Cries of 'Duce Duce' salute Rome's new mayor

[many a good man]

Source: Guardian



Italy's new parliament met for the first time yesterday with applause for Rome's mayor-elect, Gianni Alemanno, a day after followers celebrated his triumph with straight-arm salutes and fascist-era chants.

Alemanno, a former neo-fascist youth leader, took 54% of the vote in a run-off on Sunday and Monday, crushing his rival, Francesco Rutelli, a deputy prime minister in the last, centre-left government.

Silvio Berlusconi, who won a general election earlier this month, welcomed the latest evidence of Italy's leap to the right by declaring: "We are the new Falange." Although he took care to wrap his remark in a classical context, his choice of words appeared to be a nod and a wink to his most extreme supporters.

The original Falange - the word means "phalanx" - was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the 1930s, which supplied Francisco Franco's dictatorship with its ideological underpinning.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/italy/print

[muntrv]

1. So when does the facism arrive here in the...oops I forgot. It's been here since

1/20/01.

[many a good man]

2. Plans to bulldoze immigrant camps (mostly gypsy)

n Rome Mr Alemanno, 50, who began his career as youth leader of the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement, promised to close Roma encampments and to expel 20,000 “gyspies and immigrants” whom he said had been detained for offences then released.

...

Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family, said police statistics showed that a third of all thefts, rapes and murders in Italy are committed by illegal immigrants.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3835404.ece

[ohio2007]

5. the Romanian camps have been cleared from under bridges already

The population of Rome wanted them gone as they viewd them as a drain on the welfare system. They've over stayed their welcome according to an NPR story I heard the other day.

Guess thats why they've allways been called nomadic gypsys in Europe

[Hannah Bell]

3. Not good. A warning to Democrats: one reason Bersc. won

again is that the left coalition went neo-lib in office. If you're gonna get right-wing policy either way, better elect the real thing.

[ohio2007]

7. I've also noticed the trend in Europe. The liberal groups were voted out in France,Germany, Italy

dunno what the populations of Europe are seeing that got them to move to the right.


It's mostly immigration issues imo.

If they don't take care of their own house, it's no secret we won't allow them in our house legally.

"Sorry, no room at the inn"

[Hannah Bell]

8. I have a slightly different take. Immigration is just part of the calculated squeeze play

by the European ruling classes, & it's been going on slowly but surely for at least 10 years.

People don't mind immigration if they perceive the pie is expanding. What's happening in Europe is in many ways what went down here circa 1975 - 1985.

It's quite deliberate, & the "immigration hype" & the sell-out by the "left leadership" are part of it. Italy is just the worst case.

[harmonicon]

12. liberal groups were not voted out in France

Sarko is from the same party as his predecessor. He's simply a more right wing member of the party. The liberal opposition ran a joke candidate - people were offered what they thought would be more of the same, and regret their mistake.

[tabasco]

17. The righties are on their way out in Germany.

They haven't done anything but fuck up the country like Bush is doing here.

It's only a matter of time before the Italians tire of taking it up the ass, like they did the last time they has a "Duce."

Stupid motherfuckers giving the nazi salute. Same breed of right-wing assholes who had both hands in the air from North Africa to Sicily to Rome.

[izquierdista]

4. How long until

They are hanging upside down in the piazza in Milan?

[katerinasmommy]

6. This too shall pass

Folks, my husband is from Italy They change governments more than I change my hairstyle. They will get rid of Berlusconi again soon. Furthermore, let's not forget that RW here and RW in Europe are vastly different. There, RW is about as far right as a conservative Democrat

[Hannah Bell]

9. Berlusconi isn't a conservative Democrat.

Europe has been moving right for the last 10 years, from Scandinavia to Germany.

[tabasco]

16. The Germans are giving the right-wingers the boot.

CDU and Merkl will be out soon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7211589.stm

[Hannah Bell]

18. And the "left" government will be - who? The SPD?

German SPD opens the door for rail privatisation
By Hendrik Paul
19 April 2008

The Social Democratic Party executive has paved the way for the sell-off of the German railway system on the stock market. German Rail (Deutsche Bahn - DB) is the largest remaining state-owned enterprise in Germany.

The measure accepted by the SPD on Sunday, April 13 will have drastic repercussions for both rail employees and the population as a whole. Once the stock exchange is allowed to determine the fate of the railways, the inevitable result will be job cuts, declining services and increasing safety risks....


The so-called left in Europe has generally been complicit in the move to the right.

The Greens too.

[Hannah Bell]

19. A haunting story from Germany:

Germany: Unemployed man starves himself to death
By Dietmar Henning
27 February 2008

The demise of a 58-year-old unemployed man who deliberately starved himself to death in a remote hideout in the woods is both a personal tragedy and a devastating indictment of the current state of German society. It says more about conditions in Germany than all the pious speeches of professional politicians and academic studies into poverty and unemployment...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/germ-f27.shtml

It's from Trotskyites, but they have excellent European coverage of labor & political issues - much better in breadth than the MSM. This was a significant story in Germany.

[tabasco]

20. CDU wanted to sell off 50%

SPD only agreed to 25%.

When the inevitable shit storm hits, they'll nationalize it again.

[Hannah Bell]

21. your lips to god's ear.

[Alcibiades]

13. Seriously, ask him about these types

Is it fair to say that Il Popolo della Libertà is some sort of successor party to the fascists?

While it is true that the right wing here is different from that in Europe, this does not always to their advantage. We had Jim Crow, the Klan, and a lot of other bad things, but they had the Nazis and the Fascists, so it's not even close. Part of the reason, I think, that European politics have been so sensible (relatively, compared to ours) in the post-WWII era is that folks always remembered what happens when right-wing nut jobs get into power. I hope they have not forgotten.

[Octafish]

10. Berlusconi kisses NAZI Bush ass.

He uses the same mouth to kiss Mussolini's granddaughter.

[ladywnch]

11. this meshs perfectly with the Nazi/facist Pope they have now. eom

[msongs]

14. bet the pope is happy - return of law and order, family values, and clearing the riff raff nt

[darue]

15. ok, time to kick their asses once again... come here ya nasty little fascists... n/t

[Mind_your_head]

22. All of those folks on the stairs (not so many really)....are/could be 'operatives'?

"Common people" (which is MOST of us of the world) don't generally vote for fascism. I'm thinkin' this is a propaganda piece to influence, rather than 'inform', the less than cogent members of society.

(where's that pic of the the Chinese soldiers who were getting 'final orders' right before they were going to dress up as Tibetian monks when I need it?)

[David__77]

23. For decades there are two options in Italy: fascism or socialism.

And it's not going to change. The left has abdicated its role, and so the fascists have won for now. Such a shame. The left will emerge again.

[hatrack]

24. Yeah, that whole "Duce! Duce!" thing worked out so well the first time . . .

Pretty :puke: - inducing.

[KnaveRupe]

25. On the upsde, the trains will start running on time again!

Silver linings, people. Silver linings.

[MilesColtrane]

26. More like, "Douchey! Douchey!"

[KamaAina]

27. Or "Dunce! Dunce!"

:evilgrin: