Picking up on Adi’s comments re the recent elections in Rome [I will get back to the more general topic of the Italian political scene in a later post], I must say I share his concern over the most recent developments there.

To sum up, Sunday’s local elections in Rome saw an unlikely winner emerging - his name is Gianni Alemanno - a member of Berlusconi’s Party and a former fascist. Initially an underdog, he ran on an anti-crime, anti-immigration ticket, vowing to curb crime and to expel all illegal immigrants caught committing offenses. He was undoubtedly helped by a recent wave of crime perpetrated by Romanian immigrants.

I am concerned because this means that Italians are fed up with immigrants [and I am not going to question their justification here], and that may lead to a rising wave of intolerance.

Without further ado, let me give the floor to a person with much more insight than me on this issue, an actual Roman, who has agreed to give an ‘exclusive interview’ for datelinebucharest.com :)

DC: have you seen we have a new major in rome
SB1: yeah
DC: a post-fascist!
SB1: yeah, crazy huh
SB1: what can you tell me about him?
DC: well
DC: personally he’s a very nice chap
DC: very devoted to politics
DC: I’ll tell you
DC: my friend is hard-leftist and kind of works for him
DC: he told me: I dont shre the views but I admire the man
DC: he started the campaign as the underdog
DC: with 20 % disadvantage
SB1: i see
SB1: so basically it’s an anti-crime ticket
SB1: what are his views on immigration?
DC: he said the first thing to do in his mandate is
DC: kick off all illegal migrants who get caught committing crimes
DC: and eliminate 85 illegal rom camps in the city
DC: does it give you a flavour of his view?
DC: lol
DC: Day 1 of the new fascist era
SB1: :)
SB1: interesting lol
DC: funnily
DC: he was put there as they were sure to loose
DC: and he should have become ,i,ister in the new government
SB1: i see
SB1: so what happened?
DC: 1.he campaigned very well
DC: 2.the left candidtae tutelli
DC: who had been major in the 90s for 2 terms
DC: people were a bit tired of having the same faces for over 15 years
DC: 2 terms for rutelli plus 2 terms for veltroni
SB1: ya
SB1: well, it has to suck being veltroni right now
SB1: first lose the country, then your own city
DC: a disaster for him
DC: in rome it was also a vote against his 7 year administration
DC: the population felt he focussed on cinema and make-up of the city
SB1: was he that bad?
DC: he overlooked themes such as security
DC: and that’s a boomerang
DC: in the campaign the right overran him on security
DC: there were several cases of rapes in the last weeks
SB1: who were the perpetrators?
DC: im not saying
SB1: romanians?
DC: yep
SB1: oops
DC: anyways
DC: while alemanno
DC: the new mayor
DC: was going to see these people and was in direct touch with population of the periphery
DC: veltroni and rutelli appeard on tv to say that there’s no real problem of security in rome
SB1: so is alemanno a new sarkozy then?
DC: hmmm
DC: I wouldnt say that
DC: as he very right-wing of the old school, from the hard time of the seventies
SB1: ok
DC: he got a friend killed
DC: by communists
SB1: brigate rosse?
DC: not exactly
DC: hard-left youngsters
DC: so yesterday
DC: at the campidoglio
DC: the city hall
DC: a mob was shouting
DC: veltroni dacci le chiavi! [veltroni give us the keys!]
DC: hehehe
SB1: wow
SB1: it’s kinda scary actually, the mood i mean
SB1: although i can fully understand why people are pissed off
DC: well
DC: they voted also for the provincia
DC: in rome
SB1: what do you mean?
DC: and there the leftist candidate won
SB1: right
DC: so it as quite personal against veltroni-rutelli and pro alemanno
DC: he actually wants to involve people from the left in the administration
DC: along the lines of the commission attali
DC: it sound fancy nowadays
SB1: do you think he would really do it?
DC: I think so
DC: he did it already
DC: when he was minister for agriculture
SB1: interesting figure
DC: maybe he was the most appreciated minister from the opposition
DC: thats a quitye neutral article
DC: I find
SB1: cool
SB1: thanx man
SB1: i will put this on my blog, if you don’t mind
DC: je t’en prie
DC: hehe
SB1: merci
SB1: that was dc in brussels, for datelinebucharest.com