Call that a New Year?

It’s been an interesting 10 days in Italian politics.   Monti has decided to stand, although this being Italy, he can’t actually stand because he is a senator, so he can promote a list which if it wins will ask him to be PM.   Mr Toad has been doing the daily rounds of his TV channels making more and more outrageous claims and showing his presenility off to best advantage.   The pick of the bunch are the arrogant non sequiturs from a person who has had nobody to contradict him for 30 years.   Monti is, apparently, a ‘leaderino – ie a small little leader, unlike Berlo who is a giant amongst world leaders.   We have heard about his pro European sympathies, Italy’s myth of a public debt – which is mythical only in its size – 2000 billion.  Then we heard that Monti wants to step up into politics, and Berlo steps down into politics – which shows how inferior/superior each is.  We are now promised an enquiry into Monti coming to power, an inquiry into the PResident’s action in dissolving parliament, and so on – everyone it seems has conspired anti democratically against Silvio and the day of reckoning will come, when he is once again PM.  The positive in this is that apart from CHannel 5 news (which he owns) most people are now just ignoring Silvio, or openly laughing at his idiocy.   THis is not to say, however, that he wont pull something out of the hat and win it.

Monti is standing on the centre ground, but it will not be a centrist party.  This worries Bersani and the left who see their advantage slipping away, and the internecine left/hard left warfare will raise its head in a week or so.   The hard right who threatened to leave Berlo have returned, whining, to the fold.

The Lega Nord has thus far refused an alliance with Steptoe.    And on top of all this, the crisis is now 4 years old, and thus far the banks have been bailed out to the tune of 4500 billion.   Nice to see someone doing well….

It’s going to get very ugly.