April 15, 2008

On the good side

The Third Republic is born.

To be positive, lots of new and exciting things came out of yesterday's election results.
1. No more itsy-bitsy parties that looked more like interest groups/lobbies than real parties to me. None made the cut and they will not be represented in parliament.
2. No more parties for the extreme left and extreme right -- ex-communists, radicals, and greens on the left and ex-fascists on the right have disappeared. The socialist party didn't make the grade and, amazingly, the Vatican lost much of its insidious political power.
3. We are moving towards two major alternative powers made up of only a few parties. Not a bad thing. Actually a very good thing.

There were even civil discussions on the TV last night. Each side respectfully acknowledging both the winner and the opposition and their respective roles. That's a change.

Now the PDL and the Lega will have to govern and if they don't do it well, there is now, for the first time, a viable alternative finally free of the reformed communists and other more radical left-wingers.

And the game begins!
I think I'll stick around and see how it goes, hopefully for the best of the country.

a domani (and another day),
E

2 comments:

Florian Popp said...

Dear Elizabeth,

I don't know how things are in Italy or the States, but in Germany the Greens really aren't some of the radical lefts. What's the matter with them in Italy?

Let's see if Italy's political system is finally changing for better.

Best regards,
Florian

Elizabeth Abbot said...

Hi Florian, The answer is that the "greens" aligned themselves under the umbrella of the "Sinsitra Arcobaleno"or the Rainbow of the Left with the ex-communists and radicals and were, therefore, left without a seat in parliament. Just got lost in the shuffle I guess and will need to re-think their strategies!

How are things in Berlin? I recently attended a Training of Trainers workshop in Intercultural Competencies with two trainers living in Berlin and we had a few interesting conversations on cross-cultural issues. Any thoughts?