Posted on 04/08/2006 12:24:03 PM PDT by an italian
Italians will elect 630 lawmakers to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, and 315 to the Senate. Of those, 12 deputies and six senators will be chosen by Italians living abroad, voting for the first time in a national election.
A new law restores full proportional representation, increasing small parties' chances of entering Parliament. Italians vote for a party, not an individual.
Italy will vote tomorrow. (9 april 2006)
Our two top candidtates are:
SILVIO BERLUSCONI, 69, premier, conservative. In office since 2001 elections, the longest serving premier in postwar Italy. He is also Italy's richest man, with a fortune worth some $11 billion, according to Forbes. His empire includes the country's largest private broadcaster Mediaset, real estate, insurance and publishing interests. The Milan-born Berlusconi entered politics in 1994, when he was elected premier for the first time. Married twice, he has five children.
ROMANO PRODI, 66, center-left leader. An economics professor who beat Berlusconi in 1996 to become premier until 1998. Was president of the European Commission, the 25-nation bloc's executive arm, for five years starting in 1999. An October national primary overwhelmingly endorsed him as Berlusconi's election opponent. Born in Scandiano, a small town in the wealthy northern region of Emilia Romagna, he is married with two children.
Berlusconi and his (our) coalition will lose. And my country will be a communist one. Like Spain. They will introduce gay-marriage, they will come out of Iraq, they will raise our taxes.
I'm afraid of the democracy in my country.
Mr. Prodi will win, as the medias say.
I'm sorry for you too. We will lose our beautiful FRiendship, Italy will stand with France against the U.S.A and all the things mr. Berlusconi has built in those years will destroyed soon.
My FRiends, I will remain a proud FRiend of the United States and President Bush. You can beat that.
Pray for my country.
And sorry my delusion and sadness, but try to understand my state of humor today... :-(
God bless you all.
Claudia
PS: sorry my bad English too.
Well Italian food was high in carbs anyhow.
I'm afraid too, but don't lose heart. Pray and work; work and pray, and we'll get another chance down the road to set things right.
Meanwhile, keep your eye on the good things in life, give your family a hug, and remember your friends here.
Your English is great. Everything goes in cycles. Americans will always love Italian culture.
We had 8 years of Bill Clinton,and sooner or later, the Democrats will be back. But it is still better to live in Italy or the US than most places in the world.
Don't give up hope. Our media was constantly telling us that Kerry was going to win, as well. They praised Kerry, condemned everything Bush did, and refused to cover story after story.
All the polls showed Kerry was going to win (all but one). And all but one were wrong.
You can only do your part. Vote!
Buona fortuna domani.
Your English is much better than my Italian.
I offer my prayers.
i'll do.
Good point. And in the previous election the media were announcing that Gore had already won. A lot of Bush voters left the polls and went home, believing it was over and they had lost. Big mistake in a close election.
We Love Ya Claudia.......
You have my prayers.
If Italy goes back to having governments that last 6 months, then there will be nothing to worry about. :) I've reminded my Italian cousins in the US to vote, since I think Italians abroad are now allowed to cast ballots.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
Berlusconi rocks! I hold out hope for his victory.
Besides, no one has stayed in office as long as Silvio. Whoever replaces him (eventually) won't last long.
AFter France vetoed the EU constitution, though, I'm surprised that Prodi survived and somehow saved face. As a former EC president, Prodi should have been disgraced when the EU constitution failed.
< |:)~
and i love you all
Remember: since the summer of 2004, the leftist, anti-war group has been defeated in almost every important country. The US, Britain, Australia and Poland stuck with their coalition government, Germany and Canada dumped their anti-Americans and France is on the verge of doing the same.
prodi will win, but his government will stay only 6 months.
Over half of the electorate has turned out to vote on the first day of Italy's parliamentary election. The vote has been spread over two days to make sure that everything goes smoothly and to avoid the long queues at polling stations that dogged the election five years ago.
The latest polls still indicate a neck-and-neck race between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his social-democratic challenger Romano Prodi, though the left-wing parties currently appear to have a slight lead over Mr Berlusconi's alliance. The polling stations open again tomorrow morning, with the first results expected later in the day.
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