| Pakistan Opens Afghan Border Crossing Pakistan's foreign ministry said it was reopening a border crossing to Afghanistan, which it closed to protest a shooting incident late last month in which two Pakistani border guards died. online.wsj.com |
Russia's Chess Feud: Checkmate, Kremlin A leadership bid for the game's ruling body pitted the game's greatest legends against the Kremlin feedproxy.google.com |
Yemen Says Militants Cornered Yemeni security officials said that government forces have trapped al Qaeda militants in a village in Abyan after a week of bombardments that have driven hundreds of civilians out of the area. online.wsj.com |
Berlusconi's Italian farce | Roberto Manchini Silvio Berlusconi's antics are dragging Italy into an ever-more surreal political and financial messTrying to describe the situation in Italy in the last few weeks, it's difficult to resist the temptation to quote Karl Marx's: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."The tragedy: Mussolini, during the last days of the Salò republic, was gradually abandoned to his fate and to his delusions, surrounded only by party ministers and officials who were too deeply involved with the fascist regime and its crimes to have any perspective. Although the party was disintegrating, Mussolini still had a direct and charismatic relationship with the masses and he could even then stir up the crowds in a speech at the Lirico theatre in Milan, where he raved about imaginary counter-attacks.The farce: bearing in mind the difference between a dictator and a democratically elected political leader, such as Silvio Berlusconi, the current situation in Italy is reminiscent of the last days of Salò, with the leader's isolation and progressive loss of credibility in the eyes of important factions in the establishment.After Berlusconi's much talked-about split with Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of the People of Freedom party and speaker of the house of deputies, the spotlight has now been turned on Emma Marcegaglia, the president of Confindustria, the powerful organisation which groups together Italian employers. Considered guilty of making public declarations that questioned the quality of Berlusconi's financial policies, she has been mauled by the tycoon president's press. Marcegaglia, however, does not seem willing to be treated as if she were an employee of the president's television company Mediaset, and has talked of "a poisonous smokescreen, which is trying to smother Confindustria" and of "a malicious journalistic environment, which is attempting to restrict all entrepreneurial autonomy and independence".Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy (and chairman of the international Financial Stability Board) has also been singled out for a governmental reprimand. His offence is deemed to be very serious: he dared to point out figures that dispel the mirage Berlusconi has been assuring us is the truth, by proving that the country's economy is hardly growing at all, and there are too many unemployed. Draghi has been rapped over the knuckles by several ministers including Giulio Tremonti (economy and finance) and Maurizio Sacconi (labour, health and social policies). They hastened to describe the data as "anxiety-inducing" and "impossible to comment on in so far as it is esoteric".It's like being in a banana republic: the two most important financial ministers deny the data from their own national bank. In a normal European country, the controversy would be settled by either the resignation of Draghi or of the ministers: but not in Berlusconi's Italy.And here is one last ingredient in the comedy of Berlusconi's decline, the typical ploy of all populists when they're cornered: a treacherous attack on your own party. Last week, he accused the members of not being active and organised enough in their defence of the government's achievements.I'm wondering if the future holds a new TV serial showing Berlusconi in a Maoist perspective, ready to unleash a "cultural revolution" that would allow him to eliminate any timid residual dissent in the House of Freedoms, his own party and business concerns. Who knows? It might even be fun to live in a permanent carnival celebration with a guard of tall, blonde Amazonians dressed in light blue, all chosen according to the leader's aesthetic standards. The final scene of this comedy, which is really a nightmare from which Italy will wake up to find itself morally and financially bankrupt, still seems a long way off.Silvio BerlusconiItalyEuropean UnionRoberto Manciniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Egypt's Sham Voting: Mubarak's Grip Is Tighter than Ever Few Egyptians showed up to vote in their country's parliamentary 
election on Nov. 28 feedproxy.google.com |