Subtle Silvio strikes again
Silvio Berlusconi’s makes big plans for a new party
IT WAS a typical Silvio Berlusconi manoeuvre: theatrical, unorthodox and, above all, unexpected. On November 18th Italy’s centre-right leader turned up in a Milan piazza where his followers were collecting signatures for a petition calling for the ouster of Romano Prodi’s centre-left government. Flanked by his favourite new political sidekick, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a business association leader, Mr Berlusconi declared that he was creating a new party. Just one snag: he already has one, Forza Italia!, which he created in 1993. So what is he up to?
The obvious answer is: distracting attention from his own failure. For months, he has said that the centre-left is doomed and an election will be held by the spring. He needs one soon, for if the legislature runs its course, he will be 74 by the next poll. The Prodi administration is unpopular, largely because of tax increases, and has only a bare majority in the Senate. Yet on November 15th it showed its durability by getting its 2008 budget through. This sparked an explosion of recrimination on the centre-right. The leaders of all three parties allied to Mr Berlusconi attacked him for relying on showmanship and not offering alternative policies. …
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