Anti-immigrant Northern League bends Silvio Berlusconi to its will ahead of regional elections

[bemildred]

Source: Guardian.UK

Rattled by sex and corruption scandals and looking foolish over the late registration of candidates, Silvio Berlusconi has had a rough ride in the run-up to key regional elections this weekend. But any votes the Italian prime minister loses to his centre-left opponents may pale in significance to likely gains made by his coalition partner, the Northern League, as conservative voters scared by soaring immigration and job losses desert Berlusconi, 73.

Fresh from taking 10% of votes at national elections in 2008, the anti-immigrant league has already won its first scalp in the Veneto region, where it forced Berlusconi to dump governor Giancarlo Galan to make way for a league candidate in the election today and tomorrow. Guaranteed victory, the league will not only gain its first governorship but influence over two banking foundations that are key shareholders in UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank.

"Galan is better off at deep-sea fishing," sneered league founder Umberto Bossi (pictured), after he described Berlusconi's bungling of candidate registration in Lombardy and Lazio as "amateurish". The gruff Bossi now appears to treat Berlusconi the same way as the media mogul rants at magistrates and journalists.

From the days of describing immigrants as "Bingo Bongos" and promising to take pigs to urinate at planned mosques, league ministers have kept racial tub-thumping to a minimum, happy their programme is being put into action, from the criminalising of illegal immigration to the interdiction on the high seas of migrant vessels.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/italy-elections-berlusconi-bossi

[formercia]

1. I can't think of anything to say.

:rofl:

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, I totally agree.

Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the show.

[earcandle]

3. No!no! NO! We cannot adhere to the

criminalizing of illegal immigration to the interdiction on
the high seas of migrant vessels.

What does this mean?

   

this is not good.





People on migrant vessels who try to reach our shores in order
to be free,  will instead, go to jail? 
Without a "get out of jail free" card?

Am I missing something critical?  This is not good.

talk me down.

[Kurska]

5. Italy isn't responsible for "People on migrant vessels who try to reach our shores...

in order to be free". Italy doesn't have a statue of liberty and certainly never told anyone to send them their huddled masses. These people have citizenship somewhere else, if they want Italian citizen, then by all means go through the proper channels.

But Italy doesn't have to take refugees, or anyone they don't want to.

[earcandle]

7. Oh. Ok. Thanks. I missed that this was about Italy. Must have been too sleepy.....

[Kurska]

8. Haha, no problem.

I've been there before myself.

[Rapier09]

10. Whether or not Italy stays one country is the question

Maybe Venetia,Rome and Sicilly should go their own way.

[Rage Inc.]

4. K&R

But we've gotta worry about our own damn wingnuts!

[pampango]

6. Conservative party afraid of losing votes to far-right which taps fear of others (immigrants)

for political gain. Sounds exactly what is happening in the UK where the Conservative party is in a tight battle with Labor and is afraid of losing votes to the BNP and other right-wing parties who want to go back to an all-white UK. The conservative party (of Sarkozy) in France just got whipped in local elections, by the Socialists and other left wing parties, but the anti-immigrant far-right National Front still did better than in many years.

Immigrants probably have little to do with causing current economic problems, but, as often happens in history, the "others" in society are the first to feel popular wrath rather than those who did cause the problems. Conservative, and far-right parties, seem particularly willing to play the anti-immigrant card, probably partially because they represent the elites who helped cause the economic trouble and it helps them to divert attention to someone else, the "others".

[AlphaCentauri]

9. Hope it doesn't happens some day in the US

:tv: