Italy: “The Workers Don’t Vote For the Left Any More…”

…like the brown bear, the radical Left has disappeared. Communists and greens have vanished, at least from parliament. They do not have a single senator or deputy, or at least that’s how it was looking as the most excruciating, awful night in the history of Italy’s Left drew in. In the stunned eyes of the Rainbow people, the night was made even blacker by the triumph of Silvio Berlusconi, the impressive gains of the Northern League and the hard-to-refute claim of its secretary, Umberto Bossi: “The workers have voted for the Northern League”. Pause for effect: “The workers don’t vote for the Left any more. The Northern League is the new workers’ party”.

I just do not know enough about Italy or their political landscape - and would love feedback from those who do - to determine what this shift away from the left in Italy portends, if anything. What constitutes the left in Italy? Yet, it seems quite clear that the Commies have lost favor.

Five parties, mini-parties and micro-parties presented themselves at the election waving the hammer and sickle flag, despite Mr Bertinotti’s explanation that Communism in the alliance would be a “cultural faction”. Voters failed to take even one of the five seriously and as a result there has been an incredible sea change. For the first time in history since the fall of the Fascist dictatorship, Italy’s parliament will not have a single “red” sitting on its benches, from where even the birth of the constitution was greeted by a gaggle of red shirts. “It’s a clear defeat of clear proportions, and that makes it all the more painful”, explained Mr Bertinotti, announcing that his role “ends here”.

Perhaps the internecine fighting amongst the tolerant, dialog oriented, lets-just-understand left is an inevitability that might produce similar results in America.

Even before the gloomiest predictions could come true, the Left was already, predictably, torn by arguments, jibes, insults, venomous outbursts and accusations of guilt…The truth is that this tetchy, daydreaming, belligerently pacifist Left, which in recent years has said no to high speed trains, wind power, peace mission, pension reform and almost everything else, has lost on all fronts.

Bertinotti Resigns As Rainbow Left Reaches End of Line

H/T:LGF Links

Though I’d rather just have balance, a loyal opposition. I frankly am getting tired of extremes.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Italy: “The Workers Don’t Vote For the Left Any More…””

ligneus1 April 22nd, 2008 at 7:21 am

First Germany [Merkel], then Canada [Harper], then France [Sarkozy], soon Britain [Cameron], people have had enough of lefty incompetent superior ‘thinking’. Too bad about Australia but I trust the Aussie’s down to earth common sense to see through their lefty lot.

zee April 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Yes, I have been keeping up on Australia via the Midnight Sun and others. I fear it is a preview of what could happen here should Obamination win - an escalation of liberties being stripped and the economy crushed.

Aurora April 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm

Ligneus, I’m afraid that the Aussies can be more than a little apathetic at times. Our national motto is ’she’ll be right, mate’. In other words, ‘it’s all good’. A lot of Aussies scoff at the idea that anything could ever go wrong in ‘the lucky country’ after all, we’ve never really been subjected to the wars and other problems that, say, Europe has had and we’ve always been guaranteed a reasonably good economy due to our natural resources. So the possibility that the Left could be a bit dangerous doesn’t seem to enter people’s heads, unfortunately. We’ve survived through Leftist governments before. We had a Deus ex machine intervention with our last really bad Leftist leader, Gough Whitlam and since then, the Left hasn’t really been able to make inroads …until now.
And I tend to think that the current government, that the Aussies voted in because we/they thought it was a kind of ‘Conservative’ Left is, under that lying exterior, perhaps the worst one ever.
As for Italy, my first reaction is ‘fantastic! Good for them.’ But then the realization set in that we seem to be facing a tsunami of socialism hiding under different banners all over the world.
I hope Berlusconi can make a difference for his people and Europe in general, but judging by the performance of Sarkozy thus far, I’m afraid I’m not too optimistic.

MK April 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm

The left may be dead in party in Italy but i’m skeptical that the people of Europe and Australia are tilting to the right. I think the conservative parties are just tilting to the left, is all.

By our choice on core issues like socialized medicine, gun control, abortion, capital punishment, soft sentences, welfare and military dependence i think that us voting for true conservatives is not the norm. Most of us have embraced variations of socialism i think.

zee April 23rd, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Most of us have embraced variations of socialism i think.

Growing up, I had no idea that the New Deal and all of that designed to help during the depression was the entry of socialism in America…i just never questioned that there was social security and disability, welfare. I knew they existed and they were the last place you wanted to end up. Now you have perfectly capable generations of so called youth demanding “help” that was once held in contempt and viewed with dismay.

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