They've all gone down to the school to vote. So Angels has seized the moment for a glass of cold white and a post. They are voting on the run-off between the two candidates left standing for president of the Provincia - an important position when the subsidiarity genuinely practiced in EU countries is remembered - and have to choose between an old Communist remodelled as Partito democratico, and an old Fascist remodelled as Berlusconi's PDL. Angels votes in Florence not in the country (residency confers parking rights and tax advantages, don't ask) but the rest are resident in the village which is just outside the provincia di Firenze. The countryside in their province tends to be Red, but the cities, particularly the capoluogo are pitch Black; so my money (well not really, political betting is forbidden here as is the taking of mobile phones and digital cameras into the polling booths) is on the old Fascist.
The other vote is on a binding referendum - goodness do we need this democratic device in the United Kingdom - on the allocation of the 'winner's prize'. He who wins an election is allocated a premium to obviate some of the more destructive aspects of proportional representation. Every party is a coalition but the biggest factions in each coalition want the winner's premium allocated to their faction, whereas the faction smaller partners want it distributed per capita across the entire party grouping. Well, you can say of both sides 'They would, wouldn't they.'
There has been loud discussion of voting choices, but floating up from the party going down the stairs I heard:
"So we are clear: No, No, No, Vasari."
Vasari? Are they aware he's been dead for rather a long time? Must be me substituting familiar names in 'sounds like' mode. Anyway, the family is voting compactly, en masse, under the capo di famiglia, which is the way things are done here. How else can the village know the results long before the votes are counted?
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3 comments:
Just back from voting, as instructed.
Every little helps. We want the winner's premium distributed over all factions in the coalitions. If it isn't then presumably the coalitions will beak up again into their constituent parties and the ballot papers will fall in coils past our feet. All those confusing flowers, and trees, and hammers and sickles variously posed.
It's a pity betting on politics is forbidden in Italy. An Italian version of Politicalbetting would be a site to behold.
And, Small, you did do: No, No, No, Renzo, presumably? (I thought Renzo was in the Promessi Sposi, I must be doing 'sounds like' again. Italian names so often trail clouds of glory, or at least history).
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