Berlusconi's wife: Divide Italy

[ensho]

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/26/berlusconis_wife_divide_italy/2416/


Veronica Lario, wife of Silvio Berlusconi, the former and future Italian prime minister, recommends partitioning the country.

"Italy has never been well-suited to being a single country, and has never matured enough to become one," she told the newspaper La Stampa. "There is no longer any value in a unified Italy."

Italy became a single country in 1870. Since the recent parliamentary elections, Umberto Bossi, leader of the secessionist Northern League has accused politicians in Rome of robbing the industrial north to send aid to southern Italy, and called for splitting the country, The Telegraph reported.

In the La Stampa interview, Lario said many Italians are "snobbish" about the Northern League.

"This is a disillusioned country, even after Berlusconi's victory," she said. "The League expresses concrete demands from the most productive part of Italy, which is tired of dragging the rest of the country and does not find itself represented by the left-wing."
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[YOY]

1. Cool Kingdoms of Venice and Sicily versus the Dukedom of Sicily part II

Well, it feels like the middle ages all over again!

[izquierdista]

2. North and South

They are different as night and day, but if they are both in the EU, what's the diff?

[Pab Sungenis]

3. The same argument can be made here.

The industrial Blue states greatly subsidize the Red states, who have an inordinate share of political power. But is splitting the US going to solve the problems? I doubt it. (Although it's tempting.)

[nemo137]

9. hmmmmmm

Makes you think, huh?

[LibertyLover]

4. Are they going to invite the Normans to take over

Sicily again? Or maybe they could find a descendant of Frederick Barbarossa to rule it. And Rome could go to Bonaparte's family. Naples could revert to Spain - maybe the current king of Spain's daughter could take over Naples. A divided Italy could be great for some of the older noble families in Europe.

[On the Road]

5. It Would be Great for Rome

if the Vatican could expand to the boundaries of the Papal States and get an Army.

Heck, there are probably some Medici descendents who would love to get involved in some city-state intrigue.

[pink-o]

6. Never gonna happen

This is an issue that's been in contention since Italy united: the huge disparity between the Industrial, sophisticated North, and the Rural, country bumpkin south.

And they all dislike the Sicilians.

But no politician in their right mind is gonna Balkanize that country. The real distressing news is Berlusconi is back in power again. Yecch.

I'm off to Rome next week. I'll get a take on how the natives feel about it.

[ReformedChris]

7. Don't forget to add the Papal States as a "3rd" piece of the division of Italy nt

[momster]

8. Great Idea!

The Berlusconis over there...the rest of Italy over *there*...problem solved.