The primaries for the leadership of the Democratic Party in Italy have decapitated the regional and provincial elites in the North. Swathes of cities and towns in the North have voted against the Bersani-supporting party organisers by enormous margins. (In Arezzo it reached over 60% for Renzi: Florence, Siena, Prato Pistoia, Lucca, Sansepolcro - from the Casentino to the sea Renzi has taken the Party's vote. And this has happened all over the North.) In a desperate attempt to claim democratic authority Pierluigi Bersani's apparatchiks, and Bersani himself, are accusing us of lack of solidarity and failure to recognise the real enemy.
'We are the Democratic Party', they shout from the television screens, from La Repubblica (Italy's Guardian) from council chambers, regional authorities, from their offices and jobs for the boys and girls. 'They' are the Right, the evil people who have voted for Berlusconi, not 'Us' the occupants of the moral high ground and keepers of the flame of 'fairness'.'
"No' the voters have roared back. 'You people are the reason for Berlusconi's years in power, elected as a result of the desperate dash from your grasping, authoritarian, taxing, transferring, regulating, clientalist, dead ideological hands.'
'And if, next Sunday, you rig the vote as you have up to now by excluding the electorate, limiting access to the poll, turning away qualified voters on the whim of your polling officials and all the other dishonest tricks of corrupted party elites the world over, we will vote for Berlusconi again. Better a gangster, or to have our government commissariato under Monti than a 'former' communist chosen only by the South, the dispossessed, and the political dead.'
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Extraordinary that Renzi should have won so spectacularly without ANY support from the PD - indeed, with all PD machines working against him.
Applausi for the handful of very clever volunteers working from his office in Florence.
The Comite' de Salut Public has ruled that "if, in the 20 days available to register you have not you are required to explain why you did not do so and provide evidence of your justification. If abroad an airline ticket is required ... a statement is not enough....there must be a formally documented justification... a medical certificate..."
The president of the electoral commission [presidente dei garanti], Luigi Berlinguer (there's a name to reassure, another 'former' communist) has declared that:
"The reason for lacking a voter registration [not your identity card plus electoral voting certificate quite sufficient for voting in any other election, oh no, this is the special Party registration with a 2 page detailed personal statement and identification information Ed.] must be judged [«dovrà essere valutata»] by the provincial electoral officials who will decide if registration will be permitted to be admissible to vote at the second round. ...you have two days...Thursday and Friday... The aspirant voter [«L'aspirante elettore] will present themselves at the relevant office (one for each province to be found in the provincial capital) and the Commission will rule on the validity of your reason for failing to vote at the first round... [il collegio della commissione elettorale si pronuncerà sulla base dell'attendibilità della motivazione»...]
HG, many thanks for these commentaries: I am not sufficiently into the language and culture to appreciate well what is going on.
"...grasping, authoritarian, taxing, transferring, regulating, clientalist, dead ideological hands."
Ah, reminds me of Britain. I begin to get my bearings.
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