new government. If no one can,
then we have the elections.
 |
| Mario Monti |
It is not a coincidence that Mario Monti has been nominated Senatore
a Vita (equivalent to Life Peer) only yesterday, because this gentleman when
as an EU Commisioner he had shown to
be tough enough to fine Microsoft. It is as clear as daylight that he will be
asked to form a government. The problem
is, will he have a majority to do so?
Only the Partito Democratico
from the Left said yes but no one else from the opposition have come forward,
not clearly.
The Lega Nord,
Berlusconi ally said a clear “No” and some members of the Partito della Libertà (Berlusconi’s party) are not in favour. The small central parties, are saying “NI”
and no one knows who Mario Monti can rely on if he is the new Premier.
The crux of
the matter is that they all know the next government must make
extremely unpopular decisions that no one wants to aid and abet as it clearly
means losing votes from the electorate.
So who is going to be brave enough and set aside their own personal
interests for those of the common good? As few as possible is my guess.
Hence there
has to be a government which will put into action all these unpopular
provisions. One of these and which no
leader of a political party will ever get the consensus to do is to slash the benefits and wages of parliamentarians
which are three times those of Spain, twice those of a British MP and almost
the same as that of a USA parliamentarian but where the electorate is about 400
million compared to Italy’s 57...
inflated wages would you not agree? Then
of course they stand to get a minimum of €5,000 per month pension after only 35 months as a parliamentarian- then there are the other benefits... restaurants at
next to nothing prices, medical care, housing, transport and so on and so on...
At the
bottom of this blog is a petition to drastically reduce the number of parliamentarians
which would help Italy to have a more manageable political situation. Please
sign it.
Another insurmountable problem with Italian politics is that
once elected, any imbecile can move out of the elected majority and make the
government fall, hence Italy could well be returning to the first republic
politics where there were elections on average every 11 months.
Andrea di Sorte may have in fact come up with a solution
Anyone who wishes to change from the coalition
or party with which they were voted, automatically loses their constituency
seat.
That should put a stop to those egoistic parasites who only
think of their own interests and betray the trust the voters had placed in
them. At the moment, parliament is full
of those parasites, and the word parasites is not an overstatement.
The
solution, as I see it would be to get the economist and once EU
Commissioner to form a government, pass these provisions. However, I doubt it that unless Berlusconi,
who supports Mario Monti as future Premier, doesn’t pull some strings in the
background so as to make his party members work effectively under the new
Premier, there cannot be a majority.
 |
| The President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano |
However, as
it rests at the moment, everything is in the hands of one person, and one
person alone: The President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano- God bless him!!!
AND ELIMINATE THE RIGHT TO A €5,000 MONTHLY PENSION AFTER ONLY 35 MONTHS AS AN MP
Cari amici,
Ho appena letto e firmato questa petizione online:
«per dimezzare il numero dei Parlamentari ed eliminare il diritto
all'indennità pensionistica dopo soli 35 mesi di attività Parlamentare»
Io sono d'accordo con questa petizione e spero che anche tu lo sia.
Firma qui la petizione ... e diffondila fra i tuoi contatti.
Grazie.
|
