Inside Italy

Inside Italy News

11 Ottobre 2007 di
Bernd Bergmann

New center-left party will be born under adverse circumstances

On Sunday,
October 14th primaries will be held for the election of the leader
of the new Democratic Party which is going to be by far the biggest party in
the current government. The merger between the Democrats of the Left and the
Margherita party has been prepared for several months and it is widely expected
that Walter Veltroni, mayor of Rome,
will easily win the primaries as his candidacy has been endorsed by the
leadership circles of the two vanishing parties.
Inside Italy News

27 Agosto 2007 di
redazione

Raise in tax revenue: public’s confidence or fiscal pressure?

In response to
the growing tax protest throughout the country, Premier Romano Prodi on Friday
argued that a boom in tax revenue demonstrated the public’s confidence in the
government and its actions. Speaking after Treasury figures showed State
coffers swelling by a projected 6% this year over the last, Prodi said that
“this means citizens are behaving responsibly and have faith in the
government”.

Inside Italy News

13 Luglio 2007 di
redazione

A Sicilian-Pakistani sunstroke

In his
speech at a conference on the integration of Muslim immigrant communities on
Wednesday, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato nonchalantly declared that beating
women is a “Sicilian-Pakistani tradition”. The former Socialist
premier, now serving in the centre-left government of Premier Romano Prodi,
went on to add that the “customs and traditions” popular in Sicily up
until the 1970s are not very far from “those imported by certain groups of
Muslim immigrants”.

Inside Italy News

10 Luglio 2007 di
Bernd Bergmann

Former intelligence chief might reveal 20 years of state secrets

On July 8th Nicolò Pollari, former chief of the Italian Military and Security Service (SISMI), shocked the political scene in Italy by declaring that he might disclose the real stories behind some of the most sensitive political scandals that have hit Italy since the 1980s. He referred in particular to the 2003 kidnapping of Abu Omar, an Islamist cleric who was abducted by secret service agents in Italy and transferred to Egypt for interrogation, the behind-the-scenes dealings to liberate Italian hostages in Iraq and Afghanistan, the failed liberation of two Israeli soldiers in the hands of Hezbollah in 2006, the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon in which Italian forces form the largest contingent, as well as the killings of civilians in Lebanon.

Inside Italy News

04 Luglio 2007 di
redazione

Veltroni’s Wooly Candidacy

At
the Fiat factory in Turin, Rome’s Mayor Walter Veltroni launched his candidacy
for the leadership of the Democratic Party, the new movement meant to bring
some unity to the lefts’ catastrophic internal divisions. However, while
drawing a charming and attractive picture of a “light and ambitious policy
for a Democratic Party meant to include and not to leave out”, Veltroni
gave the clear feeling of someone who, unsure about what to say, tried his best
to say it smoothly.