Saturday 1 December 2012

They Can't Stop Us Voting With Our Money

The Italian media reports this morning that some 130,000 people have registered to vote in the second round Democratic primaries tomorrow via the facilitating proforma published in yesterday's newspapers, and that twice that number have applied directly to the Partito Democratico  site.  Renzi is asking all those who have signalled their requirement for a vote to go to the polling stations with their documentation and insist on voting.  Bersani has called for the vote to be denied to anyone who didn't vote last week and cannot produce eg. a medical certificate to explain their absence. 
Angels have been told by the village PD representatives that those who didn't vote in the first round,

".. will be stopped by the Provincial  Committees.  After all that's what they are there for, to make sure there is no infiltration from the Right." 

Disenfranchising up to 300,000 supporters is 'preventing infiltration from the Right'.

'Partito Democratico secretary Pier Luigi Bersani told Rai2 radio that he wants to introduce a personal wealth tax on large fortunes in Italy: not a one-off tax, but a structured tax on higher incomes .... Italy is facing huge challenges, and needs more fairness in its fiscal system. ' (Eurointelligence Newsbriefing)

'The Italian central bank reported a constant outflow of money from Italian to foreign banks which was at €200bn at the end of December 2011, and is expected to have reached €274bn at the end of March.
Data included all payments, imports and foreign investments completed within the Italian economic region and intermediated by domestic banks through the Bank of Italy.
According to the Bank, since the onset of the financial crisis, the European interbank payment system Target 2 has recorded a strong capital outflow from Italy to safe- haven countries.'


2 comments:

Weekend Yachtsman said...

"They can't stop us voting with our money"

They can, actually.

Capital and Exchange controls have been used before and will be used again.

Limits on cash transaction and cash withdrawals (already seen in Italy I think?) are the thin end of the wedge.

hatfield girl said...

Italy is in the eurozone though Yacht. It might be argued even that the eurozone's survival is centred in Italy. Too big to fail.....