Rome’s Right New Mayor
The left bashing trend continues in Italy, with Francesco Rutelli, the former deputy prime minister in the recently ousted Prodi government, being beaten at the mayoral polls by the neo-fascist Gianni Alemanno.
Rome now has its first right-wing mayor in ages, and the fact that the Romans were ready to put someone like Alemanno in the hot seat shows just how disillusioned Italians have become with the perpetually dithering and ineffectual left.
Alemanno the neo, sorry, post-fascist, played his cards right by following a public safety theme during his campaign and this struck the right chord with Romans, who, like many Italians, are afraid that crime rates are spiralling. Then there is the belief that the majority of the guilty are not of Italian origin. Expect a crack down on illegal immigrants from Rome’s new captain. After all, post, neo etc fascists have never been particularly foreigner friendly.
The blue touch paper may well have been lit…
Interesting times in the Living Museum. In theory plenty of good could be done and Italy may be pulled right out of the mire. With a little luck the left-wingers will wake up to the fact that they are no longer held in much regard by the people, and re-group. Maybe, possibly, some new faces will emerge. If not, Berlusconi, if he really does manage to do something, could hold onto power for even longer than his five year term.
Perhaps the Italy’s left should have forecast this scenario before engaging in selfish government-destroying little squabbles. Talk about unholy alliances.
Not a lot of people know this - Francesco Rutelli
Apparently, Francesco Rutelli, the present Italian Cultural Affairs minister, once replaced the Italian flag which flew at Palazzo Montecitorio with that of the Vatican. I have not been able to discover in exactly which year Rutelli did this mischievous act, but it was interesting to hear about it from my former wannabe Italian politician student.
At the time of this act, which was a direct protest against the influence that the Vatican exerts on Italian politics, Francesco Rutelli was a member of a radical political party. In another radical incident, he also spent a short time behind bars after having very publicly smoked a joint, which he inhaled.
Alas it now seems that the formerly radical Rutelli has become absorbed into the repetitive instability that is mainstream politics in the Living Museum, and it is highly doubtful that he will carry out such an overt protest ever again. I suppose you could say that Rutelli has fallen upwards.
Actually, I understand that Rutelli is proposing himself as a candidate for Walter Veltroni’s former post, that of Mayor of the Eternal City. Interestingly, Rutelli has already been the Mayor of Rome, and preceded Veltroni.
In a country which regularly shies away from the new, the regurgitated Rutelli may well be in with a pretty good chance of being elected Mayor of Rome yet again.
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