Silvio Berlusconi may soon be returned to power.

[Dartzap]

Beeb

Italy poll rivals make final push

Italy's main rivals for the premiership have wrapped up campaigning ahead of national and regional elections.

At a final rally in Rome, centre-left candidate Walter Veltroni, 52, urged tens of thousands of supporters to serve Italy with honour.

Billionaire businessman and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 71, wants a third term as prime minister.

Both candidates have promised change, but correspondents say deep economic problems restrict what they can offer.

After a day off from campaigning on Saturday, voters go to the polls on Sunday and Monday to choose from 158 different parties contesting regional and national elections.

Italy's 62nd election in 63 years comes three years early, after Romano Prodi stepped down as prime minister when his coalition government collapsed in January.

'Highest honour'

At his final rally in Rome, Mr Veltroni called for Italians to love their country.

"We need to serve Italy and feel that this is an honour," the former mayor of Rome said to an estimated 40,000 supporters.

"If I become prime minister this will be the highest honour and I would carry out my role with energy, strength and determination and desire to change this country... because this country needs change."

Mr Berlusconi made his final campaign appearance on late-night Italian TV. He repeated his accusation that Mr Veltroni has run "a campaign of lies".

Mr Berlusconi has previously said that Mr Veltroni's newly-formed Democratic Party is a new label for Italy's communists.

At his final rally on Thursday, he appealed to his supporters to bring in more voters in order to give him the parliamentary majority to make the tough changes he said Italy needs.

Economy slipping

Mr Berlusconi is the head of a business empire that spans media, advertising, insurance, food and construction and includes the successful football club AC Milan.

He is also leading a new party into the polls - the conservative People of Freedom (PDL).

Although Italy faces a massive public debt, both candidates have promised tax cuts and handouts to voters, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome.

Italy's economy has been slipping in the face of low productivity and a strong euro and analysts say young people, pensioners and low-income workers are feeling the pressure.

Whichever candidate is declared the winner on Monday, both know that a period of painful political and economic reforms is essential and unavoidable, our correspondent says.

Having heard some comments about how Berlusconi rules the main media outlets on Dateline London its not hard to imagine how he might back in power. He puts the fucking Chinese state owned channels to shame, nearly.

How the buggery could anyone even think of voting for him again? It's just...insane.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I gave up on Italy after they deposed Julius Caesar. It kind of went downhill from there.

[ShadowRider77]

Don't bother yourselves trying to understand this. I've been here all my life, and I still don't understand it. See this as a kind of show, the ones with the pre-recorded laughs. And be grateful that you can see this as a show...

[Guardsman Bass]

Isn't this the guy whose infamous for faux pas in diplomacy? At the very least, maybe you'll get some laughs out of him.

[Durandal]

Don't bother yourselves trying to understand this. I've been here all my life, and I still don't understand it. See this as a kind of show, the ones with the pre-recorded laughs. And be grateful that you can see this as a show...

I'd trade our show for yours any day of the week.

[Melchior]

It is unfortunately likely that he will win in the coming elections. Finishing studies in a foreign country looks again rather attractive.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Don't bother yourselves trying to understand this. I've been here all my life, and I still don't understand it. See this as a kind of show, the ones with the pre-recorded laughs. And be grateful that you can see this as a show...

I'd trade our show for yours any day of the week.

I raise you one inept Nu Labour government. Do I win?

[Enigma]

Why worry? Even if he's elected, he'll most likely end up stepping down within a year. Isn't that an Italian tradition?

[Durandal]

Don't bother yourselves trying to understand this. I've been here all my life, and I still don't understand it. See this as a kind of show, the ones with the pre-recorded laughs. And be grateful that you can see this as a show...

I'd trade our show for yours any day of the week.

I raise you one inept Nu Labour government. Do I win?

Have you been following this country's political environment for the past 7 years?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yours? The US? Sure. But I still want rid of my own group of clowns, whom we've had for nigh eleven years. Variety is the spice of life, so they say.

[Dahak]

Why worry? Even if he's elected, he'll most likely end up stepping down within a year. Isn't that an Italian tradition?

I think Berlusconi is on record for having the only government that made it through the intended legislative period...

[Terralthra]

Berlusconi: Left has uglier women

Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has claimed that right-wing female politicians are better looking than their left-wing counterparts.

Mr Berlusconi, the centre-right's candidate in elections this weekend, was quoted as telling local media that the left had "no taste" in women.

The conservative leader has a long record of making outlandish comments.

His remarks provoked an angry reaction from the centre-left, which accused him of being sexist.

Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying that when he looked round parliament, he found that female politicians from the right were "more beautiful".

"The left has no taste, even when it comes to women," the 71-year-old was quoted as saying.

Last year, Mr Berlusconi was forced to apologise to his wife for flirting with other women after she demanded a public apology.

He has promised to name at least four women in his cabinet if he is elected as prime minister for a third time.

source

[Melchior]

Why worry? Even if he's elected, he'll most likely end up stepping down within a year. Isn't that an Italian tradition?

I think Berlusconi is on record for having the only government that made it through the intended legislative period...

True, but he was greatly helped in that by an election law that was since changed.
With the new law one of the chambers is probably going to be undecided, leading to short, unstable governments.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Honestly, when he opens his mouth something hilarious and downright pompous comes out. If he were born 150 years earlier he'd probably have started all sorts of wars whenever government was in session.

[ShadowRider77]

Honestly, when he opens his mouth something hilarious and downright pompous comes out. If he were born 150 years earlier he'd probably have started all sorts of wars whenever government was in session.

Oh, he has an enstablished strategy for this. He tells something outrageous and ridicolous, waits a few hours so that people talk about is, then simply says that "I was misunderstood", "I did not imply what was attributed me" or simply "I never said that at all, it's that Italian media are controlled by 'communists' and try to slander me" (Note 1: he owns 3 national TVs out of 8, controls another, plus he owns a national newspaper.) (Note 2: yes, he actually says "I never said this at all" even when presented with recorded evidence. When presented with said evidence, he will simply ignore it. It happened rarely anyway, 'cause most journalists in Italy simply don't dare to do such a thing to him, and he carefully avoids those who would...). I was half-expecting that he would start denying what he said the moment he said it, something like "Leftists are unwashed morons, but I never said that" or such.

The funny (read: tragic...) thing is that his electors don't care about it. Most of the times they will deny anything happened, when they will admit whey will find it cool, say something like "Hey, he always gets away with this. How smart he is!" (I suppose that, by their standards, he is smart...)

[Edi]

Berlusconi is a scumbag shitlicking pigfucker and hopefully trips on some stairs and breaks his fucking neck. The motherfucker went out of his way to cause all kinds of problems for Finland when the EU was deciding on where to place the agency responsible for food safety, essentially forcing the Union to take it away from Finland despite prior decisions and after that he tried to torpedo the placement of the Chemicals Agency here, which we got as a consolation offer and which maybe will have some relevance 10 years from now when it's actually funded and operational. On top of that, he then decided to be a complete asshole and publicly insult my country for no reason regarding our food just to rub in the food agency issue after all the other shit.

So once he gets back in power, we can expect that he will again fuck everything up on the EU level. It's almost goddamn guaranteed. If he does manage to break his neck or otherwise get himself killed before he dies of natural causes, I'll toast his death with some nice Italian sparkling wine. Italy does happen to be one of my favorite countries in Europe and I'll be going to Taormina in Sicily in June, but holy fuck do you guys have a shitty taste in politicians...

By the way, the xylitol chewing gum ad you had running on the TV in the summer of 2007, with the Italian hunters chasing the wild Finn in the forest was absolutely goddamn hilarious.

[ShadowRider77]

Berlusconi is a scumbag shitlicking pigfucker and hopefully trips on some stairs and breaks his fucking neck. The motherfucker went out of his way to cause all kinds of problems for Finland when the EU was deciding on where to place the agency responsible for food safety, essentially forcing the Union to take it away from Finland despite prior decisions and after that he tried to torpedo the placement of the Chemicals Agency here, which we got as a consolation offer and which maybe will have some relevance 10 years from now when it's actually funded and operational. On top of that, he then decided to be a complete asshole and publicly insult my country for no reason regarding our food just to rub in the food agency issue after all the other shit.

So once he gets back in power, we can expect that he will again fuck everything up on the EU level. It's almost goddamn guaranteed. If he does manage to break his neck or otherwise get himself killed before he dies of natural causes, I'll toast his death with some nice Italian sparkling wine. Italy does happen to be one of my favorite countries in Europe and I'll be going to Taormina in Sicily in June, but holy fuck do you guys have a shitty taste in politicians...

By the way, the xylitol chewing gum ad you had running on the TV in the summer of 2007, with the Italian hunters chasing the wild Finn in the forest was absolutely goddamn hilarious.

Were the hunters supposed to be Italians?

Anyway, I found it funny as well the first time I saw it. It lost its bite with the reruns, though...after a while, all I could think was that the woman speaker's eyes were quite freaky, even the cameramen seemed to think so...

I remember something of what you mentioned. Didn't even he do some quite impolite comments about your lady Prime Minister, back then? I'm sorry I don't remember exactly, but it gets tough to keep in mind all of his blunders...plus, when I think of what he does to my country's image, I tend to remove the grittiest details. Not that it helps much: for my job, I go around a lot, and everywhere somebody sneers at me because of him. I am actually growing used to it...not...

Anyway, should Mr. B end like you said, I'll personally ship you a crate of wine of your choice...although, I fear, it won't change much for my country. I've come to conclude that Berlusconi is not the disease, he's just a symptom. Much like Mussolini was before him. It is not actually a disease, but a defect in Italian people's genoma, caused (IMHO...) by millennia of close exposure to that cancer of humanity that is the vatican, whose forma mentis, impressed in people's minds through capillary indoctrination, causes so many Italians to believe in self-proclaimed 'men of the Providence' rather than in quiet, hardworking people...but I stop it here, I don't want to give the impression that for some reasons I pick on the vatican every time...

[Melchior]

but I stop it here, I don't want to give the impression that for some reasons I pick on the vatican every time...

If only he had remained in Avignon...

[Edi]

Were the hunters supposed to be Italians?

In the context of the ad, I assumed so, though they didn't necessarily look typicaly Italian. I only saw it a couple of times and that was almost nine months ago.

Anyway, I found it funny as well the first time I saw it. It lost its bite with the reruns, though...after a while, all I could think was that the woman speaker's eyes were quite freaky, even the cameramen seemed to think so...

Most ads that you initially like end up becoming really flat with repetition. I don't remember that bit.

I remember something of what you mentioned. Didn't even he do some quite impolite comments about your lady Prime Minister, back then?

Our President, as I recall. We did not have a female prime minister at that point, she had already been tossed out of office. Mrs Halonen just decided to play it down and dismiss the incident instead of making a big number of it, but it sure as hell didn't go down that well here precisely because of the earlier events.

I'm sorry I don't remember exactly, but it gets tough to keep in mind all of his blunders...plus, when I think of what he does to my country's image, I tend to remove the grittiest details.

Hey, in your position, I'd try to disown him too, so don't worry about it. I know what you mean.

Not that it helps much: for my job, I go around a lot, and everywhere somebody sneers at me because of him. I am actually growing used to it...not...

I'm sorry to hear that.

Oh, and no need to send me that case. I'll buy my own.

As far as the Italian political scene, it's probably as much to do with corruption as anything else that things are so twisted around and fucked up, with an elite aristocracy of professional politicians lording it over the common people and all that with the tacit or overt approval of the Vatican for a double-whammy that is hard to counter.

[Falkenhayn]

Berlusconi is a scumbag shitlicking pigfucker and hopefully trips on some stairs and breaks his fucking neck...

Last month it was DW's "Rebecca is getting the ass-drilling of a lifetime" Atonement line. Now its this. Something this bod-standard on SD.net shouldn't make me belly laugh. I blame grad school applications.

Back to topic and not directed to you specifically, Edi. Why would Berlusconi want to by PM again? He's a managing executive for AC Milan, which is pretty prestigious in itself, and also a license to print money. Why face all the scrutiny of Government, when the biggest decision to cross your path will be "Do I sign Ronaldinho while I sit around getting rich?" Is he really that dumb?

[Melchior]

Is he really that dumb?

Avoiding jailtime for corrupting judges, messiah complex.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

but I stop it here, I don't want to give the impression that for some reasons I pick on the vatican every time...

If only he had remained in Avignon...

The French wouldn't want him either. Remember the French Revolution?

[Phantasee]

Italy does happen to be one of my favorite countries in Europe and I'll be going to Taormina in Sicily in June

Taormina is beautiful that time of year, take lots of pictures!

but I stop it here, I don't want to give the impression that for some reasons I pick on the vatican every time...

If only he had remained in Avignon...

The French wouldn't want him either. Remember the French Revolution?

Wouldn't that have solved that problem nicely, then? We wouldn't have to deal with him now...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Wouldn't that have solved that problem nicely, then? We wouldn't have to deal with him now...

Some other cardinal would have taken his place.

[Elfdart]

Hey Berlusconi, Va Fan Culo Motherfucker!