I guess all the Europeans haven’t crawled into their shells to die. It’s nice to see that there are still a couple who have had enough. Conclub’s favorite Italian?

Silvio Berlusconi elected to third term as Prime Minister of Italy

“My throne will be very uncomfortable. But as I tell my friends, I have been unstoppable until now. I feel very different from the Berlusconi of 2001. I know how this works, and I can be immediately working for the good of the country.”

 See also Communists Crushed as Right Rises

For the first time since the postwar republic was founded in 1948, no Communists will be represented in parliament, their seats tumbling from 84 to zero. The Greens, partners in the Rainbow Left alliance, lost all 15 of their seats.

Fausto Bertinotti, veteran trade union leader, resigned as head of the alliance. Enrico Boselli quit as leader of the Socialists after they also lost all seats, confirming that party’s long decline.

Supporters of Mr Berlusconi celebrated the “revolution … the final fall of the Berlin Wall in Italy”, and hailed what they see as his success in establishing a “normal”, bi-party system divided between his centre-right coalition and the centre-left Democrats. “The joke country of 1,000 parties and 1,000 governments is dead thanks to Berlusconi,” commented Senator Paolo Guzzanti

“Communists Crushed”. Now that’s a headline worth commemorating no matter who you are. Sniff, sniff. It’s downright beautiful. That’s a headline I’d frame and hang on the wall.

Categories: Europe