The right splits on Afghanistan

Four or five additional helicopters
and an unspecified number of armoured veichles. These are the reinforcements
that will be sent to Italy’s
troops in Afghanistan, as
decided by the Supreme Defense Council chaired by Italy’s President Giorgio
Napolitano which, in an official statement, acknowledged that their mission%0D
could take longer than expected. Foreign Minister Massimo D’alema, during his
visit in Rabat, has confirmed that the cabinet
will shortly take steps to reinforce Italy’s
contingent in Afghanistan
but refused to elaborate on the figures.

After the vote on Afghanistan,
the electoral reform has also returned to the top of both the government and
the opposition’s political agenda.

At a meeting in Arcore, at Forza Italia Leader Silvio Berlusconi’s
home, the rightist parties have apparently reached a common starting position,
constituted by a draft formulated by Roberto Calderoli’s (Lega Nord), while
Alleanza Nazionale keeps pushing for the referendum option.

The opposition is also busy deciding the fate of Pier Ferdinando
Casini’s UDC role in the coalition, after the split represented by its decision
to vote the refinancing of the military mission along with the majority despite
the right’s decision to abstain. 

Despite the pressure by Lega Nord, whose representatives have
substantially declared to already consider UDC a political adversary, it seems
unlikely that the less radical components of the right will let Casini’s party
slip away of its orbit and into the left’s, in a political scene where every
single vote in the parliament can mean victory or defeat.