Today is a critical day for the future of Italy, PM Silvio Berlusconi is about to have a speech in the Camera, the biggest of the two chambers of the Italian parliament. This speech will be about what he calls the 5 pillars of his government's policy, which recall to his electoral programme. Slow down!
In 2008 Silvio Berlusconi was appointed as Prime Minister after his coalition won the elections; this coalition was formed by two parties, "Lega Nord" (northern league, which came to politics in order to detach northern Italy from te rest of it) and Popolo Delle Libertà (the people of freedom, a joint party between Berlusconi's party -FI- and Gianfranco Fini's party -An).
Since 2008 things in Italy got worse and worse. With the financial crisis going on the main topic of reform was still only the justice, how? By Italian constitution everyone is the same to the eyes of Justice, meaning that if you committed a crime, it doesn't matter if you are the Prime Minister, you go to Court. This is what he is trying to change.
He already tried two times, and he failed both of the times because even if his bill was approved by the parliament, the constitutional court rejected it, saying that it is clearly against the Constitution. After the second fail in 2009, he decided to be drastic and change the constitution.
This and many other scandals found a resistance inside Berlusconi's own coalition, Gianfranco Fini (the one with which he created his brand new party). This man is also the president of the Camera, so whatever thing he says, it is worth twice as much. Fini built his carrier recalling on the respect for justice, staying silent would have meant to him losing a lot of voters. So he decided to go against him and speak in favour of Justice.
For example Berlusconi started to name the judges "toghe rosse" (red robes) claiming on national TV and on all his newspapers, that the judges are almost all communist, and they are conspiring against him. This because after several recorded phone calls they heard some Mafia bosses talking about him and his associates... another story.Fini always defended the judges, so he could keep good relations with his voters.
After many episodes like this, Berlusconi kicked out of the party Fini and two other members of the parliament loyal to Fini. This was in July 2010.
The day after several people followed Fini hoping for a change, and tired of Berlusconi's abuses. This meant a crisis for Berlusconi because he lost his majority in both chambers. Now his government is not legitimate, so there are three options; he can create a new government if any party from the opposition joins him, he can keep his government if enough members from both chambers betray their parties and join his, or he fails in both and he must call for elections.
The speech he is going to have today is about this, he is going to try anything to stay in power. The next 24 hours will decide the future of a whole country.
In 2008 Silvio Berlusconi was appointed as Prime Minister after his coalition won the elections; this coalition was formed by two parties, "Lega Nord" (northern league, which came to politics in order to detach northern Italy from te rest of it) and Popolo Delle Libertà (the people of freedom, a joint party between Berlusconi's party -FI- and Gianfranco Fini's party -An).
Since 2008 things in Italy got worse and worse. With the financial crisis going on the main topic of reform was still only the justice, how? By Italian constitution everyone is the same to the eyes of Justice, meaning that if you committed a crime, it doesn't matter if you are the Prime Minister, you go to Court. This is what he is trying to change.
He already tried two times, and he failed both of the times because even if his bill was approved by the parliament, the constitutional court rejected it, saying that it is clearly against the Constitution. After the second fail in 2009, he decided to be drastic and change the constitution.
This and many other scandals found a resistance inside Berlusconi's own coalition, Gianfranco Fini (the one with which he created his brand new party). This man is also the president of the Camera, so whatever thing he says, it is worth twice as much. Fini built his carrier recalling on the respect for justice, staying silent would have meant to him losing a lot of voters. So he decided to go against him and speak in favour of Justice.
For example Berlusconi started to name the judges "toghe rosse" (red robes) claiming on national TV and on all his newspapers, that the judges are almost all communist, and they are conspiring against him. This because after several recorded phone calls they heard some Mafia bosses talking about him and his associates... another story.Fini always defended the judges, so he could keep good relations with his voters.
After many episodes like this, Berlusconi kicked out of the party Fini and two other members of the parliament loyal to Fini. This was in July 2010.
The day after several people followed Fini hoping for a change, and tired of Berlusconi's abuses. This meant a crisis for Berlusconi because he lost his majority in both chambers. Now his government is not legitimate, so there are three options; he can create a new government if any party from the opposition joins him, he can keep his government if enough members from both chambers betray their parties and join his, or he fails in both and he must call for elections.
The speech he is going to have today is about this, he is going to try anything to stay in power. The next 24 hours will decide the future of a whole country.