Browned Off by Bersani

On Thursday the Leader of the Partito Democratico,  Pierluigi Bersani, will present details to foreign press assembled in Rome,  of the International Conference of the Progressive Alliance which will be held on Saturday as the opening event for his advance upon the premiership.

So who is gracing this get-together in the Casa dell'Architettura ? 

Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organisation;
Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation;
Harlem Désir, Leader of the French Socialist party;
Peter Shumlin, president of the US association of Democratic governors;
Sigmar Gabriel, Leader of the German SPD.

These are the A-list of this gathering in the former Rome Aquarium.  We are promised Progressives not just from elsewhere in Europe but from Asia and Africa as well as the US and Latin America.  It will, it is trumpeted, be the first time Italy has been host to such a gathering.

'For the economic crisis is a global crisis and requires global governance, national governments are not enough any more '.

Now where have we heard that before?   The array of 'international' figures doesn't quite match that of London immediately after the financial collapse in 2008 but we'll just listen to the echo.

In the meantime the freshly 'elected' Leader of the Partito Democratico Bersani continues to advise the Prime Minister of Italy to 'keep himself out of political competition, and not to be the leadership candidate of a political list of the Centre in case he doesn't get many votes which would reduce his value and would make it difficult for him  be used as a resource by Bersani and for the country'.