Dateline: BUCHAREST

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

My friend J. points out a story from today’s Can-Can [Romanian tabloid]: several Romanian prostitutes were killed by an Italian Satanic cult called “The Beasts of Satan.” Apparently, the sect was trying to cleanse the society of all “human scum.”

Now, going beyond the obviously grotesque character of the story lies a very interesting fact, and I have to give credit to my source here for rightly pointing it out: since when, in Italy [a Catholic, Conservative country run by the Mafia], Satan-lovers seek to eliminate prostitutes, which, religion-wise, perform an act of sin?

The obvious conclusion is that Italian fascists must be basking in the sun, sipping on their cappuccinos from hand-painted Duce teacups and, overall leading La Dolce Vita while outsourcing all their dirty work to misguided youth with a natural propensity for the Dark Side.

I had little time to follow international events this week. Partly because of post-Belgium depression, partly because of actual work. But here are two things that caught my attention:

1. Berlusconi, aka ‘Il Cavaliere’, wins a handsome victory in the last Italian elections, defying reason, common-sense and any sense of rationality. I seriously think Italy is un-governable, that it should either go for a neo-medieval confederation of city-states model, or totally outsource its government to Germany (or Switzerland).

I also think Italians are totally irrational. And not just because they elected Berlusconi. Let me explain. With 61 governments since Mussolini (that makes for a rough average of one government/year), 158 parties contesting the last elections, 0,3% economic growth forecast for 2008, 80% participation rate at the last poll, an underground economy estimated to be at about 50% of GDP (compare with 30% for Romania), Italy is by far the most blatant case of bad governance to have ever beset any country West of Vienna.

And yet Italians go to the polls, elect the same Berlusconi that did absolutely nothing to reform the economy although was afforded ample time to do so. Italy stands on a pile of garbage that needs to be cleaned (and I am not only talking about Naples here).

As a funny and, of course, fanciful sidenote, The Economist points out that, if current economic trends persist, Romania should be able to surpass Italy in terms of GDP/capita, in just 20 years. Here is the story.

2. Russia grows serious balls and starts to gobble up Abkhazia. Putin signs a decree establishing ‘official’ cooperation b/w Moscow and Abkhazia, allowing Russia to interact at a quasi-official level with de facto authorities there. The act also provides for Moscow’s recognition of legal acts passed by the authorities in Sukhumi. Here is a good analysis from Eurasianet. And here a great piece of Russian propaganda from Russia Today.

Coming in the wake of the NATO Summit here in Bucharest, Russia’s move is an annexation all but in name. If you have any doubts about it, just watch the clip from Russia Today. What this means for Georgia is that, if it ever joins NATO, it will be without Abkhazia.