Italy Hosts the G8

In several hours, Italy will host the 2009 G8 in L'Aquila, the city devastated by April's earthquake. The conference of the world's wealthiest nations was moved from its original destination of La Maddalena on the island of Sardinia, once the earth violently struck the Abbruzzo region. Berlusconi wanted to bring more international attention and possible funding to this ill-stricken area of the country.

As Mauro Biani's vignette shows, tension remains about just how helpful the G8 can be for the city and its people. At the moment, citizens cannot move freely to and from their houses/tents for safety reasons. The summit is actually located in a type of fortress provided by the buildings and walls of the Guardia di Finanza, situated outside of the dilapidated city center. Just about no one is allowed near G8's official borders. It is most likely that everything will take place inside of those walls, in isolation, as is customary for this kind of summit.

Meanwhile, the people of L'Aquila are waiting for temporary housing to be built with in the form of wooden houses. Many cannot re-inhabit their own houses because the earthquake damaged their structures too much. So they are living in the hot and cold, depending on the season, of blue emergency tents with 8 or 9 people sharing a single one. They hope that the government's promise of funds and housing will bear its fruits before winter falls, which is early in this high-altitude area: a late September deadline.

According to media sources, it seems that only Onna, the most tragically destroyed town in the earthquake area, has just 2 houses which are almost complete at this July date. That area will be visited by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has taken special interest in the town.

Looking in other directions, the traditional fear of G8 demonstrations is mounting. University students around the country have begun their actions. The police are beefed up around L'Aquila to deter whatever resistance against the G8 status which may occur. Politicians are on edge.

The nerves this year are not coming from just this summit and the possibility that even frustrated Aquilean grandmas will muster when faced with big politics. They also originate from Berlusconi's ongoing sensational press, which is both national and international. He has failed to explain his relationship with an aspiring 18-year-old model, Naomi, and the reason for inviting several escorts to his house in Rome.

Let's watch what will unfold in the fortress, L'Aquila and for Berlusconi, as he hosts the G8 for the fourth time in his career as leader of Italy. This should be old hat by now!

Surprising Results

To my surprise, Flavio Zanonato, won a second term in office with 52% of the vote.

Si Cambia? The Polls Will Tell

It's election day again, two weeks later. Padua as well as 98 other Italian cities need to vote for their mayors a second time because no single candidate received a clear majority (over 50% of the vote).

Dozens more of Marin's posters have been plastered all over town and over the face of the current mayor, Zanonato, who received just under 1% more of the Paduan vote to continue a second term as mayor, according to June 8th's numbers.

The votes might change this time around, like Marin's posters boast, in this weekend's election because the UDC party has officially supported Marin as their favored candidate so those center votes will go to his right-wing camp and not Zanonato, representing the right-wing.

Si cambia o si continua? Vedremo...
Polls close Monday at 3 p.m.
We'll know by Tuesday.

No Winner Takes All Yet

Italians voted for their national European Union representatives on Saturday and Sunday and some cities also voted for their mayor and other local political positions. Padua was included in that batch of over 60 comuni.

After waiting over a day for the final results to be tallied (polls were closed at 10 p.m. on Sunday evening), the numbers are being published. Padua seems to be in a tie with the incumbent mayor, Flavio Zanonato (left coalition parties), having 45.7% of the vote and his main opponent, Marco Marin (right coalition parties), capturing 44.9%. This means that our city will have a re-vote to determine which of these two will actually become mayor of Padua for the 2009-2014 term. Several other towns are in the same predicament. The new voting session will probably coincide with the scheduled referendum vote to be cast on June 20th.

In general, the country is seeing its main right and left-wing groups losing popularity in favor of smaller parties such as Lega Nord and Italia dei Valori gaining significant votes. Italy's attempt at reaching a similar system to the simple Republican and Democratic parties found in the USA is not receiving the results that were expected.

It is interesting to watch how other countries try to adopt our American habits while changing them or having them fail, even miserably sometimes, because other cultures are obviously different than the US one.

Key to running mayoral candidates' political supporting parties at local level:

Left Coalition:
Pd
Idv
Lista Civica Padova con Flavio Zanonato
Sinistra per Padova
Prc-Pdci
Partito Socialista
Lista Civica Innovazione
Lista Civica Comitati Citta' Sicura

Right Coalition:
Pdl
Lega Nord
Lista Civica per Padova con Marco Marin
Part.Pens-Altri
Lista Civica Padova Sicura
Liberta' Democrazia Cristiana

Link to all the voting results for Italy:
http://www.repubblica.it/speciale/2009/elezioni/comunali/index.html

Politicians Want to Party

It's election season with the voting date imminent on Saturday for both the European parliament positions and, more importantly locally, the mayor's race.

In true Italian style, the city has seen a flurry of road re-pavement, roundabout projects be completed in record time and, generally, beautiful city management in the last few months. This all started happening in January, 6 months before the elections and the end of a 5-year term for a mayor who hasn't done much that was noteworthy except build a temporary wall on Via Anelli and push out the foreign presence living there.

In fact, the story of that wall made international news, including front-page news on the BBC's website shortly after installation. That exposure was not kind on the city of Padua. It was treated as a racist gesture that should have been embarassing for the city administration.

The city has been spruced up recently to remind its voters that they should re-elect Zanonato, the current mayor of the left-wing party. On paper, he is from the left but his actions, especially regarding the immigrants, seemed more of a move on the part of the right-wing.

Anyway last night, a stage was set-up in Piazza Signori with a yiddish music concert organized for Padua. The flags flying on the poles around the piazza displayed its sponsor: Zanonato. It was very entertaining. I just wish these politicians would host an event like this even in the middle of their term in office as simply a plain gift to the city citizens.

Viva i politici!

Cuts and "extraneous" expenses?

It's a real shame to realize that this country's politicians and so selfish that this insist on having Italy vote for an electoral reform referendum after the European parliament elections and not at the same time. It is clearly a move on the part of the Lega Nord (Northern League) in the hope that not enough voters will cast their ballot for a referendum alone to make the vote valid. This way, the initiative will not pass, something that could hurt Lega's power as an autonomous party in Italy. The cost of this "extra" referendum day is estimated at between Euro 330m and 400m: closing public schools, paying for everything involved in this kind of vote.

This comes at a time when Italy has passed some critical cuts in school expenditures. The Minister of Education has decided to abolish the second teacher presence in the classroom for elementary school children. The problem is that currently the classes are growing in size and a single teacher will surely struggle at keeping up with the entire class' discipline, let alone be able to teach effectively. The Minister has declared that the savings from this decision will be Euro 287m. Looking at the figures, wouldn't it be smarter to keep the co-presence for the youngsters, maybe even spoiling them with attention to make them a brighter leading body for the future, and unify the referendum vote with an Election Day which is already on the calendar?

Yet again, the politicians are looking out for themselves and not the good of the country.